We are in midtown harrisburg pennsylvania. We are in that midtown market district we are honored with the name. And around the corner of third and back street. We are one of the nations largest stores of academic used books for the online specialty. With the urban books we have hundred 50,000 bucks with a University Press book secondhand. The global interest books. They are modeled after the favorite used bookstores. It is not for its out door sales. Were really pleased to be able to have a space. We had grown into the space from other smaller buildings. It brings those out to walk on the republicans. Theres probably there is probably lots of old bookstores. You probably havent seen one quite like this. Its really part of what we are really excited about and expanded. They have such a warm history. I have studied a lot about the public culture the political culture and by having caffeinated beverages along with books. I think there are live theyre alive in the conversations that people have. We have a lot of gift qualities and special collections imprints as well as beautiful books from the Franklin Library collection. And then also a wide local interest. Its just a small snapshot of it. We have our harris book history books here. The local journalists whose essays have been collected. These are the highlights of a very wide local interest collection that we offer as well. If you come into the main space the character changes over the time of day and day of the week. On friday night the tables and chairs will clear away. Her book talk. The classic works of literature. To complement that. That section is evergrowing. With several others they form that in our mezzanine. It has literary criticism and literature lots of the scholarly books with a whole way of general interest titles. It was recently shifting itself around making even more space for art history collection. We have purchased an entire shop full of books. And there is a fabulous art history section. And then if you look also around. In addition to the stage area above it you have that here. We actually commission to hang on the outside of our original location which is a few blocks down the street. Its a very long narrow 1950s building. And we have a local artist who came up with the idea goes it goes through time and space. It is both historical and yet also almost imaginary. From the theater days. They are shocked. The pennsylvania steel beams. The structure and the support. We are really pleased to be reusing the Department Store for a modernday use of the Community Coming together. We look at the art history books there are more rare books downstairs. Will go just a half of level. We have of everything from historical prints a pennsylvania and other mid Atlantic States to early legal a journals all mantle of local interest materials and then finally down below the scholar underground that is where the majority of our nonfiction collection resides. And the long narrow narrow idols. We are in the basement of the midtown scholar bookstore we are in a rare book club. We are surrounded by antique book cases filled with books some of which are 500 years old. We had shelves and shelves of books that were found in the 1500s. We have a wonderful selection of 18th century english and european imprints copy of. Weve a one a lot of a 19th century literature. We have some with some original First Edition that im looking over here and just a wonderful selection we also have original engravings and prints from the 19th century down here. We even have original artist from illustrators that live in the area will worth the visit. I thought it might be interesting from a book tvc and point to just look at books that were published in harrisburg. Not something your viewers think a lot about. You think of german printers that came to set up shop. Many of them came to the capital of pennsylvania. Not far from this very bookstore there is a gigantic press building. And all throughout the city of harrisburg. I chose a selection that i thought have the history of harrisburg. I have what i believe is the first book that was published in harrisburg pennsylvania a little bit about the history so you know it was founded by a man named john harris who set up a very trading posts son is the one who is responsible for laying out the city streets before harrisburg was called harrisburg it was actually called lewisburg. After the war in honor of the french the capital for the location had eventually become the capital called lewisburg. By publishing this the first book in harrisburg and also using the name harrisburg he begin to see the name claim for the city. And you will see this time in 1796 it is spelled with an h all of the books were published by a journeyman printer. He was from new england and he brought his Printing Press after having gone down to set it up. And in the 1790s. It was the scene of a great slave rebellion. Complete rebellion that led to a lot of french immigration move back into harrisburg and pennsylvania in the United States. Its something for him to have written. The death of vision after surviving the great rebellion. The oracle there. And he set up shop right across the street from where City Government center is today. An interesting character he is perhaps best known for publishing two types of nonfiction books which are the best sellers of the 19th century. The two bestselling nonfiction genres in the 19th century they were cookbooks and musica books. Printed in harrisburg and now you see harrisburg lost white was responsible for the older spelling we modernized a bit. What is interesting about this book is it is the first book about the reformed Church Published in america. We are in an interesting area. In mennonite brethren country of central and sylvania we are the capital of pennsylvania and one of the things in this book was people should stay away from the political process, no partaking in politics in any way and yet here it is being published in our contentious Political Capital after the war of 1812. Harrisburg becomes the capital in 1812 and the seat of government, you have a lot of English Speaking folks. John harris speaks english but you also have a bentonite and a baptist, germanspeaking tradition, largely farmers and that is very much evident in central pennsylvania today. A little tension between the urban city of harrisburg and the surrounding Rural Communities even though harrisburg was very small, just the downtown, surrounded by farms. That is the history of printing in 19th century harrisburg. As we move to the 20th century, the city undergoes a movement called the city beautiful and you have national leaders, like Horace Mcfarland who helped preserve Niagara Falls and yosemite and nationally with the Forest Service to preserve our forests in the country, they settled in harrisburg. As part of what they do have established a beautification effort called the farland press. One of the things Horace Mcfarland does is pioneers Color Printing in the 20th century and this may not seem like much today when digital photography gives crisp, clear colors but in 1900 getting the right color when you are doing a book of roses of the world, was really important and mcfarland had a rose garden that was internationally renowned and what he did was sent out his own artists to paint the flowers. I have examples of some of the original paintings, getting the pigments just right. After his Artists Paint the flowers, this is a picture of his rose garden, right here in harrisburg, after the time of Horace Mcfarland the city was known primarily as an evangelical publishing house, several evangelicals published up the street, most of the evangelical works posted in the United States were coming out of harrisburg, a history of the Evangelical Church but you have books and all sorts of things in most everyones home in mid20th century america, by the Evangelical Church, work published in harrisburg. Another thing going on around the mid20th century, the founding of a major publisher around today. It was founded by a gentleman who owns one of the two competing newspapers, you had a conservative newspaper and the not so conservative newspaper in harrisburg, it was founded, sort of came to providence in the midst of world war ii as the press published a lot of military books and to this day a wonderful selection of books on hunting, fishing and military history. Harrisburg continues to go on, in the 20th century we are well known as the home of the book of the month club, the susquehanna river, all the book clubs in the 20th century, whether it is the military book club or the Cookbook Club for all the clubs people did and used to be part of, all these books were printed and distributed in central pennsylvania. That is the history midtown scholars were built upon and why we chose the crossroads of the place to continue to tell the story of American Publishing and you could find all these books and many more today. We are a bookstore so the books are for sale but we encourage browsing and people coming and learning about the history of publishing, the history of harrisburg, the history of america over the past century
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.