We have chosen to display the 1796 almanac closed so that its cover is visible, while the 1797 almanac is opened to its page featuring January. The 1796 cover features a drawing of an astronomer holding an instrument and looking skyward, while standing on the banks of a body of water with a town in the background. A globe and other equipment are at his feet, and the night sky is shown above, complete with stars and the moon. Though we don’t know for sure, we can speculate that this may be a depiction of the compiler himself, Nehemiah Strong (1729-1807). From the article “Check List of Connecticut Almanacs, 1709-1850: With Introduction and Notes” by Albert Carlos Bates found in the 1914 edition of the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, we learned that Strong was an astronomer and mathematician, and the first chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Yale University. Strong was a prolific compiler of various almanacs from 1775 until his death, and some of his former students from Yale also went on to compile almanacs.
The 1797 almanac is displayed open to the January page, which shows a listing of all 31 days, along with their moon phases and commentary on their predicted weather. The month starts off clear and cold on January 2 and 3 but January 4 is predicted to be more pleasant. Later in the month calls for snow, freezing temperatures, and even hail! Colonial Americans did not have their local meteorologist giving the forecast every morning on the news, so almanacs were extremely useful and popular publications that could be found in most households. Beyond astronomical and meteorological data, they also included useful information for the general public, like the listing of Superior Courts and Supreme Courts shown on the opposite page. And one of the more whimsical features of the almanac is a verse with stanzas that continue from month to month. 1797’s is titled The Lover and January’s entry reads, “Of all the things beneath the sun; To love’s the greatest curse; If one’s deny’d, then he’s undone; If not, ‘tis ten times worse.”
If you’d like to start off your year with even more almanac content, then be sure to check out our previous posts. For 2023, we shared the 1815 and 1817 editions of The New-England Almanack, in 2022 we featured Peter Parley’s Almanac for Old and Young, in 2021 we highlighted Fleet's Pocket Almanack for the year of our Lord 1789, and in 2020 we showcased a selection of Isaiah Thomas’s New England Almanac, which can also be viewed in our digital repository. And if you are in the area, be sure to visit us from January 5 through the 31st to see Strong’s Almanack on display in our main library reading room.
Elizabeth Roscio
Preservation Librarian
