Gathered Sketches compiled by Francis Chase – 1856
From The Early History of New Hampshire And Vermont; containing Vivid and Interesting Accounts Of A Great Variety of the Adventures Of Our Forefathers, And of other Incidents of Olden Time.
Title page
An old book cover!
Published in Claremont, New Hampshire, Gathered Sketches contains a selection of biographical portraits and adventures from the early days of New Hampshire and Vermont (generally the early 1700s). The book also has a useful introduction, which details the beginnings of these two states and their inter-connectivity.
By far the most stunning feature of the work is the woodcut illustrations though, which earn it this spotlight.
The book’s text is preoccupied with tales of Indian attacks and captured colonists, and Native Americans are almost universally painted in an unsympathetic light. However, one must remember that this piece dates to 1856, four years still to the Civil War and a year when later icons like Booker T. Washington, Sigmund Freud, Nikola Tesla and Woodrow Wilson were just born. Taken in that light, the book is valuable as a tool to show how Americans at that time view their past history.