The Messages of Gen. Andrew Jackson

If you have seven copies of The Messages of Gen. Andrew Jackson, all published in 1837 in Concord, N.H., you keep the one in the best condition and pass along the rest, right? Well, when the head of cataloging at the American Antiquarian Society sat down with the two copies AAS already had of this title, plus the five new ones that came in with the William C. Cook Jacksonian Era Collection, he found no two were exactly the same. After some quick calculations, he realized there could be 36 possible unique permutations! Below he shows his work in his own words, giving valuable insight into how the mind of cataloger works.

"The seven copies of The Messages of Gen. Andrew Jackson are certainly interesting!  I find the following points at which differences occur:

1.  There are three different imprints on the title page.

a.  Concord, N.H. John F. Brown and William White. 1837.

b.  Concord, N.H. John F. Brown and William White. Boston: Otis Broaders & Co. 1837.

c.  Concord, N.H. James M. Rix, J.F. Brown and Wm. White. Boston: Otis Broaders & Co. 1837.

2.  Jackson's Farewell address

a.  Is not present.

b.  Is present, and is paged separately as p. [1]-12.

c.  Is present, and is paged continuously as p. [427]-438.

 

3.  "Names of Subscribers"

a.  Is not present.

b.  Is present with extent of three pages (pages [427], 428, 429. Page [430] is blank).

c.  Is present with extent of four pages (pages [427], 428, 429, 430).

d.  Is present with extent of six pages (pages [427], 428, 429, 430, 431, 432).

 

Before figuring out the above, I arbitrarily labeled the seven copies I had in hand as A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

Copy A (the AAS copy with call number E410.J12.M837) is: 1b; 2c; 3c

Copy B (the AAS copy with call number E410.J12.M837a) is: 1c; 2c; 3a

Copy C (the AAS copy with call number Bindings Coll.) is: 1c; 2c; 3a

Copy D (a Cook copy) is: 1b; 2c; 3a

Copy E (a Cook copy) is: 1b; 2b; 3d

Copy F (a Cook copy) is: 1a; 2b; 3b

Copy G (a Cook copy) is: 1a; 2a; 3b

I believe that there are 36 possible permutations ( 3 x 3 x 4), though I doubt that all exist.  In our seven copies we have six different permutations (copies B and C matching on all three variables).

I know that NAIP considers 1a, 1b, and 1c to be three different issues, deserving of separate records.  At this point, I'm tempted to argue that we want three records, one for each imprint.  Within each record we'll note the variations regarding the Farewell address and regarding the Names of Subscribers."

So three records went into the AAS catalog for seven different copies of this edition and a lesson was learned about the number of possible permutations that could emerge out of one edition.

Concord, N.H.

1837