Sep 28, 2017 - Sale 2455

Sale 2455 - Lot 128

Price Realized: $ 3,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(HAWAII.) Damon, Samuel C.; editor. The Friend: A Semi-Monthly Journal, Devoted to Temperance, Marine and General Intelligence. Volume XII, issues 1-12 complete, bound with collective title page, index leaf, and an issue of The Folio (Honolulu, 16 November 1855). [4], 92, 4 pages. 4to, modern cloth-backed boards; dampstaining, minor tape repairs to final two leaves; pencil library catalogue number on rear pastedown. Honolulu, HI: Polynesian Press, January-December 1855
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Additional Details

The first two issues offer coverage of the death and funeral of King Kamehameha III, as well as a long historical sketch of his dynasty. The July issue offers a long account of American Independence Day festivities, and every issue is filled with local news relating to Hawaii and other nearby Pacific islands, including whaling and missionary content. An engraving of the Sailor's Home adorns the first page. Forbes 1388.
Bound in the rear is a the first and only issue of The Folio, a women's magazine which was also printed by the Polynesian Press at the Sailor's Home, and released as an insert to The Friend. It was Hawaii's first women's periodical, and the first feminist publication west of the Rockies. Its opening prospectus contains echoes of the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments, and a long letter to the editor urges the "Dear Editress" that "your name can be made immortal by becoming the defender, supporter, aye, creator of Women's Rights in Hawaii!" The editor was possibly Julia Damon, wife of The Friend's editor. See Chapin, "The Folio of 1855: A Plea for Women's Rights," in Hawaiian Journal of History 19 (1985), pages 122-134. It is not recorded in Forbes.