# "New Methods for the Study of Reading via Circulation Records and Portraiture: Evidence from the Salem Social Library and Redwood Library," a talk by Sean Moore, Professor of English, University of New Hampshire #### calendar\_today Date and Time **March 1, 2019** 04:00PM - 06:00PM EST #### pin\_drop Location **The Arthur F. Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies, UMass Amherst, 650 E Pleasant St, Amherst, MA 01002** Five College Seminar in Book History Sean Moore (B.A., University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 1991; Ph.D., Duke University, 2003) Abstract: This presentation will explain the methodological rationale for the study of reading in Prof. Moore’s new book, *Slavery and the Making of the Early American Library: British Literature, Political Thought, and the Transatlantic Book Trade, 1731-1814* (Oxford UP, 2019). It has been an orthodoxy in book history studies that only marginalia, letters, diaries, and commonplace books constitute evidence of the reception of books and other writings. This paper argues that sequential reading (notes in borrower’s ledgers indicating a reader working through a multivolume work over several borrowing periods) and the velocity of reading (the number of times a volume changes hands) constitute evidence of the reading patterns of particular individuals and for particular books. It also contends that portraits of sitters holding identifiable books can be taken as evidence of their reception. By analyzing the “Charge Book, 1760-1768,” in the Salem Athenaeum Records and a portrait of Abraham Redwood, holding a copy of Alexander Pope’s *Essay on Man*, this paper establishes new methods of applying these documents to our understanding of dissemination, circulation, and reading. Reception to follow For more information please contact See also:- [ Lecture ](/event-categories/lecture) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#) Save: [ Add to calendar calendar\_today ](https://bookhistory.harvard.edu/node/1423881/event-feed.ics) Copy link link