An exceptionally scarce first-year Almanack issued from the Concord New-Hampshire presses of George Hough. He established Concord's first printing press in late 1789 or early 1790, launching the town’s first newspaper, The Concord Herald, in January 1790. From available records, it seems that 1791 Almanack [Printed in 1790] was the first stand-alone, non newspaper work he ever printed.
Important as an early imprint; otherwise a rather standard almanac. Calculated for local regional meridians, it served as a crucial instrument of daily civic, agricultural, and astronomical life in the early Republic. The pseudonymous attribution to "Elijah Bickerstaff, Jun." invokes the famous satirical tradition established by Jonathan Swift, a standard branding device used by 18th-century New England philomaths to signal astronomical authority and practical entertainment.
Bickerstaff Jun., Elijah. Philomathematician. The Concord Calendar: Or, New Hampshire Almanack, for the Year of Our Redemption 1791: Being the Third Year after Bissextile, or Leap-Year, The Fifteenth of the Independence of America, From Creation, According to Scripture, 5753. Calculated for the Meridian of Concord, Latitude 43 15 North- Longitude 3 39 East from Philadelphia: Fitting Newhampshire, Massachusetts, or Vermont without Essential Variation. Containing Every Thing Necessary in an Almanack, and a Variety of Other Useful and Entertaining Matter. Concord. George Hough. 1790.
Fair only. Front wrap chipped and tender as shown, though the primary lithographic panel intact. The remainder a bit handled generally, with corners turned, etc., The final leaf lacks the top 25% effecting one narrative at the end, i.e. The Prolix Preacher, and a few months from the rear calendar.
