Selma (Ala.) Private Library manuscript inventory, [1870s?]
26 pages (1 volume)
This private or personal library manuscript inventory includes approximately 800 titles. The first section is a list of titles or authors on each of three bookshelves, while the second section contains lists organized by subject. The manuscript came from the estate of Belzora Baker Kemp (1901-1988), a wealthy Selma, Alabama, woman whose library occupied two houses. The inventory pre-dates Belzora's birth, thus could not be her own inventory, but it is currently unknown as to whether or not it represents titles or authors in her own collection.
The volume is held together at the top of the pages by metal binder clips. The genres and subjects include novels and works of fiction (Dickens, Thackery, Twain, Jules Verne, etc.), memoirs and biographies (W. T. Sherman, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, etc.), classics, history, travel, poetry, humorous works, scientific works, "farmer's works," politics, medicine, "housewifery," and "Miscellaneous."