American Album Amicorum, Owned and Circulated by Sarah Roberts -- also, Hoosiers!

New York: for the Booksllers, 1832 (and beyond). Contemporary tan morocco gilt; 8vo (153x191 mm); approximately 75 leaves, nearly completely full (recto and verso) of manuscript contributions by numerous hands. With engraved title-page and cancel-slip over the imprint (the 1832 date in manuscript); and engraved vignettes to several leaves. Boards and spine scuffed; spine tips perished.

A rich collection of poems and sentiments, collected in the early 1830s in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Richmond, Milton, Newton, Indianapolis (all, Indiana), Salem (New Jersey), and others. Most entries are initialed, but names do appear: Emma Roberts, Elizabeth Moore, Mary H. Roberts (Sarah's niece), Alexander Stokes, Lydia Stokes, Charles Westcombe. Includes one color manuscript drawing, a intricate labyrinth, or knot. Penmanship is legible, even lovely, throughout. A laid-in newspaper article offers a brief etymology of the word "Hoosier," remarking that it was first seen, in manuscript, in "Hoosier's Nest" a poem by John Finley of Richmond, in 1833 (it was then spelled "Hoosher"). Finley was the second mayor of Richmond, holding office from 1852 until his death in 1866. The final stanzas of the poem are copied out in this volume by an unknown contributor, who was quick to pick up the then very new word.