The McNeil Center for Early American Studies, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Program in Early American Economy and Society, and the University of Pennsylvania Libraries are pleased to co-sponsor this two-day gathering.
This is the first part of a trans-Atlantic conference on Mathew Carey (1760-1839) that will take place on two occasions. Carey made his mark in both his native Ireland and in Philadelphia as a printer and editor of influential periodicals. By the mid-1790s, he had transformed himself from printer to publisher, from artisan to manufacturer, becoming the most important American book publisher of the early national period. Carey's identity as an Irish-American and a Catholic, and his contributions to economics and politics are inseparable from the trans-Atlantic print culture of the early national era. The main preoccupations of Carey's life and writing are among the most important issues historians of this period are addressing today, including the development of American capitalism; religious toleration and Catholicism in the Anglophone world; the history of the book and the public sphere; arguments concerning American union, federalism, and the extent of national power; and race and ethnicity in the early American republic.
This conference is free and open to everyone interested in its themes. Please let us know if you will be attending by registering electronically or by calling 215-546-3181.
The second part of this trans-Atlantic conference will be held at Trinity College Dublin, on November 17-19, 2011. It will be hosted by the Centre for Irish-Scottish and Comparative Studies and Trinity College Dublin, and coordinated through the Trinity Long Room Hub in association with the National Library of Ireland, University College Dublin, and the University of Aberdeen. For further information please contact Johanna Archbold at: johanna.archbold@tcd.ie
The McNeil Center for Early American Studies facilitates interdisciplinary research on the histories and cultures of North America in the Atlantic world before 1850. Its programs include residential pre- and post-doctoral fellowships, a variety of regularly meeting seminars, and scholarly conferences such as this one. With the University of Pennsylvania Press, it publishes a major monograph series as well as Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal.
The Library Company of Philadelphia, founded by in 1731 Benjamin Franklin, was America's first successful public circulating library and is now an independent research library holding over half a million rare books and graphics documenting every aspect of American history and culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It has the nation's second largest collection of pre-1801 American imprints, and virtually every piece of printing published or written by Mathew Carey.
The Library Company's Program in Early American Economy and Society (PEAES)promotes research and publication about the origins and development of the early American economy. Its fellowships, seminars, conferences, monograph series, special issues of journals, and other activities bring together scholars across many disciplines who are engaged with a wide range of themes such as business cultures, commerce and manufacturing, labor, political economy, households, gender, technology, and more.
The University of Pennsylvania's Rare Book and Manuscript Library holds over 300,000 rare books and some ten million manuscripts, as well as images, printed ephemera, and artifacts. Carey-related materials include a diary (1798-1826), letters, and a substantial collection of Carey-authored pamphlets and imprints. The Library also holds the collection and papers of Henry Charles Lea, Carey's grandson, who continued the publishing firm started by Carey.