Artifact Inventory

Research Project Artifact Inventory                       LIT 6396 Scholar__Concetta Bommarito_____

Due date:  September 23, 2011 or before

In approaching representations of women in early America from a cultural studies perspective, we must first understand the texts in which they were represented (or represented themselves) as material artifacts, objects that circulated in and had meaning for specific readers who lived in a particular socio-cultural moment.  By considering early American primary texts as artifacts, we draw closer to understanding how the texts functioned in their original contexts.  While we may be unable to travel to archives in Boston, New York, or Philadelphia, we can look at digitized and microfilm images of the original objects and learn about how particular texts looked, felt, and circulated.  To that end, our initial research activities will introduce us to the cultural representations of women in the material world of print.

·         Using the following bibliographies and databases, identify an artifact related to your proposed topic. 

o   Evans digital database (for texts published before 1800);

o   Shaw-Shoemaker print bibliography, Second Series (post-1800 texts Z1215.S482)

o   APS (American Periodicals Series 1) digital database

o   American Prose Fiction 1774-1850 (aka Wright American Fiction; Indexes to microfilm collection, v. 1-3, in Circulation Dept (Z1033.M6A522). UCF has  MF-1515 (174 reels) v.1 (1774-1850).

·         If possible, locate an electronic copy your artifact and download it as a PDF.  If the text is available online, please include the link here:   (for example, you may find it at Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page ). 

·         Please check the reprint history of your text in Shaw-Shoemaker even if your text is published before 1801. 

Using MLA documentation style, provide the full and correct citation for your novel here.  If a modern edition of your novel exists (published by a reputable and/or scholarly press), please provide that citation also.  Remember to note the editor of the modern edition and which print edition the modern edition uses.
Inventory question	Answer	Speculation:  What might this information suggest about this text and its context?  For example, what does the name and location of the printer tell you?  What other kinds of texts did this printer publish?
1.  When, where, and by whom was your artifact first printed?	Panther, Abraham, pseudo. A Very Surprising Narrative. Windsor, Spooner, 1794.	Early in US history
2. Did your artifact appear in print at any time in the 18th or 19th centuries?  (Hint: Use WorldCat and list all of the reprints.  Do not confuse dates of publisher’s/printer’s birth and death with reprint dates.)	First published in 1790. Reprint in 1794, 1798, 1800, 1806, 1812, 1972	The narrative became very popular and was reprinted for several years
3.  What was the actual size of your artifact in inches or centimeters?  What information can you find about its physical presence, binding, etc.?  Do you think it was expensive or inexpensive?  Is it a folio, quarto, or octavo? Can you see a price?  If you are using a magazine, find the editor’s preface to its inaugural issue and note the intended audience and keywords used to appeal to that audience.	[Windsor, Vt.] : Printed by Alden Spooner, 1796, and for sale at his Office. (Price--four cents.), [1796] Physical Description:  11, [1] p. 17 cm.	The later editions look nicer. As the popularity of the work increased, it is likely that it was printed in a nicer shop.
4.  View the original title page using the digital database or microfilm.  What is included there?[1]  Transcribe the exact words of all of the information listed on the title page. Or, make a PDF of this page if possible.	A Very Surprising Narrative Of a Young Woman, Who Was Discovered in a rocky Cave; After Having Been Taken By The Savage Indians of the Wilderness, In the year 1777, And seeing no human being for the space of nine years In a letter from a gentleman to his friend. Printed by Alden Spooner —At his office in Windsor— M.DCC.XCIV.	Note: in the Margin is the following: F808 VE PDFs of the 1st and 5th edition have been downloaded from Evans.
5.  If there is more than one edition, compare the title pages.  Note any differences here and keep PDFs of these pages, if possible.	The original is very rough; the text is off center, slanted slightly to the right. There is also the outline of the print blocks around the text. The fifth edition is far more elaborate and professional with a much better, clearer, stylized font.	This indicates that as the work became more popular it received a much nicer print.
6.  What miscellaneous front matter exists?  Describe it: Frontispiece Engravings Preface Dedication Other Keep PDFs of these pages.	Original is very spotty as if it was smudges while printing.	This and the fact that this was “printed (and sold) by Alden Spooner at his office in Windsor” suggests an armature job for the first print.
7.  How long is your text?  How is it subdivided (chapters? Volumes?)  Is the print large and easy to read or dense, with many words on each page and lines close together?	Pamphlet is 11-12 pages depending on the edition. Each page has a chapter marker, 11 in all. Text ranges from smudged and hard to read to well spaced and legible.	Was this standard practice for selling these types of works? Is the quality/style of the work typical for the time period?
8.  What back matter exists (following the end of a text, usually signified by the word “finis”)?  Sometimes lists of subscribers or other works from this printer or bookseller are mentioned here. Keep PDFs of these pages.	Unfortunately neither edition I found has anything after the text. The first edition I found is missing the word “finis”.	The first edition that I found might be incomplete. Will have to find other first edition scans to be sure.
9. Are there other texts like yours, and how can you tell?	There are several captive narratives; this stands out as being a “very surprising narrative” of a woman that does not come back to white society after escaping her white kidnappers.	This work, of course, has links to the other captivity narratives we have read.
10.  What is the relationship between your artifact and structures of power in early American culture (and how can you tell)?	The tone is that of disbelief not only that a woman could be self-sustaining but that she would not make her way back to “civilized society”. This, of course, would not be as surprising if it were a man.	This work is a good starting point for examining narratives about “surprising” women who did not conform to society’s standards.
11.  Given all of the above, what might you wish to include as you think about creating a virtual/physical site for your project (your blog)?  Use Blogger or Wordpress to create your blog, and invite me to join at logan.lisa@gmail.com	Things to consider: Concerning “A Surprising Narrative” -Find more editions of the text. Check quality of their print as it may be an indicator of how popular the narrative became. -Look for scholarship on the document -Look for any person who has cited the document -How authentic is the story or was this made as a sensationalist piece? Concerning Comparative Analysis of the Text -How does this compare to other works in terms of popularity? -Was it considered in the same way as conversion narratives?	Blog: http://surprisingnarratives.blogspot.com/ Not sure how to invite you to the blog. There is a join button on the front at the above address.