Leather, Gold, and Embellishment: The First Challenges

The Holy Bible, American Bible Society

Published by the American Bible Society, this Bible, much like others it printed, features a plain brown leather cover, making it less marketable than others published in the flood of evangelism.

The Holy Bible, Silas Andrus

Publishers such as Silas Andrus of Hartford, Connecticut offered consumers custom design options to personalize their Bibles. This Bible illustrates some of those options. Making Bibles more attractive to the Victorian audience, many publishers posed as competition to the American Bible Society.

The Holy Bible, Silas Andrus

Gifted to poet Lydia Sigourney by Faith Wadsworth (Trumbull), this Bible is bound by two-tone brown leather and features an embossed interior border. Because of its decor, Bibles such as this one were intended to be the centerpiece of the home.

A Miniature History of the Holy Bible

While the American Bible Society's readership was restricted to adults, other publishers were targeting more diverse populations to increase revenue. This miniature history was intended for children and less literate adults, summarizing chapters of the Bible in just a few pages.