icon for Home page
icon for Kid's Home page
icon for Digital Collection
icon for Activities
icon for Turns Exhibit
icon for In the Classroom
icon for Chronologies
icon for My Collection

Online Collection

Front matter 1
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.

Front matter 2
Front matter 2


label levels:

Copy books were used for class exercises in school. The elaborate "Preface" page was intended not only for Loomis' amusement, but to display his talents: penmanship, illustration, and erudition. The latter is demonstrated by the Greek inscription hidden in the clouds to the right of the Preface paragraph. Nathan Loomis was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, in 1794, the son of the Rev. Josiah Loomis, who headed Ashfield's second Baptist church. Loomis attended the Sanderson Academy, a co-educational school that prepared students for college. It operated as a private school for most of the 19th century but became the town's high school early in the 20th century. The original building burned in 1939 but was rebuilt; the second building became Ashfield's elementary school. In 1820, Josiah Loomis moved his family; including his son, Nathan, who had married a local girl, Waite Jenks Barber; to Fulton County, New York. Nathan's fifth child a son Eben, was born in 1828. Eben's only child was Mabel Loomis, who lived in Amherst, Massachusetts, and was the wife of Amherst College professor David Todd. Mabel Loomis Todd is best known for helping Emily Dickinson produce her first book of poems.

 

top of page

Nathan Loomis' Copy Book

author   Nathan Loomis
date   Mar 5, 1815
location   Ashfield, Massachusetts
height   8.0"
width   6.75"
process/materials   manuscript, paper, ink
item type   Books/Textbook / Schoolbooks
accession #   #1984.14


Look Closer icon My Collection icon Detailed info icon


ecard icon Send an e-Postcard of this object



See Also...

"New And True Stories For Children, With 100 Pictures"

"The New McGuffey Second Reader"

Excerpt from Massachusetts School Law of 1647


button for Side by Side Viewingbutton for Glossarybutton for Printing Helpbutton for How to Read Old Documents

 

Home | Online Collection | Things To Do | Turns Exhibit | Classroom | Chronologies | My Collection
About This Site | Site Index | Site Search | Feedback