1783-1815: The Arts: Publications

Asher Benjamin, The Country Builder’s Assistant (Greenfield, Mass.: Printed by Thomas Dickman, 1797)—the first American architectural pattern book, written by a prominent New England architect to provide builders in rural areas with diagrams and precise measurements for architectural details of styles used by contemporary architects in American cities; this influential book went through several editions, as did Benjamin’s next book, The American Builder’s Companion (1806);

William Dunlap, The Life of Charles Brockden Brown, 2 volumes (Philadelphia: Published by James P. Parke, 1815)—the first biography of the first American professional novelist, by the “Father of the American Theater”;

Charles Willson Peale, A Descriptive Catalogue of Mr. Peale’s Exhibition of Perspective Views, with Changeable Effects (Philadelphia, 1785)—catalogue of Peak’s moving-picture exhibition;

Peale and others, Constituion of the Columbianum (Philadelphia, 1795)—constitution of the short-lived fine-arts academy founded in Philadelphia in 1795;

“Report of a committee of the assembly of Pennsylvania,” American Museum, 5 (1789): 185–190—recommendation that Lewis Hallam and John Henry be licensed to operate a theater in Philadelphia, thus repealing the Philadelphia antitheater law of 1786, and appended petitions arguing for and against the measure;

John Trumbull, A Catalogue of Colonel Trumbull’s Paintings, New Exhibiting at the Theatre, New York (New York: Printed by Sage & Clough, 1804)—catalogue for the first public exhibit of Old Master paintings in the United States, works from artist John Trumbull’s collection, shown with a few paintings by him.