BOK.NAM.AD1791

Collins Bible

This first edition Bible printed by Isaac Collins (1746-1817) was among the first Bibles compiled and printed in America as an infant country. Other Bibles had already been printed in the United States, but they were reprints of Bibles compiled in Europe such as Matthew Carey's publishing of 471 Catholic Douay Bibles in Philadelphia.

Collins' Bible was published the same year as his colleague, Isaiah Thomas. Both men sought for "biblical accuracy" in the books they published, but Collins's Bible "was considered the most typographically accurate bible edition printed in America for decades." Not only did he commission "a series of committees... to correct his edition's proof sheets," he also "had his own children check for errors by reading each of the proof sheets eleven more times" (Gutjahr).

This Bible belonged to the Pearsall family whose births and deaths spanned from 1725 to 1930. Meticulous documentation of life events of parents, children, aunts, and uncles are all recorded on the back of the front cover, on the pages between the Apocrypha and New Testament, and on the back of the final page. The Pearsalls were among some of the families who came over to the American colonies from England and settled in Massachusetts and New York.
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Gutjahr, Paul C. An American Bible : A History of the Good Book in the United States, 1777-1880. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1999.

1791 AD

Isaac Collins

New Jersey

18th Century

Print

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English

"Gilbert H. [Pearsall's] Book
"And each of the family to have accefs
"to it when [requested]"

handwritten on the back of the front cover

Various information about births, deaths, and marriages for the [Lauren], Jenkins, Pearsall, Hicks, and Trier families at the end of the Apocrypha and pages between the Apocrypha and New Testament. Some information is handwritten, others are pasted obituaries from various newspapers. Years span from 1725-1930.

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Bible

The Holy Bible, Containing The Old And New Testaments: Translated Out Of The Original Tongues: And With The Former Translations Diligently compared and revifed. Trenton: Isaac Collins, 1791.