Scott's book is the 1881 edition of "Smull's Legislative Hand-Book" by Wm. P. Shull.
The longer title (books back then always had longer official titles1) was something along the lines of: "Smull's Legislative Hand Book, Rules and Decisions of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, Legislative Directory, Together with Useful Political Statistics, List of Post Offices, County Officers & C."
Of the book, Scott writes:
"One of the jewels of my collection. Thought it would be of interest. Don't recall where I found it. ... The year and title grabbed my attention first. The crown jewel [is] a map of PA from 1881! I found this pleasant surprise and knew the book was a 'must have.' I think it cost me $1-2."
Awesome find, Scott! When it comes to books that are 100 or more years old, I'm definitely a fan of reference books.2
Here are the rest of Scott's photos of the hand-book, including some looks at the "crown jewel" map.
The York County portion of the map show above has references to Castlefen (that would be an alternate spelling or typo of Castle Fin, which was mentioned in this Papergreat post), Hadricks, Gordons and two more apparently misspelled towns — Yacumtown (should be Yocumtown) and Beach Bottom (should be Peach Bottom).
Footnotes
1. The longest book title I've ever come across is discussed in this bizarre February 2011 post.
2. Some of the antiquarian volumes along these lines I've written about previously include:
- Requiem for a 129-year-old encyclopedia volume
- "Objectionable Words and Terms" from an 1884 cyclopedia
- Illustrations of Pennsylvania's orphanages, circa 1880
- "The Mermaid of Legend and of Art" (The Art Journal, 1880)
That book is gorgeous and the map is even cooler!
ReplyDeleteI got a real chuckle out of "Beach Bottom" :)