The Riversdale Bookshelf: Recreating the Library of the Calvert Family

Introduction

Riversdale Mansion is an early nineteenth-century house located approximately six miles north of Washington, D.C., between Hyattsville and College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland. Riversdale was home to two generations of Calverts, descendants of Maryland's founding family. George and his Belgian-born wife, Rosalie, moved into the mansion in 1803. Their son, Charles Benedict Calvert, also made Riversdale his home and turned the plantation into an agricultural showcase.

To compliment the mansion's restored library, this project identifies reading materials that George and Rosalie Calvert may have read while living at Riversdale from 1803 to 1838.

In addition to the bibliography of possible titles owned by the Calverts, you will also find on this website a variety of contextual material including:

Project Description

Bibliographies

• Calvert Library
• 1877 Auction Catalog
• Books Currently at Riversdale
  
• Research Documentation Bibliography
• Further Research Bibliography -- Alphabetical
• Further Research Bibliography -- By Subject
• On Agricultural Libraries:
  • Thomas Jefferson's recommendations on agricultural books
  • George Washington's collection of agricultural books
  • Stephen Conrad Stuntz's bibliography on agricultural periodicals
• Charles Benedict Calvert Resource Guide

Charts

• Timeline of familial, local, state, national, and international events directly or indirectly related to the history of the Calvert family and Riversdale Mansion
• Calvert family tree

Essays

• "Gardening in the United States, 1794-1821:
  A Bibliographic Essay"
• "Riversdale: The House and Its Families"
• "Rosalie in Her Riversdale Garden"
• "Women and Reading in the United States,
  England, and France, 1794- 1820:
  A Bibliographic Essay"

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