Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

This commonplace book, produced by an anonymous farmer from the Bucks County, Pennsylvania, region primarily contains passages relating to farming and husbandry. Along with farming accounts and documentation of livestock, agriculture, and dairy production, the commonplace book also features material on the Agricultural Society of Bath. Newspaper clippings comment on medicine, recipes, and farming. Illustrations of fences, sheep, floor plans, property drawings, and a detailed diagram of the "cropping plan" for 1826 appear in the volume.

The creator of the volume references European agricultural societies, data and agricultural systems, and popular agriculturalists, such as George Culley (1735-1813) and Charles de Lasteyrie (1759-1849). The volume provides detailed information on growing crops, managing soil, and tending to livestock.

This carte-de-visite album primarily contains formal studio portraits of men, women, and children taken in various locations in northeast North America from the 1860s to 1880s. One photograph shows an artistic rendering of the text of the Lord's Prayer, and a colored cutout is pasted into the volume.

This carte-de-visite album (15cm x 13cm) primarily contains formal studio portraits of men, women, and children taken in various locations in northeast North America from around the mid-1860s to early 1880s. The pictures are comprised of 42 carte-de-visite and 2 tintype portraits, as well as an additional carte-de-visite photograph collage. Two of the items are dated November 3, 1865, and September 3, 1881; few of the people pictured are identified. One woman is shown holding an infant in her lap. One tintype shows a young man dressed in costume wearing a plumed hat. The additional carte-de-visite depicts a printed version of the Lord's Prayer that utilizes several ornate fonts; a picture of Jesus Christ appears amidst the text, which is surrounded by drawn scenes of angels. A cutout pasted into the volume is a colored drawing of a woman standing next to a grazing sheep, framed by three large flowers. The album's brown leather cover has geometric designs stamped in gold and metal clasps; a floral design is carved into the sides of the pages. "Photographs" is stamped in gold on the spine.

The collection consists of six penmanship and cypher books kept by William L. Shimer, Susanna M. Shimer, and Nathan M. Shimer of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the 1840s and 1850s and one alphabet card with lower-case and upper-case letters. The blank books include illustrated covers and several have calligraphic titles for their sections. Four of them are dated and range from 1846 to 1853. The cypher books include exercises for arithmetic, fractions, accounting, and weights and measures, with many examples relating to practical issues like farming, business, and estates. Penmanship exercises include the copying of moral proverbs, common business abbreviations, strings of letters, and phrases. Two of the penmanship books are associated with writing systems: George J. Becker's The American System of Penmanship, and Bayson, Dunton and Scribner's National System of Penmanship.

The collection consists of seven penmanship and cypher books kept by William L. Shimer, Susanna M. Shimer, and Nathan M. Shimer of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the 1840s and 1850s and one alphabet card with lower-case and upper-case letters. The blank books include illustrated covers and several have calligraphic titles for their sections. Five of them are dated and range from 1846 to 1853. The cypher books include exercises for arithmetic, fractions, practical geometry, accounting, and weights and measures, with many examples relating to practical issues like farming, business, and estates. Penmanship exercises include the copying of moral proverbs, common business abbreviations, strings of letters, and phrases. Two of the penmanship books are associated with writing systems: George J. Becker's The American System of Penmanship, and Bayson, Dunton and Scribner's National System of Penmanship.

• Uriah Hunt & Son, Booksellers, Philadelphia
• Leary's Cheap Book Store, Philadelphia
• Brower, Hayes & Co., Booksellers and Stationers, Philadelphia
• Henry J. Oerter's Cheap Book & Stationery Store, Bethlehem
• Crosby & Ainsworth, Publishers, Boston

The cover of William L. Shimer's 1848 exercise book includes an inscription "L. Shimer, Co. A 10 reg. Militia Pa." William L. Shimer's 1850-1852 cypher book includes notations that he was attending the Gen. Taylor school and was being instructed by A. Stout, as well as geometrical drawings, calligraphic headings, and a pen-and-ink drawing of an eagle's head holding a banner that reads, "Let teh Stars and Stripes proudly float over you."