Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Mary Regula
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Millard Fillmore and His Library
Sean Wilentz
The White House Collection: The Mind of the Common Man
Catherine M. Parisian
Abigail Powers Fillmore: First Lady of the Library
Elizabeth Lorelei Thacker-Estrada
Creating a Room for the Collection
William G. Allman
Millard Fillmore and His Booksellers
Catherine M. Parisian
Bibliographical Methods
Catherine M. Parisian
Catalogue of the First White House Library
Catherine M. Parisian
Appendix A: A List of the Books Purchased for the First White House Library in 1850
Appendix B: A Subject Index of Books in the First White House Library Catalogue
Appendix C: Edward Everett’s Recommendations for the First White House Library
Selected Works Cited
General Index
Catherine M. Parisian is Assistant Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
“Do not be misled by the modest title of this book or by the fact
that one of our least-known presidents was behind the first White
House library. This book brings together wonderful essays, starting
with that by historian Sean Wilentz, and going on to others on the
role of Mrs. Fillmore, the library room, the process of forming the
library, and, of course, the library’s contents. The catalogue
proper of this library that represented the ‘collective mind of the
age’ contains mini-essays explaining how each book fit in. This is
library history at its best; in other words, it’s cultural history.
This splendid contribution to American history deserves to be
widely available.”—Kenneth E. Carpenter, former Assistant Director
for Research Resources in the Harvard University Library and the
Harvard College Library
“When Abigail Fillmore moved into the White House with her husband
and daughter, they made an innovation. A family of book lovers,
they created a national collection for an in-home library that they
left to the nation. Catherine Parisian’s exhaustive and meticulous
archival work reconstructs the collection and how it was housed.
While Fillmore’s rise to the presidency has been described as
exemplifying the American dream, Parisian reveals the foundation of
the dream to be education and family life. The Fillmores—especially
Abigail—applied these values to the president’s house in the full
knowledge that it is the peoples’ house. The scholarly lens of the
history of the book is used to illuminate the Fillmores’ home life
in Washington and, by extension, a model of middle-class
domesticity for the nation.”—Caroline F. Sloat, Director of Book
Publication, American Antiquarian Society
“This book's greatest strength is the information it provides about
the individual titles Fillmore collected for the first White House
Library. For those interested in the history of either the White
House or Millard Fillmore, the catalogue's numerous insights into
the selection process and detailed discussion of which editions
were most likely included in the collection will also be
useful.”—Carli Spina RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and
Cultural Heritage
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