The Prince Society or Prince Society for Mutual Publication (1858-1944) in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, published "rare works, in print or manuscript, relating to America." It was named after Thomas Prince

Thomas Prince

Thomas Prince was an American clergyman, scholar and historian noted for his historical text A Chronological History of New England, in the Form of Annals...

. Historian Samuel Gardner Drake

Samuel Gardner Drake

Samuel Gardner Drake was an eminent American antiquarian.Drake was born in Pittsfield, New Hampshire. His father, Simeon Drake, was initially a farmer like his four brothers, but sold his homestead in 1805 to open a store in neighboring Northwood. His mother, Love Muchmore Drake was the daughter...

 founded the society because he "had not been made a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society

Massachusetts Historical Society

The Massachusetts Historical Society is a major historical archive specializing in early American, Massachusetts, and New England history...

, and he resented it." Officials of the Prince Society included William Sumner Appleton

William Sumner Appleton

William Sumner Appleton, Jr. was Founder of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities in 1910. He was the chief force behind much of the preservation of historic homes in the New England area...

, John Ward Dean, Charles E. Goodspeed, Edmund F. Slafter, John Wingate Thornton

John Wingate Thornton

John Wingate Thornton was a United States lawyer, historian, antiquarian, book collector and author.-Early life:He was born August 12, 1818 at the home of his grandfather, Thomas Gilbert Thornton in Saco, Maine...

, and William Henry Whitmore. It operated from offices in Bromfield Street (ca.1868) and Somerset Street (ca.1872, 1908). 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.

Publications of the society

• John Wheelwright (1876) by Bell
• Voyages of the Northmen to America (1877) by Slafter
• The Voyages of Samuel de Champlain (1880, 1878, and 1882) by Slafter
• The New English Canaan of Thomas Morton (1883) by Charles Francis Adams
• Sir Walter Ralegh and His Colony in America (1884) by Increase N. Tarbox
• Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson (1885) by Gideon D. Scull
• James P. Baxter. Sir Ferdinando Gorges and His Province of Maine. 1890.
• 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

• George G. Wolkins. The Prince Society. Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series, Vol. 66 (Oct., 1936 - May, 1941), pp. 223-254.