Early Years

From Colonization to the 1850s

A two shilling and six pence Connecticut bank note.

Robert Car. 

Image courtesy of Find a Grave.

This is volume nine of an 1806 book set titled The Wonders of Nature and Art, or a Concise Account of Whatever is Most Curious and Remarkable in the World by Reverend Thomas Smith and revised by Dr. James Mease. The book was printed by the Philadelphia-based printer Col. Robert Carr.

Dr. James Mease, who revised the book, was a physician and horticulturist from Philadelphia who served in the War of 1812 as a surgeon. He earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1792 and although he had an interest in medicine, his interests also included geology and horticulture. He even developed the first tomato-based ketchup recipe and thus introduced the world to the ketchup we all know and love today.

The printer of the book, Col. Robert Carr, was a successful printer from Philadelphia. Born near Belfast, Ireland in 1778, his family moved to Philadelphia in 1784. Interestingly enough, Carr was the apprentice of Benjamin Franklin Bache, the grandson of founding father Benjamin Franklin, in 1792. He left Bache in 1801 to start his own printing business and he gained a reputation for quality printing. It was around this time that he printed a variety of works such as Cyclopedia by Abraham Rees and James Mease's Geological Account of the United States as well as Thomas Smith's Wonders of Nature and Art, volume nine of which is in the museum collection. During the War of 1812, Carr served as a lieutenant colonel and became known as Col. Robert Carr. He died in Philadelphia in 1866.

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