In Frozen in Time, Susan Snow Lukesh takes a mid-nineteenth century photo album from New Bedford, Massachusetts, created against an almost unmentioned backdrop of the Civil War, and moves the people seemingly frozen in time backwards and forwards, offering details of daily living, marrying, working, and dying of both the individuals whose portraits are included as well as their kin and colleagues. The details of daily living, of the marrying, working, and dying of the neighbors and kin in the photo album from New Bedford, demonstrate the personal side of the development of this famous whaling capital through its transition to a strong mill economy. These details also show how the financial and intellectual capital of the city fueled development throughout the United States. This album with its very small cast of neighbors and kin thus unfolds to offer a glimpse of the rich panorama of nineteenth-century New Bedford. The biographical sketches of the onstage and offstage players combined with the histories presented (of New Bedford, of nineteenth-century social media, and of the album itself) reveal a snapshot of New Bedford’s citizens, New Bedford’s history and industries, and, importantly, New Bedford’s part in the Civil War. Frozen in Time presents local history in the broader context of the United States and can be seen as well as an example of petite histoire – an account of particular households and neighborhoods, reminding readers of the continuing importance of both family and neighborhoods, real or virtual. The discussion of nineteenth-century social media also shows those in the twenty-first century that Facebook can be seen as old social media on a new platform. The photographs from the time of the Civil War underscore the arc of photography from its first use capturing images of war to its present use to record violence perpetuated on and perpetuated by police and others at home and around the world. Lukesh was entrusted with the family album that is the basis for Frozen in Time and used her experience in research, artifact interpretation, and writing to develop the narrative of the book. She hopes readers will take away the importance and value of both family and history, as well as the part of the family in history.

The Rev Edward T. Taylor (1793–1871), better known as Father Taylor, was a former sailor who became a Methodist itinerant preacher in southeastern New England, and then the acclaimed pastor of Boston’s Seamen’s Bethel. Known for his colorful sermons and temperance speeches, Father Taylor was one of the best-known and most popular preachers in Boston during the 1830s–1850s. A proud Methodist, Father Taylor was active within the New England Annual Conference for over fifty years, and there was no corner of New England where he was unknown. His career mirrored the growth of Methodism and the involvement of New England Methodists in the social issues of the time. In Boston, the Seamen’s Bethel was nondenominational, and Unitarians were its primary supporters. Father Taylor was loyal to his benefactors at a time when Unitarianism was controversial. In turn, he was respected and admired by many Unitarians, including Ralph Waldo Emerson. Father Taylor was a sailors’ missionary and reformer, a lively and eloquent preacher, a temperance advocate, an urban minister-at-large, and a champion of religious tolerance. His story is the portrayal of a unique and forceful American character, set against the backdrop of Boston in the age of revival and reform.

Ralph Waldo Emerson's decision to quit the ministry, arrived at painfully during the summer and fall of 1832, was accompanied by illness so severe that he was forced to give up any immediate thought of a new career. Instead, in December, he embarked on a tour of Europe that was to take him to Italy, France, Scotland, and England. Within a year after his return in the fall in 1833, his health largely restored, he went to live in the town of Concord, his home from then on. The record of Emerson's ten months in Europe which makes up a large part of this book is unusually detailed and personal, actually a diary recording what Emerson saw and did as well as what he thought. He describes cities, scenes, and buildings that he found striking in one way or another and he gives impressions of the people he met. During his travels he made the acquaintance of Landor, of Lafayette, and of Carlyle, Wordsworth, and Coleridge, all of whom stimulated him. In Paris he was so much stirred by a visit to the Jardin des Plantes that he determined "to become a naturalist." On his return to America, still without a profession, he reverted in his journals to the more impersonal form they had taken in his days as a minister, focusing on his inner experiences rather than on external events. Notes start dotting the pages once again, this time not so much for future sermons--although for years he did a certain amount of occasional preaching as for the addresses of the public lecturer he would soon become. Through the thirty-four months covered by this volume, the journals continue to he the advancing record of Emerson's mind, demonstrating a growing maturity and firmness of style by compression and aphorism.

In 1861, Harriet Ann Jacobs published a masterpiece, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Her book is the first and only narrative to give voice to a woman who escaped slavery. Cornelia Grinnell Willis not only purchased Harriet's freedom, but she also developed a bond with Harriet and her daughter, Louisa, that lasted a lifetime. Both women suffered trauma as children and miraculously survived. They also had close ties to New Bedford that have not been examined previously. Cornelia married Nathaniel Parker Willis, considered an American Dickens during his lifetime though largely forgotten today. Join author and local historian Peggi Medeiros as she traces the fascinating lives of the Jacobs, Grinnell and Willis families in and out of New Bedford.

The early nineteenth century in New Bedford was a time of unimaginable wealth, intellectual ferment and artistic treasures. Prosperous whaling magnates like members of the Rotch, Morgan and Howland families commissioned the nation's finest architects to design and construct their majestic mansions. The city's architectural and cultural expansion brought great writers and artists like Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson into the homes of County Street's elite. Yet behind the elegant fa�ade of grand parties and notable house guests were the secrets and scandals of New Bedford's upper crust. Join author Peggi Medeiros as she chronicles the history of each mansion and the stories once hidden behind closed doors.

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.

In Pursuit of Leviathan traces the American whaling industry from its rise in the 1840s to its precipitous fall at the end of the nineteenth century. Using detailed and comprehensive data that describe more than four thousand whaling voyages from New Bedford, Massachusetts, the leading nineteenth-century whaling port, the authors explore the market for whale products, crew quality and labor contracts, and whale biology and distribution, and assess the productivity of the American fleet. They then examine new whaling techniques developed at the end of the nineteenth century, such as modified clippers and harpoons, and the introduction of darting guns. Despite the common belief that the whaling industry declined due to a fall in whale stocks, the authors argue that the industry's collapse was related to changes in technology and market conditions. Providing a wealth of historical information, In Pursuit of Leviathan is a classic industry study that will provide intriguing reading for anyone interested in the history of whaling.

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) and Herman Melville (1819-1891) addressed in their writings a range of issues that continue to resonate in American culture: the reach and limits of democracy; the nature of freedom; the roles of race, gender, and sexuality; and the place of the United States in the world. Yet they are rarely discussed together, perhaps because of their differences in race and social position. Douglass escaped from slavery and tied his well-received nonfiction writing to political activism, becoming a figure of international prominence. Melville was the grandson of Revolutionary War heroes and addressed urgent issues through fiction and poetry, laboring in increasing obscurity. In eighteen original essays, the contributors to this collection explore the convergences and divergences of these two extraordinary literary lives. Developing new perspectives on literature, biography, race, gender, and politics, this volume ultimately raises questions that help rewrite the color line in nineteenth-century studies. Contributors: Elizabeth Barnes, College of William and Mary Hester Blum, The Pennsylvania State University Russ Castronovo, University of Wisconsin-Madison John Ernest, West Virginia University William Gleason, Princeton University Gregory Jay, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Carolyn L. Karcher, Washington, D.C. Rodrigo Lazo, University of California, Irvine Maurice S. Lee, Boston University Robert S. Levine, University of Maryland, College Park Steven Mailloux, University of California, Irvine Dana D. Nelson, Vanderbilt University Samuel Otter, University of California, Berkeley John Stauffer, Harvard University Sterling Stuckey, University of California, Riverside Eric J. Sundquist, University of California, Los Angeles Elisa Tamarkin, University of California, Irvine Susan M. Ryan, University of Louisville David Van Leer, University of California, Davis Maurice Wallace, Duke University Robert K. Wallace, Northern Kentucky University Kenneth W. Warren, University of Chicago