Language of Publication: French
LC Location: General Collections
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1896
Title Page: L’Almanach du peuple de l’État de l’Illinois, É.U., illustré
Notes: Produced by the D.F. Bremner Bakery in Chicago, which would include this almanac, for free, with any purchase of a two-cent estampille (stamp). On the bottom of each page is a one-line advertisement for the bakery. The calendar and adjoining text focus on Catholic saints’ days. Includes short stories (moral tales), historical accounts of America, and songs. Several of these songs focus on Canada, suggesting that French Canadians were an important readership.

Language of Publication: French, with bilingual advertisements
LC Location: General Collections
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1870
Title Page: Almanach Annonces de la librairie J.A. Jaquet
Notes: Approximately half of this almanac is devoted to advertisements for local businesses, mainly with French names, suggesting a close French commercial community in New Orleans at this time. The rest of the almanac is composed of letters to the editor, songs and poems, and long miscellaneous fiction and non-fiction pieces.

Language of Publication: French
LC Location: Rare Book & Special Collections Division
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1864
Title Page: Almanach de la Louisiane, calculé pour la Nouvelle-Orleans
Notes: Published by Francis Bouvain. The volume contains calendars for 1864 and 1865, with a focus on the American Civil War. Calendar pages are followed by a more detailed account of the events of the Civil War, followed by patriotic poems/songs and entertaining stories set in the United States and France. Marginalia from a previous owner note important dates for Texas.

Language of Publication: French
LC Location: General Collections
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1869-1871
Title Page: Almanach de la renaissance: livre instructif & amusant orné de gravures comiques
Notes: The Library’s three editions (1869, 1870, and 1871) are bound together. The 1871 edition differs from the 1869 and 1870 editions, which are more oriented towards entertaining stories and lists, by its more pragmatic title: “Almanach pour 1871: Principaux Événements de l’Année 1870. Variétés Littéraires. Notice sur le Gén. Robert E. Lee. Rapport officiel de ses campagnes. Portraits de généraux du sud,” which contains a separately-paginated account in English of Robert E. Lee’s campaigns during the American Civil War.

Language of Publication: French
LC Location: Rare Book & Special Collections Division
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1808
Title Page: Annuaire Louisianais par B. Lafon
Notes: Most likely, only one edition was ever produced. Compiled by B. Lafon, “ingénieur-géographe,” and covers the period from the spring equinox of 1808 to the spring equinox of 1809 (March 1808-March 1809). There is a strong emphasis on geographical descriptions of the territory of Louisiana, Florida, and Mississippi. The chronology includes New Orleans’s French and American history.

Language of Publication: French
LC Location: General Collections
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1889
Title Page: Almanach français d’Ayer
Notes: Promotional almanac for Ayer’s Sarsaparilla and other patent medicines, printed in many languages to illustrate the scope of the brand. Along with Hostetter’s Almanac, Ayer’s is composed primarily of testimonies and claims to cure all kinds of illnesses. The French version for 1889 is bound with various other volumes printed by Dr. J.C. Ayer, including multiple English editions calculated for different geographical locations (Canadian Maritime provinces, the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, the northern U.S., the middle U.S., the southern U.S., the Pacific Coast, Australia,South Africa, the East Indies, and Great Britain), Spanish editions (the Argentine Republic, Ecuador, Spain, Chile and Peru, and Central America), Portuguese editions (Brazil and Portugal), French editions (Canada and the U.S.), German editions (Canada, the northern U.S., the middle U.S., and the southern U.S.), Dutch (U.S. and South Africa), Swedish (U.S.), Norwegian-Danish (U.S.), Bohemian (U.S.), Welsh (U.S.), Italian (U.S.), Finnish (U.S.), as well as two English pamphlets (“Ayer’s Book of Emergencies” and “Ayer’s Handy Book”), and short examples of printing (“Specimens from Pamphlets in Turkish, Armenian, Greek, Bulgarian, Polish, Hawaiian, Gujarati (India), Burmese, Chinese”). Various English versions from 1854-1909 can be accessed digitally via HathiTrust: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008919346 External

Language of Publication: French
LC Location: General Collections
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1928
Title Page: Almanach de l’Assomption
Notes: Special issue of "L’Assomption" magazine published by Assumption College, a Catholic Augustinian day college founded in 1904, with a primarily male, French-Canadian enrollment. Contains accounts of pilgrimages, Catholic news, entertaining but traditional stories, songs and poems, happenings at the college, and blessings for the New Year.

Language of Publication: French
LC Location: General Collections
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1911-1913
Title Page: Almanach Franco-Americain et Catholique
Notes: Subtitle: “Comprenant une liste complète du clergé franco-américain, églises, missions, écoles et sociétés de bienfaisance de toute la Nouvelle-Angleterre. L’utilité et l’agréable des familles.” Published by the Imprimerie du Sentinel. Catholic almanac, including a directory of French-American clergy, churches, schools, and national societies in New England. The calendar itself and accompanying texts focus heavily on the Catholic year, including feast days and fasting days. A small part of the almanac is devoted to commercial laws, but the main body of the volume is devoted to short stories with religious and moral themes, followed by an extensive directory. In a letter “à nos patrons” in the 1911 version, the editor states that it is “notre humble idée de faire de notre almanach une publication utile dans toutes les familles franco-américaines dans le pays.”

Language of Publication: French
LC Location: General Collections
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1866, 1874, 1875, 1877
Title Page: Almanach du commerce et de l’industrie des États-Unis
Notes: Published by the Messager Franco-Américain, a daily newspaper based in New York City that ran from 1860 to 1883 (daily from 1873). Aimed at French residents of the United States, especially those involved in commerce; up-to-date tax and import laws are published in each edition. In addition to national laws and documents of both France and the United States, the almanac contains a directory of French residents in the United States, their addresses, and their professions. The 1877 edition can be accessed digitally via HathiTrust: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015065691654&view=1up&seq=9 External

Language of Publication: French
LC Location: General Collections
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1851-1868 (except 1859, 1860, and 1864)
Title Page: Almanach français des États-Unis: à l’usage des populations françaises de l’Amérique du nord
Notes: Up until 1855, the almanac was entitled Almanach français des États-Unis. From 1856 onwards it was known as Almanach et directorium français des États-Unis. The printer and author remained the same, and the earlier editions included a directory as well. Printed by a Mr. D. Fanshaw, who primarily printed medical or scientific-interest publications. This focus can be seen on pp. 52-53 of the 1851 edition, as well as the health/medicine advertisements throughout the almanac. A substantial amount of information consists of practical advice for moving to California to mine gold. The 1854 edition can be accessed digitally via HathiTrust: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100854137 External

Language of Publication: French and English
LC Location: General Collections
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1927, 1928
Title Page: Almanach franco-americain/French American Directory
Notes: Bilingual text. Most information about France appears in English, while most information about the United States is in French. There is less emphasis on the calendar, which is at the back of the volume. It is more explicitly commercial: the English introduction notes that the information contained in the volume would be useful to the American Chamber of Commerce and American importers, and travelers, ultimately promoting links between France and the United States. The French introduction notes that the almanac is intended for the entire French-American public. It contains reminders of French art and architecture, a calendar (with space to record income and expenditures), home remedies, immigration information, and commercial information.

Language of Publication: French
LC Location: General Collections
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1869
Title Page: Almanach illustré de Hostetter pour les États-Unis
Notes: Subtitle: “À l’usage des Commerçants, des Travailleurs, des Mineurs, Des Fermiers, Des Planteurs, et des familles en général.” The Library’s copy of the 1869 French-language Hostetter’s Almanac is bound with several other Hostetter’s Almanacs from the same year, translated into various languages, including English, French, German, Danish, Spanish, and Welsh. The almanacs were primarily intended to promote Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters, a 19th-century patent medicine touted by its marketing team as a cure for “the sick, the feeble, the nervous, and the bilious.” Each almanac is composed of advertisements in the form of testimonies, in which the consumers have been miraculously cured of a plethora of illnesses, from dysentery to listlessness. These testimonies are interspersed with comics and a miscellany (on page 11 of the 1897 edition, a table of the lifespans of various animals appears alongside a poem about the night sky and an account of mental depression and despondency), as well as additional home remedies for common illnesses. The catalog record gives the title in Danish, whereas the title page gives it in French. The company was based in Pennsylvania. Various English-language editions from 1863 to 1909 can be accessed digitally via HathiTrust: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009044607 External

Language of Publication: French
LC Location: Rare Book & Special Collections Division
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1797
Title Page: Calendrier républicain, pour l’an VI de la République française et le XXIIe de l’indépendence américain. Embelli d’un portrait de Buonaparte
Notes: Printed by Benjamin Franklin Bache. Strong focus on French military engagement and Napoleon’s expansion across Europe, including numbers of French infantrymen and populations of the newly conquered territories as part of the War of the First Coalition (French Revolutionary War).

Language of Publication: French
LC Location: Rare Book & Special Collections Division
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1778
Title Page: La science du bonhomme Richard: moyen facile de payer les impôts
Notes: Intended for a French audience, to serve as a sort of moral manual for life. Intended for young children or simple countryside parishioners. Printed in Philadelphia but sold at the Librairie Ruault in Paris.

Language of Publication: French
LC Location: Rare Book & Special Collections Division
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1778, 1779
Title Page: La science du bonhomme Richard, ou, Le moyen facile de payer les impôts dans les possessions de l’Amérique angloise: ouvrages traduits de l’anglois, qui mettent dans tout leur jour les principes & la fuite des contestations qui divisent les insurgents avec la mère patrie
Notes: Printed in Philadelphia, sold at the Librairie F. Grasset in Lausanne. Contains an updated collection of documents pertaining to the American Revolution, which appear after Franklin's The Way to Wealth translated into French.

Language of Publication: French
LC Location: Rare Book & Special Collections Division
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1778, 1779
Title Page: Calendrier de Philadelphie en Pensylvanie
Notes: No publication information inside the book. Calendar is not dated, so it could be used from year to year (gold-rimmed pages also indicate the longer lifespan of this almanac) and is organized in list form, with a moral adage next to each day of the month.

Language of Publication: French
LC Location: Rare Book & Special Collections Division
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1802
Title Page: Almanac Americain pour L’Année 1802
Notes: Uses English spelling of “almanac” in title, as well as several other anglicized spellings and missed accents. Although this almanac includes the French Republican calendar, it is printed alongside the Gregorian calendar, and includes saints' days and religious holidays, suggesting it was less staunchly French Republican than Bache’s almanac. Gold-edged pages and colored lithographs of the latest Parisian fashions suggests elite readership.

Language of Publication: French
LC Location: Rare Book & Special Collections Division
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1927 facsimile
Title Page: Calendrier français, Pour l’Année Commune 1781. Contenant le Calcul ordinaire du lever & du coucher du Soleil, de la Lune & leur Déclinaison. Un État des Officiers de l’Escadre, & des principaux de l’Armée aux orders de M. le Comte de ROCHAMBEAU. Les Époques les plus intéressantes de la Guerre présente, avec les Routes du Continent
Notes: The Library holds the 1927 facsimile produced in Boston. There are only a handful of surviving copies of the original 1781 edition, which was printed on the Imprimerie Royale de l’Escadre, or the royal printing press aboard one of the French ships stationed at Newport Harbour, Rhode Island, from May 2,1780 to March 1781. For more reading, consult Howard Millar Chapin’s Calendrier français pour l'année 1781 and the Printing Press of the French Fleet in American Waters during the Revolutionary War (1914), according to which the Calendrier was most likely the first French almanac printed within what is now the United States.

Language of Publication: French
LC Location: Rare Book & Special Collections Division
LC Has: Bound Volumes: 1890, 1891
Title Page: Annuaire catholique, pour l’année 1890: à l’usage du clergé, des sociétés et des familles canadiennes
Notes: Intended to serve as a supplement to religious life. Marketed towards Catholic francophone Canadians living in New England. First part: "Illustrated Lives of the Saints"; Second Part: "Religious Almanac of New England"; Third Part: "Statistics on Canadian Centers and Societies of the United States". The 1888 edition can be accessed digitally via HathiTrust: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100304840?type%5B%5D=all&lookfor%5B%5D=Annuaire%20catholique&ft= External