The Details:
The Children’s Friend. Number III. A New-Year’s Present, to the Little Ones from Five to Twelve.New York: William B. Gilley, 1821. [catalog record]
Gift of Stephen Salisbury III, 1897.
The Story:
Among the rarest children’s books at AAS, The Children’s Friend features one of the earliest images of Santa Claus. The illustrations are described as prepared “in a method entirely new”—a reference to the recently discovered process of lithography. This copy was given to Stephen Salisbury III in 1841, when he was six years old, and then was carefully preserved in the family library.
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Pictures of English History in Case 8
