Did you know that Phillips Exeter Academy’s Special Collections houses a miniature book collection? Most of the tiny books which include macro miniatures (3-4 inches in size) and micro miniatures (1/3 to 1 inches) were published by Achille St. Onge of Worcester, Massachusetts. St. Onge’s titles were typically printed on high quality paper and bound in fine leathers.
Miniature collections were produced for a variety of reasons – to conceal dangerous or subversive information more easily, for easier travel or portable reference, or to provide a suitable size for children.
Phillips Exeter Academy’s miniature collection includes the following titles:
- On the powers of government assigned to it by the Constitution
- The night before Christmas
- Magna Carta of King John, AD 1215
- The declaration of independence
- Abraham Lincoln : the song in his heart
- The Mayflower compact
- Wild apples : history of the apple tree
- The autobiography of Robert Hutchings Goddard, father of the space age
- Notes from four cities
- The wants of man : a poem
- Paul Revere’s ride, a deposition : the personal account by Revere of his famous ride
- Elegy written in a country churchyard
