Accession No. RARE.2023.0001: Purchase, 2022 November
[identification of item], Roxana W. Gross Commonplace Book, SPEC.RARE.MMS.0362, Rare Books & Manuscripts Library, Ohio State University
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Processed by: Lindsay Resnick, 2023 January; Finding aid written by: Lindsay Resnick, 2023 January
Commonplace books are books into which snippets of information are transcribed. These snippets often include poems, aphorisms, proverbs, Biblical quotations, and other material that the keeper of the book finds important to remember. These books have been used for many centuries, with early examples having been found as early as the eighth century. Commonplace books gained widespread popularity in English-speaking countries by the seventeeth century. Students used these books to take notes about their readings, and, at times, to practice penmanship.
Roxana Wilder Gross (later Cole, 1822-1900) was a 13-year-old schoolgirl in Scituate, Massachusetts, at the time she created this commonplace book under the supervision of her teacher Andrew Pingree, Jr. (1803-1879). She lived in the Scituate area her entire life.
The Roxana W. Gross Commonplace Book is a book created by 13-year-old Roxana Wilder Gross in 1836. Gross' book contains transcriptions of fifty works of poetry and prose written by popular writers of the time, as well as unattributed works.
Poets whose work is represented in Gross's commonplace book are James Gates Percival, James Edmeston, Julia Pardoe, Eunice True Daniels, Letitia Landon, Ovid, Lydia Sigourney, Ebenezer Elliott, Agnes Strickland, Harriet Muzzy, Felicia Hemans, Charles Swain, Harvey D. Little, Sara Coleridge, and William Bingham Tappan. Known authors account for 23 pieces in this book.
Unattributed or anonymous works account for 27 pieces written in this commonplace book. Most of these works either have no author indicated at all or have a person's first name written in very small letters on the page. For example, "There's No Place Like Home" has the name "Rosalie" written next to it, but it is unclear who Rosalie is.