The Virginia Literary Museum and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts & c.
Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1829 - 1830. Hardcover. Thirty seven of only 52 issues of the literary magazine published by the faculty of the University, with the ownership signature on several numbers of Judge William H. Cabell (1772 - 1853), former Virginia governor who helped choose the site for the University.
An early look at the perspective of the faculty of Mr. Jefferson's University, which includes an article on Australian advertising and Australian newspaper reporting in the very first number. The article cites examples of amusing Australian advertising and reporting, and goes on to note, "there is no reason, indeed, why that distant country should not hereafter be a seat of the Muses. It is situated in a heavenly climate, and is possessed of the most singular anomalies especially in the animal and vegetable parts of the creation -- birds without wings, as large as Deer, their bodies covered with hair instead of feathers ....where the swans are black and the eagles white: where the Kangaroo, an animal between the squirrel and the Deer, has five claws on its fore paws and three talons on its hind legs, like a bird and yet hops on its tail: where the Mole (Ornithorhynchus paradoxus), lays eggs, and has a Duck's bill ..." (p8).
The Virginia Literary Museum commenced in June 1829, and concluded in May of 1830. This volume includes the first number (the first 2 pages in facsimile), and covers a wide range of international and local topics, including slavery, Jefferson's Memoir and correspondence, education, the Virginia state constitutional convention, sugar, coffee, gold mining in North Carolina, encouraging manufacturing in Virginia and Australian advertising and newspaper reporting.
Includes a multipart series titled "The Policy of Encouraging Manufactures", which supports among other views the notion of Virginia manufacturing capacity being equal to that of Great Britain (p60). The author goes on to counter the objection to the use of slave labor in manufacturing, citing as evidence: "as further proof that slaves are not unfit for the operations of a manufactory, it may be mentioned that children are more or less employed in all of them, and they cannot be supposed to have more motives to labour than slaves, more care, or foresight, or interest in the success of their labours." (p61)
The Volume I Numbers included here are: 1 (facsimile pages 1-2), 4 - 13, 15, 16, 18 - 27, 29, 31 and 40. 8vo, each Number approximately 16pp. Gray modern cloth binding, title printed at spine. Library label at front paste down, and library stamps. Inner hinges starting. A bit ruffled at edges, occasional fox spotting, and the last page of Number 31 torn horizontally with no loss of text. OCLC: 228700840. Very good overall. Item #21887
Price: $450.00