The Baby's Biography. A keepsake album with text and arrangement by A. O. Kaplan

New York: Brentanos, 1891. Hardcover. Very Good. The Baby's Biography. A keepsake album with text and arrangement by A. O. Kaplan. Illustrations by Frances Brundage. New York: Brentanos, 1891. This unique example contains the record of infancy and childhood of one Mary Crane, resident of Michigan, in handwritten entries throughout, as well as a number of mementos and bits of ephemera. On the first page for an entry, titled at the top, "Welcome Little Stranger," we learn that she was born on Friday, the third day of August, 1888. A tiny envelope pasted at (truncated) the bottom of this leaf contains the birth announcement, recording that Mary weighed in at 7.5 lbs. Further in, there are numerous little treasures: a first pair of homemade slippers, holiday cards to her mother, impressive locks of hair, original bits of art, and eventually, at the very back, an essay on Cicero. An unusually rich album, with lots of fun bits; the whole amounts to an interesting picture of late 19th-century American life. (Inventory #: 4612)