An astronomical diary; or almanack for the year of our Lord Christ 1772 ... Calculated for the meridian of Boston, New-England, lat. 42 25 north. ... By Nathaniel Ames.
Ames, Nathaniel,1741-1822.
[Boston] : [Printed by T. & J. Fleet and Edes & Gill] Price 2s. 8d. per dozen, and six coppers single,
[1771]
Advertisement for Daniel Jones' Royal Exchange Inn, Boston, p. [24].
One of two editions of Ames for 1772 published in Boston, the other printed for Ezekiel Russell and advertised by him in the Massachusetts gazette and Boston post-boy, Dec. 23, 1771. The present edition is presumably that advertised in the Boston evening post (T. & J. Fleet) and the Boston gazette (Edes & Gill), Dec. 30, as "to be sold by T. & J. Fleet, and Edes & Gill." It is doubtless the pirated edition anticipated by Russell in his advertisement. Richard Draper, who in previous years combined with these publishers in producing pirated Ames almanacs, was evidently not allied with them on this occasion. He is mentioned in Russell's advertisement among the booksellers from whom Russell's edition is obtainable.
The portraits are of a dwarf (on title page), John Dickinson, and Mrs. Catharine M'Caulay. They are copies or versions of the three cuts in Russell's edition of Ames, two of which were by Paul Revere. Evidently these versions are also by Revere, as an entry in his Day book for December 21, 1771, records a charge against Edes & Gill "to engraving 3 plates for Ames almanack." Cf. Brigham, C.S., Paul Revere's engraving, Worcester, Mass., 1954, p. 136. The evidence suggests that Edes & Gill secured a copy of Russell's edition on the day it appeared and ordered reproductions of the cuts from Revere.
ESTC
Evans 11961; Drake, M. Almanacs, 3205