Call Number:

3672

Repository:

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Extent:

0.2 linear feet (; 2 volumes)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Cite as: [Indicate cited item or series here], Mathew Carey diaries (Collection 3672), The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Date:

1828-1836 (inclusive)

Creator:

Carey, Mathew, 1760-1839

Abstract:

Mathew Carey (1760-1836) was born in Dublin, Ireland, and he arrived in America in 1784 with nine years of experience as a printer and publisher under his belt. With a $400 check he received from the Marquis de Lafayette, Carey established his own publishing and bookselling business in Philadelphia. Among his early publications were the Pennsylvania Evening Herald, the Columbian Magazine, and the American Museum, none of which were very successful. With the outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1793, Carey took the opportunity to publish his own work entitled A Short Account of the Malignant Fever, Lately Prevalent in Philadelphia . . ., which marked the beginning of his venture into medical publishing. During the course of his career, Carey published dozens of medical works; however, he also published novels and works by Mason L. Weems, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, and Sir Walter Scott, among others. Additionally, his company printed broadsides, atlases, bibles, and political titles, including some of his own writings such as Vindiciae Hibernicae (1819), New Olive Branch (1820), and Essays of Political Economy (1822). Carey devoted his life to political economics after he left the publishing business in the early 1820s.

Comprising this collection is two of Carey's diaries that he kept between the end of 1828 and 1836, They contain a total of 353 written pages plus one detached two-page leaf. In this diaries Carey recorded lengthy descriptions of his daily activities, including extensive reading, writing, editing, publishing, meetings and conversations (including some with well-known people of the the time, such as politician and reformer Robert Dale Owen. In some of the entries Carey documented his relationships with local newspaper editors, his complex and shifting views on economics, and his activities on behalf of poor and marginalized groups, religious activities, family life, and other matters.