Time-travelling visitors to Boston or Providence shouldn’t miss the Historical Society’s upcoming booksale on December 3rd and 4th. Here are two items that will make finding your way around 1880s Providence and 1920s Boston a lot easier:
King’s Pocketbook of Providence (1882) is laid out in an alphabetized directory fashion, with entries on Providence buildings, societies and events of the time as well as longer entries offering capsule overviews of aspects of the city like is school system or the local geology.
Boston, A Guide Book, by Edwin M. Bacon (1928) follows the more familiar pattern of guidebooks from Baedeckers to Rick Steves. It includes some nice maps and images of Boston at the time.
Both books would be useful not only to time-travelling tourists but also anyone working on a historical novel or just doing research on the cities in question.
Wow these are great! How much and how can my husband and I buy them ASAP?!
They definitely are fun. But the only way to get them is to be there at the booksale, Friday 5-8 pm or Saturday 10-4.