4,365 results
1872ref. 30317Philadelphia: Published for the Industrial League by Henry Carey Baird 1872. First Edition. Octavo 23.5cm.; disbound from larger volume with remnants of cloth spine still present; 96pp.; frontispiece full-page illus. throughout. Very faint previous vertical fold else Very Good and fresh. The title story is a satirical utopia intended to discredit supporters of laissez-faire economics and the Free-Trade League in particular. LEWIS p. 57; SARGENT p. 29; not in NEGLEY. Published for the Industrial League by Henry Carey Baird unknown books
1872ref. BK0173New York: American Church Press Company 1872. Two pamphlets in original printed wrappers 6 x9 inches. Good to very good with toning light soiling and minor wear and chipping to wrappers. Two contemporary publications documenting American preparations for the International Prison Congress held in London in July 1872. Organized principally through the efforts of American prison reformer Enoch C. Wines the congress brought together representatives from Europe and the United States to discuss prison administration criminal punishment and methods of rehabilitation. The meeting followed the American National Prison Congress of 1870 whose declaration of principles had called for greater emphasis on the reformation of offenders. The first pamphlet International Congress on the Prevention and Repression of Crime Including Penal and Reformatory Treatment: Circular Letter Addressed to the National Committees in the Several Countries Proposing to Take Part in the Congress outlines arrangements for the approaching meeting. It calls upon participating countries to establish national committees prepare reports on their existing prison systems appoint delegates and suggest subjects and specialists for discussion. The second International Congress on the Prevention and Repression of Crime Including Penal and Reformatory Treatment: Proceedings of a Public Meeting Held in Relation Thereto New York January 26th 1872 records a meeting chaired by former New York governor Horatio Seymour. It includes addresses and correspondence concerning the proposed congress among them expressions of support from foreign representatives. The meeting formed part of Wines's efforts to secure international participation in the London gathering. OCLC locates six and three copies of each title respectively over multiple entries. . American Church Press Company unknown books
1834ref. 3806Providence 1834. Good plus. Broadside 15 x 10.5 inches printed in three columns within an ornamental border. Old folds short splits along some folds a few small chips moderate dust-soiling and foxing. Untrimmed. A rare broadside disseminating a report from a five-man committee of the General Assembly of Rhode Island recommending penal code reform and the establishment of a state prison in the Ocean State in 1834. The beginning of the report expounds upon the inconsistency of the various legal punishments meted out in county jails. The committee then evaluates different methods of imprisonment in New York Pennsylvania Connecticut and other states concluding as follows: "On the whole the committee are in favor and recommend to the General Assembly the erection of a State penitentiary on the principle of solitary confinement at labor with instruction in labor in morals and religion." The committee hoped this prison reform would "relieve the State from the future support of convicts and may produce a moral reformation in those who may be subjected to its operation." We could locate just one copy of this broadside in OCLC at Brown. unknown books
1876ref. 128531876. NEW JERSEY. REFORM SCHOOL STATE. Twelfth Annual Report . for the Year Ending October 31st 1876. Trenton 1876. 27 p. Removed. The state reform school at Jamesburg Middlesex County. unknown books
1820ref. 55414London: John Fairburn 1820. First Edition. First printing. Octavo in fours 22cm. In nineteenth-century half brown calf with marbled paper over boards seven double gilt rules to spine with blind ornament in compartments titled in gilt on brown leather spine label all edges sprinkled brown; plain endpapers; iv 480pp. 1944 pencil ownership inscription to rear endpaper. A straight sound copy with minor general wear to boards paper lightly scuffed edges rubbed internally largely clean with one or two pencil marks and small spots of foxing: Very Good. A key text of early nineteenth-century English parliamentary reformers: "a massive compendium of all the abuses electoral ecclesiastical legal" that they "sought to abolish." The book "passed through edition after edition continually augmented with new arguments new reports of abuses and new statistics. . . its emphasis on the need to have practical as well as equitable representation lies at the root of parliamentary democracy" Printing and the Mind of Man p.180. Previously published in installments in 1819; this is the first book edition. PMM296. GOLDSMITHS 23071. KRESS C.638. John Fairburn unknown books
1867ref. BK0168Philadelphia: J. B. Chandler Printer 1867. 116 pp. 8vo. Original printed wrappers. Ex-library with small Massachusetts State Library stamp to title page; otherwise near fine. Very good. A late defense of the Pennsylvania system of prison discipline written as the model developed at Eastern State Penitentiary was increasingly becoming an exception among American prisons. The system kept inmates separated from one another both at work and at rest in contrast to the Auburn system which brought prisoners together for silent congregate labor during the day. Eastern State maintained the separate system from its opening in 1829 into the 1870s despite sustained criticism of its effects and lessened ability to keep prisoners separate in the first place due to overcrowding.1 Published as a defense of the Pennsylvania system of separate confinement the pamphlet appeared after the model associated with Eastern State Penitentiary had already been the subject of decades of criticism in the United States and abroad. The work is generally attributed to Richard Vaux son of the prominent Philadelphia prison reformer Roberts Vaux and himself a longtime advocate of the Pennsylvania system. By the time this edition appeared in 1867 separate confinement had lost ground nationally to the Auburn system of congregate labor making the pamphlet a late statement in defense of a model of incarceration closely identified with Philadelphia and Eastern State Penitentiary. 1 Ashley Theresa Rubin Institutionalizing the Pennsylvania System: Organizational Exceptionalism Administrative Support and Eastern State Penitentiary 1829-1875 PhD diss. University of California Berkeley 2013. . J. B. Chandler, Printer unknown books
1861ref. BK0164Philadelphia: Publication Committee of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons 1861. 112 pp. 8vo. Original printed wrappers. Wrappers frayed along spine otherwise near fine internally; very good overall. A defense of the Pennsylvania system of prison discipline advocating the separation of prisoners as a means of moral reform rather than punishment alone. The work was read by appointment before the American Association for the Improvement of Penal and Reformatory Institutions at its annual meeting in New York on November 29 1860 and published the following year by the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons. Foulke was one of Philadelphia's leading nineteenth-century prison reformers and a prominent defender of the system associated with Eastern State Penitentiary in which prisoners were housed separately. By 1860 the practice had become the subject of sustained criticism in the United States and Europe particularly over the psychological effects of prolonged isolation. Foulke takes up those objections at length arguing that cellular separation had been confused with punitive solitary confinement and presenting it instead as a carefully supervised regime intended to encourage reflection and rehabilitation. Foulke engages with Charles Dickens's celebrated attack on the Pennsylvania system after his 1842 visit to Eastern State Penitentiary reproducing and responding to Dickens's account. Published at a time when American penal institutions were becoming an international subject of study and controversy Remarks provides a substantial contemporary statement of the case for one of the country's most influential-and eventually most disputed-experiments in incarceration. . Publication Committee of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons unknown books
1826ref. BK0167Boston: Isaac R. Butts and Co 1826. 35 pp. 8vo. Original printed wrappers sewn. Wrappers toned and mottled with some edge wear; contents toned. Very good. An early American prison reform pamphlet attributed to Lewis Tappan by Sabin and by Tappan biographer Bertram Wyatt-Brown. Originally appearing in the Christian Examiner it was published separately in 1826 just as the penitentiary was becoming one of the central experiments of antebellum social reform. The essay describes the new system of discipline then being developed at Auburn and other American prisons: prisoners confined separately at night brought together for labor during the day under enforced silence and subjected to regular religious instruction. The arrangement was intended to prevent prisons from becoming schools of crime while replacing indiscriminate punishment with an organized program of labor surveillance and moral reform. The Boston Prison Discipline Society founded the previous year became the principal national advocate of this Auburn system and issued its first annual report in 1826. Its program called for separate cells productive employment religious and common-school instruction and the separation of youthful offenders from adults and habitual offenders.1 Tappan was still a Boston merchant when the pamphlet appeared several years before he became one of the founders of both the New York and American Anti-Slavery Societies in 1833 and later a leading organizer of the defense of the Amistad captives.2 1 Prison Discipline Society Boston Mass. records CC 1 Simmons College Archives Boston MA USA. 2 Lewis Tappan Papers Manuscript Division Library of Congress Washington D.C. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms010139. . Isaac R. Butts and Co unknown books
1877ref. BK0163New York: National Printing Company 1877. 8vo 56 pp. Original printed wrappers. "Compliments of Dr. Wines" slip affixed to title page. Near fine with a small tear to front wrapper at seam. Proceedings of an important national conference on prison reform organized around a program prepared by Enoch Cobb Wines the leading American prison reformer of the period. Wines had served as secretary of the New York Prison Association and was instrumental in organizing the landmark National Congress on Penitentiary and Reformatory Discipline at Cincinnati in 1870. The Newport conference met seven years later to formulate a practical system of penal institutions and policies that could be recommended to state legislatures. Much of the pamphlet is devoted to the conference's "Outline Draft of a System of Preventive Reformatory and Penitentiary Institutions and Discipline" which attempted to address criminal justice as a single system extending from childhood through incarceration. Its recommendations begin with compulsory education and institutions for neglected and delinquent children and proceed through reform schools houses of detention women's prisons county jails and state penitentiaries. The conference was particularly severe in its judgment of the existing jail system: "The county jails of the United States numbering about two thousand are with few exceptions schools of vice nurseries of crime and feeders of the penitentiaries. Their construction and management are alike bad; indeed the former is so radically defective as to render any good administration of them impossible." The conference occurred during a period when many of Wines's ideas were beginning to find practical application most notably at Elmira under Zebulon Brockway. Its recommendations ranged from compulsory education and separate institutions for juveniles and women to trained prison officers productive labor improved sanitation and greater state oversight. The "Compliments of Dr. Wines" slip gives this copy a nice association with the man chiefly responsible for both the conference and the program it produced. . National Printing Company unknown books
1831ref. BK0169Philadelphia: William F. Geddes 1831. 2 12 2 pp. Stitched pamphlet measuring 4 ¼ x 7 inches. Good plus with scattered foxing and soiling some wear to edges. An early appeal for organized missionary work among Philadelphia's urban poor issued upon the establishment of the Philadelphia City Mission in March 1831. The organization brought together Christians from several evangelical denominations to reach residents who rarely or never attended church. Its organizers acknowledged that poverty itself could prevent participation in religious life citing "the want of suitable apparel or the want of provision for the poor in our places of worship-into this last reason every Church may do well to inquire." The pamphlet begins by describing the large numbers of people living in Philadelphia and its surrounding districts who remained outside the ordinary reach of the churches: "The most inattentive christian observer must have remarked that there are many persons in the City and Liberties who live in the habitual neglect of the public worship of God and are as destitute of spiritual life as if they were a thousand miles removed from the sound of the Gospel." The Mission proposed to carry religious instruction directly into poorer neighborhoods through home visits prayer meetings the distribution of Bibles and tracts and efforts to increase attendance at Sabbath and infant schools. Its members were to be drawn from different evangelical denominations and required to demonstrate personal piety before undertaking missionary work. An interesting document of Philadelphia's early urban missionary movement particularly for its recognition of the economic and social barriers separating the city's poorer inhabitants from established religious institutions. . William F. Geddes unknown books
1847ref. BK0175Manchester: G. & A. Falkner Printers 1847. 107 pp. 8vo. Original printed brown wrappers with front wrapper detached and substantially torn and chipped but preserved. Some additional wear and soiling. Presentation inscription at the head of the title page reading "G. T. Bigelow Esq. / From the Author. Fair overall. An examination of British prison conditions by Joseph Adshead 1800-1861 a Manchester merchant social reformer and advocate of the separate system of imprisonment. Adshead had previously published Prisons and Prisoners 1845 in which he defended the Pennsylvania system against critics including Charles Dickens who had condemned solitary confinement following his visit to the United States. Adshead argues that the prevailing practice of confining prisoners together often without adequate separation by age offense or criminal history served to encourage further crime. He describes conditions at several prisons. The presentation inscription is of particular interest. The recipient appears to be George Tyler Bigelow 1810-1878 the Massachusetts attorney and later Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. In 1844 Bigelow and George Bemis defended Abner Rogers Jr. a prisoner charged with murdering Charles Lincoln Jr. the warden of the Massachusetts State Prison. Rogers was acquitted on the grounds of insanity in a widely discussed case that raised questions about criminal responsibility and the mental condition of prisoners. The presentation of Adshead's work to Bigelow suggests a connection between two men involved in contemporary debates over prisons and their administration. . G. & A. Falkner, Printers unknown books
ref. BK0166Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown 1847. 203 pp. 8vo. Original printed wrappers. Near Fine. An important contemporary attack on the Pennsylvania system of prison discipline and its use of prolonged cellular separation published during a heated national and international debate over the treatment of prisoners. Gray had served as vice-president of the Boston Prison Discipline Society and for several years chaired the board of directors of the Massachusetts State Prison. The book appeared amid the bitter 1846-47 controversy within the Boston Prison Discipline Society after Charles Sumner challenged the organization's longstanding hostility toward the Pennsylvania system. Sumner's intervention drew attention in Europe and correspondence from Alexis de Tocqueville; Gray answered from the opposing side with the present work. A later account specifically identified Prison Discipline in America as the principal American response taking a stand against the Pennsylvania system.1 Gray's argument rests heavily on comparative evidence from American prisons including statistics from the Massachusetts State Prison at Charlestown and Eastern State Penitentiary at Philadelphia. He regarded the higher rates of insanity and mortality under constant separation as evidence against the system concluding that it tended to "enfeeble the body and the mind." His observations became an enduring part of the literature on solitary confinement and continue to be cited in modern medical and legal discussions of its psychological effects. A particularly nice copy in near fine condition in the original wraps. 1 "RIVAL SYSTEMS OF PRISON DISCIPLINE. Speech before the Boston Prison Discipline Society at the Tremont Temple June 18 1847" in Charles Sumner. His Complete Works Lee and Shepard 1900 digitized by Project Gutenberg accessed October 8 2026 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45473/pg45473-images.html. . Charles C. Little and James Brown unknown books
1846ref. 39101Philadelphia 1846. 16 of 18 issues lacking 1 and 2 bound together in contemporary three-quarter calf with marbled boards. Pages numbered 33-288. Some leaves browned. General title page is absent; a small bookplate "Bodichon Scalands Robertsbridge" covers the caption title of No. 3. This is the bookplate of Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon notable British artist feminist writer and women's rights activist who founded the first women's college at the University of Cambridge. Bound in contemporary quarter calf rubbed and marbled paper over boards. Occasional text browning. Except as noted Very Good. This periodical is a literary anthology of American and British reformist prose and poetry with significant anti-slavery contributions. The authors included John Greenleaf Whittier James Russell Lowell Ralph Waldo Emerson Nathaniel Hawthorne Henry Longfellow John Pierpont Lydia Maria Child Harriet Martineau Lydia Sigourney Alfred Lord Tennyson Elizabeth Barrett and William Lloyd Garrison who wrote three poems for the journal one while imprisoned for libel of a merchant he had accused of illegal slave trading. The anti-slavery pieces are not only poetic most famous being Whittier's "Branded Hand" but also include his essay on the "Slave Market at Washington" Child on the "Economy of Slavery" the "Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Society" and principles of the 1838 "Peace Convention" organized by Garrison. LCP 10848. AI 46-7277 6. Not in Lomazow or Mott. unknown books
1792ref. 6707Nürnberg: Rau 1792. First Edition. Contemporary marbled paper over paste paper boards. Good; age browning and spotting; binding broken. 8vo 4 5 - 126 2 pp. An essay on the education of young children and instructions for teachers in the German countryside. Rau hardcover books
1801ref. 5570New York: I Collins 1801. First Edition. Somewhat later full sheep. Very good; some flaking to the spine of the binding; some offsetting to the plates; otherwise a bright fresh copy. 8vo 4 5 - 94 95 - 109 are erroneously numbered 83 - 97pp. 2 large folding plates a floor plan and elevation and 2 folding tables included in the pagination. Eddy was a Quaker merchant and reformer who had spent time in prison during the Revolution because of his Tory sympathies. He had befriended Philip Schuyler the father-in-law of Alexander Hamilton and hosted a visit of his to Philadelphia to inspect the Walnut Street Jail in 1796. This visit was the impetus for the first penal reform in New York State. Eddy was thus launched upon a career. In 1801 he published the book offered here that is a description of a new prison. The actual design was the work of the Mangin brothers see DAB who are best known for the design of New York City Hall. Eddy's report however contains all of his stipulations for the building and its appointments as well as a detailed summary of how the inmates were to be treated menu lists clothing etc. A most important book: the first native American work on prisons written by the country's first prison director. S & S #431; King Am. Philanthropy # 817; Sabin #21816; see Lewis for citations to Eddy. I Collins unknown books
1747ref. 65Valensa Actually Lisbon: Antonio Balle Unknown 1747 Actually 1751. Second Edition. Contemporary calf; rebacked; spine laid down; hinges reinforced. Fair copy; overall browning; headlines on several leaves are gouged out affecting page numbers. Library release stamp on the verso of the first title page. 4to. I: 12 12 - 264 ; II: 4 12 - 243244 pp. A scarce and according to Palau important tract in the development and introduction of modern pedagogical concepts into Spain. The first edition of 1746 was seized and destroyed. The second edition was clandestinely printed see Martins Livros clandestinos . A revolutionary book in opposing the Jesuits and with very interesting comments on the teaching of the sciences medicine jurisprudence literary aesthetics and the education of women. The book generated a considerable polemical literature. Palau citing the first # 360777. Antonio Balle [Unknown] unknown books
1882ref. 38710Philadelphia: Office of the Association 1882. First edition. Stitched paper wrappers. Very good partially unopened uncut mail fold contents clean. 14 pp. Sm. 8vo. Publications of the Civil-service Reform Association of Philadelphia.; no. 8;. Office of the Association unknown books
1920ref. 40054London: Library Committee 1920. First edition. Paper wrappers. A very good copy wrappers edgeworn soiling on corners to a few leaves occasional marginalia. 58 pp. 8vo. Collected by Sir Anthony Panizzi and presented to Louis Fagan who presented them to the Reform Club in 1880. Library Committee unknown books
1843ref. ST20896London: William Pickering and John W. Parker and Son 1843-57. Second Edition of volumes I III V VI VIII XI XV XVII. Third Edition of volume II. FIRST EDITIONS of the other 13 volumes. 170 x 103 mm. 6 3/4 x 4 1/8". 22 volumes bound as 13. Pleasing contemporary calf by Leighton stamp-signed on verso of front flyleaf covers framed with a double blind rule raised bands spine compartments with a single gilt sun tool russet morocco labels lettered in gilt all edges sprinkled. First volume with one plate depicting the brain and one illustration in the text depicting the brains of different animals. Final volume with an ad for the complete series by John W. Parker. A few light scratches scuffs and spots to leather each volume with offset from ribbon page marker other trivial defects but a fine and attractive set--extraordinarily fresh and clean internally in bindings essentially without wear. Containing a rarely seen complete run of 22 separate works in 13 volumes this attractive set represents the joint efforts of a female Victorian polymath and major publisher William Pickering to introduce the general public to a very wide range of subjects partly to contribute to general popular education and partly to alert the public to the need for reform. Caroline Cornwallis 1786-1858 was a writer scholar and feminist activist whose life-long self-directed course of study led her to explore subjects as diverse as mineralogy theology Tuscan law and the Ancient Egyptian language. In 1842 the first work in the "Small Books on Great Subjects" series appeared authored anonymously by Cornwallis she is named only as "A Pariah" and the editorship of the series is credited to "A Few Well-Wishers to Knowledge". Along with initiating and editing the series Cornwallis composed all but four of the books herself the second and third numbers were written by John Barlow #15 by Wilhelm von Humboldt and #16 by David Power. The works cover philosophy psychology chemistry Greek philosophy Christian history and theology biology law grammar geology politics and more and proved to be a great success in Britain and America. Some of the volumes are histories of general interest "A Brief View of Greek Philosophy up to the Age of Pericles" and "Christian Sects in the Nineteenth Century"; others are of significant scientific content "The Connection Between Physiology and Intellectual Philosophy" and "On Man’s Power Over Himself to Prevent or Control Insanity; still others are strongly reformist in thrust "On the Principles of Criminal Law" decrying the harshness of punitive Victorian laws and "On the Philosophy of Ragged Schools" dealing with the pressing issue of educating London's poor. Initially "Small Books on Great Subjects" was published by William Pickering but upon his 1853 bankruptcy John W. Parker took over the series. Stray volumes of this series are readily available but complete sets especially in the condition seen here are much more difficult to find. William Pickering (and John W. Parker and Son) unknown books
1856ref. 4036Mexico City: Imprenta de Ignacio Cumplido 1856. Still very good. 17pp. Original printed wrappers bound into full calf front board gilt lettered. Some toning and scattered light foxing. This law was promulgated at the end of 1856 by the new liberal government of Mexico following its ascendancy in the mid-1850s and preceded the reform Constitution of 1857 by two months. Its statutes defined "crimes against the independence and security of the nation" including various forms of treason rebellion and foreign military service or assistance and made them punishable by death. The law anticipated conservative resistance and revolt against the new policies of the liberal faction that aimed to strip power and influence from the church and traditional aristocracy of the country. Their efforts indeed led to full-scale civil war in 1858 and the second French intervention in the early 1860s. OCLC locates a small handful of institutional copies and we locate just one in available sales records. Scarce and in attractive original wrappers. Imprenta de Ignacio Cumplido unknown books
1875ref. 79905Columbus Ohio: Nevins & Myers State Printers. Very Good. 1875. Softcover. This item is soft-bound in light yellow wrappers with black printing on the upper cover. The lower cover is torn/lacking with wear to the spine. The string binding is solid. The contents are bright and generally clean but with light toning to the page edges. There is a very nice fold-out view by Strobridge at the front. . Nevins & Myers, State Printers paperback books
1845ref. 547003New York: American Female Moral Reform Society 1845. Unbound. Very Good. Single leaf folded to make eight pages. One quarter of first page toned old folds very good or better. A cursory examination of the contents indicates that the American Female Moral Reform Society weren't very enthusiastic about prostitution. American Female Moral Reform Society unknown books
1840ref. ST20302-02London: Francis Baisler 1840. FIRST EDITION. 195 x 130 mm. 7 3/4 x 5". xi 1 307 1 4 pp. Publisher's black pebbled morocco covers elaborately decorated in blind with gilt centerpieces smooth spine decorated in gilt all edges gilt gutter between the end of the text and the ads at the back expertly reinforced. With 10 engraved plates including the frontispiece and engraved title. Dedication page with contemporary ink ownership inscription of Wm. C. Drysdale. Noticeable discoloration to pastedowns and flyleaves from binding adhesive plates negligibly foxed otherwise especially clean and fresh internally with only the most trivial of imperfections; the exceptionally clean binding showing virtually no signs of use. This collection of essays and verse promoting Protestant thought and values comes in a beautifully preserved Victorian publisher's binding. The editor of this work Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna 1790-1846 was an evangelical Protestant social reformer particularly devoted to exposing poor factory conditions and improving the welfare of women and the poor. Writing under the name Charlotte Elizabeth she made "contributions to social reform literature and her use of the 'Christian Lady's Magazine' as a forum to influence politics through her female readers mark her as a significant nineteenth-century figure especially for other women social reform writers such as Harriet Beecher Stowe . . . and Elizabeth Gaskell." DNB Of particular note in our volume is an essay by Charlotte Elizabeth discussing the figure of Katherine Parr sixth wife of Henry VIII as a model of Protestantism and womanhood. Francis Baisler unknown books
1996ref. 183829Boston: MASS CANN / NORML 1996. Poster. 13x19 inch poster green purple and black design on white background very good. Poster design by Gary Grimshaw. At top: "No more prisoners! End marijuana prohibition!" Speakers included John Sinclair Mel King Steven Hager and others and well as seven bands. MASS CANN / NORML unknown books
1936ref. 144587New York: National Civil-Service Reform League 1936. Pamphlet. 31p. stapled wraps 5.25x7.75 inches bottom corner of front wrap dog-eared faint blindstamp to front wrap else very good condition. The group takes aim at partisan mismanagement of civil service branches. National Civil-Service Reform League unknown books
