Prince Society

Published rare American works, founded by Samuel Gardner Drake in Boston

The Prince Society, or Prince Society for Mutual Publication, (1858-1944) in Boston, Massachusetts, published "rare works, in print or manuscript, relating to America."[1] It was named after Thomas Prince, fifth pastor of Old South Church in Boston. Historian Samuel Gardner Drake founded the society because he "had not been made a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and he resented it."[2] Officials of the Prince Society included William Sumner Appleton, John Ward Dean, Charles E. Goodspeed, Edmund F. Slafter, John Wingate Thornton, and William Henry Whitmore.[3] It operated from offices in Bromfield Street (ca.1868)[4] and Somerset Street (ca.1872, 1908).[5][6] Around 1920 society members "realized at last that a publication society 'on the mutual principle' had become an anomaly in this day and generation." The society continued for several "years of poise before the final leap into the abyss" in 1944.[7]

## References

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1. ^ "Prince Society. Constitution", Publications of the Prince Society, vol. 20, 1890
2. ^ Wolkins. 1936-1941; p.230
3. ^ Prince Society records, 1858-1944, Massachusetts Historical Society, OCLC 23825570
4. ^ Boston Directory. 1868.
5. ^ American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1, no. 13250
6. ^ Wolkins. 1936-1941
7. ^ Wolkins. 1936-1941; p.254

## Further reading

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### Publications of the society

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* New England's Prospect (1865) by William Wood.
* The Hutchinson Papers (1865) William H. Whitmore, ed.
* John Duton's Letters from New England (1867) William H. Whitmore, ed.
* Sir William Alexander and American Colonization (1863) William H. Whitmore, ed.
* The Andros Tracts (1874) William H. Whitmore, ed.
* John Wheelwright (1876) by Charles H. Bell
* Voyages of the Northmen to America (1877) by Rev. Edmund F. Slafter
* The Voyages of Samuel de Champlain (1880, 1878, and 1882) by Rev. Edmund F. Slafter
* The New English Canaan of Thomas Morton (1883) by Charles Francis Adams
* Sir Walter Ralegh and His Colony in America (1884) by the Rev. Increase N. Tarbox
* Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson (1885) by Gideon D. Scull
* James P. Baxter (1890), Sir Ferdinando Gorges and His Province of Maine
* Antinomianism in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay (1894) by Adams
* John Checkley, or the Evolution of Religious Tolerance in Massachusetts Bay (1897) by Slafter
* Edward Randolph, five volumes (1898-1899) by Robert N. Toppan and Alfred T. S. Goodrick
* Sir Humfrey Gylberte and His Enterprise of Colonization in America (1903) by Carlos Slafter

### About the society

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* George G. Wolkins (October 1936 – May 1941), "The Prince Society", Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 3rd series, vol. 66, pp. 223–254

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New England historical societies

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