Selected Special Collections

American Almanac Collection

American Almanacs, seventeenth through nineteenth centuries

The earliest American almanacs in the Library of Congress have been brought together as a collection in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Represented are imprints from at least thirty-five states and the District of Columbia, including the only known copy of Kikinawadendamoiwemin, a Chippewa almanac for the year 1834 which is probably the first book printed in the state of Wisconsin. The collection is strongest in eighteenth and nineteenth century material and contains all the editions of Poor Richard's Almanac, issued after 1735 and many examples by Nathaniel Ames, Samuel Clough, Nathaniel Low, John Tulley, and Nathaniel Whittemore. Some almanacs have been annotated. There are 3,896 titles in the collection. Hugh Alexander Morrison's Preliminary Check List of American Almanacs,1639-1800 is based largely on the collection.