Lippincott Editions
Founded in 1836 by Joshua Ballinger Lippincott, the Philadelphia publishing house J. B. Lippincott & Company was owned and operated by four generations of Lippincotts before its purchase by Harper & Rowe in 1978. Although the Lippincott company diversified into a wide range of publishing categories, including medical references, it began with a focus on Bibles and prayer books. The firm was briefly renamed Lippincott, Grambo & Company from 1850 to mid-1855, reflecting a new partnership, but then resumed the J. B. Lippincott name after Grambo retired.
Dozens of Lippincott Bible editions were published in the 1850s and 1860s. This 1857 title page lists no additional contents beyond the Old and New Testament of the King James Bible, but a mix of Lippincott editions that year included the Apocrypha, reference tables, metrical (rhymed) psalms, and a concordance.
This particular Lippincott Bible was left to the Library of Congress in 1972 by Chester A. Arthur III, the grandson and namesake of President Chester A. Arthur. According to his grandson’s handwritten inscription, Vice President Arthur was sworn in as president on this Bible about an hour after midnight on September 20, 1881. President James Garfield had died the previous day, two and a half months after being shot at a train station on July 2.
Bible. English. Authorized. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1857. President Chester A. Arthur family Bible. Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division. (Click on the image to see the Bible's inscription.)
