American Historical Ephemera and Early Photography, including The Larry Ness Collection of Native American Photography

12 mo (approx. 177 x 114 mm). Half-title, title with woodcut seal of Congress. (Disbound, close trimmed, scattered spotting, some pages more heavily toned, pencil notations on title and half-title pages.) Ownership signature "Daniel Waldo" on half-title.

FIRST EDITION OF THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST CONGRESS

FIRST ISSUE, with the half-title, title, and 132pp. The title-page bears the seal of the Congress, showing twelve hands representing the twelve participating colonies supporting a column topped with a Liberty Cap resting on the Magna Charta, framed by the motto "Hanc Tuemur Hanc Nitimur" ("This we defend, this we lean upon"). 

Rare first edition of the journals of the first Continental Congress, one of the most fundamental documents relating to the American Revolution. In response to the the Intolerable Acts passed by Parliament in the wake of the Boston Tea Party, the various Committees of Correspondence in the North American colonies resolved to hold a Continental Congress in June of 1774. Delegates from twelve colonies (none from Georgia) gathered in Philadelphia in the fall. It included many of the most distinguished men in America: Samuel and John Adams, Roger Sherman, John Jay, Joseph Galloway, John Dickinson, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Edmund Pendleton, and Henry Middleton, among others. The Congress succeeded in taking numerous important steps. On October 14 they adopted a Declaration of Rights, and agreed to an Association governing imports and exports and boycotting British goods. They also drafted and sent an Address to the People of Great Britain and another Address to the Inhabitants of the Province of Quebec. They agreed to reassemble on May 10, 1775 for what was to be the Congress that broke with England. Evans 13737; Howes J-263; this issue not in Sabin. 

Though the exact "Daniel Waldo" who owned this volume is not certain, the signature does bear a resemblance to that of the American clergyman of this same name who served in the American Revolutionary War and later was named Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives. Daniel Waldo (1762-1864) was one of the last Revolutionary War veterans to survive into the age of photography. He died in Syracuse, New York, at the age of 101.