Exploring 19th Century Gift Books in a Special Collection: A Collection Analysis

摘要

Descriptions of 19th century literature can be limited because items may be out of print, hard to find, or undocumented. McCain Library and Archives at Southern Miss offers a limited selection of 19th century gift books and annuals; these books can be used to evaluate certain distinct characteristics regarding publishers, dates of publication, authors, and binding styles. This study can help to determine prominent genre characteristics for this era, which may be otherwise difficult to determine considering the scarcity of some of the titles and their editions.