Wheatley Census
wheatleycensus.bsky.social
Wheatley Census
@wheatleycensus.bsky.social
Locating and describing all extant copies of Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects before 1909. Directed by @jsench.bsky.social & @brigfield.bsky.social. www.wheatleycensus.org
New entry in the list of 1773 first editions: the copy at the University of St Andrews. This copy came to St Andrews in 1773 as a Stationer’s deposit library. Its bound with another book. And theres a fully digitized version of it! Check it out: www.wheatleycensus.org/wc/1392/
Wheatley Census
www.wheatleycensus.org
January 14, 2026 at 5:01 PM
Today is the 252nd anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. Along with British East India Company Tea, the first edition of Poems on Various Subjects was among the cargo carried from London to Boston on The Dartmouth. Today, the Boston Tea Party museum displays WC #1234: www.wheatleycensus.org/wc/1234/
Wheatley Census
www.wheatleycensus.org
December 16, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Today’s Wheatley Census mystery: are there really no copies of the 1773 first edition in France? Published in London in 1773 and distributed, in part, through Methodist networks of Selina Hastings, there are copies all over the UK. But none in France?
November 19, 2025 at 3:30 PM
The Wheatley Census Number (WC #) is a unique and durable identifier assigned to each book (or fragment) recorded in the census. This enables *copy-specific citation* in scholarship, bookselling/provenance research, and anywhere identifying and citing at the individual copy level is needed.
November 18, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Pleased to announce the Wheatley Census is ready for 1.0 public release! As detailed a census as possible (right now) of the first six editions - those printed in the 18th century - of Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, is available here: www.wheatleycensus.org.
Wheatley Census
www.wheatleycensus.org
November 17, 2025 at 4:44 PM