Rare Book Monthly

Articles - November - 2008 Issue

Wiki Bibliographies: The Way to the Future

Kingston dominated Ulster County printing

Kingston dominated Ulster County printing


"Rondout, upon the Hudson, at the mouth of Rondout Creek, was incorp[orated] April 4, 1849. It is the center of an extensive trade upon the river and [Delaware & Hudson] canal. The principal trade is that of stone, obtained from the neighboring quarries. It contains 8 churches, a bank and a newspaper office. The people are principally engaged in the coal trade; and a large number of steamers, barges, and sailing vessels are constantly engaged in freighting coal, stone, and cement from this place. About 20 steamers are engaged in the freighting business of this place. Lines of steamers also run regularly to Albany, New York, and intermediate places. A steam ferry connects the place with Rhinebeck, on the e[ast] bank of the Hudson. The Newark Lime and Cement Manufacturing Co. manufacture a larger amount of waterlime and cement annually than is produced at any similar establishment in the country. Pop[ulation] 5,978."

Kingston, at the same time, has a population of 3,971.

In 1872, with railroads increasing and canal traffic declining, Rondout and Kingston merged. Rondout had the larger population, Kingston the more established name. They agreed upon Kingston as the unifying name and Rondout's descent into oblivion began. One hundred and thirty-six years later Rondout is the firefly that for a moment shined bright but with the passage of time has ever grown more distant and remote.

What's in the Rondout-Wiki Bibliography on day one?

In its first iteration it emerges that Rondout-Kingston was home to almost 30 versions of weekly and daily newspapers between 1820 and 1920. There were so many efforts, many lasting years, even decades, that the potential for newspapers to emerge as bound volumes and single copies amounts to certainty. Maps are also very important. A succession of sheet and pocket maps is accessible online and originals show up periodically on every selling venue. Their increasing detail, the canals, railroads and place names, and even their relative type size tell a story. Very few books were published there but one, Bevier's the Indians, is a remarkable rarity. Most of the accessible detail that emerges is found in the pamphlets, broadsides and ephemera that randomly appear mostly on eBay, occasionally on listing sites, once and again at book fairs and in booksellers' catalogues. Most of what has come out is simply random – various data points that in themselves say little but which together turn single notes into a tune and perhaps in time a concerto. There are of course also postcards. In this first iteration I haven't included them but they too elaborate the Rondout-Kingston story.

In a great sense Rondout-Kingston was simply a microcosm of the 19th century American experience. It was the collision of opportunity and hard work advancing on the wings of rising population, lengthening life expectancy and transforming technology. In that very moment when the world was transforming day by day it had its golden moment and achieved an unusual if fleeting success.

Today it is seems entirely fitting that Rondout, once an exuberant place, that was both the determined and lucky opportunist might again, if only briefly, occupy a center stage. For just as Rondout conquered opportunities and was itself conquered by them, so too the book, manuscript, maps and ephemera fields are adrift in galloping change that threatens to remake the entire landscape for museums and historical societies, collectors, historians and dealers who live and die with such material. What better

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.

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