Althea Da Graca

Mahlon Day, “The True and Wonderful Story of Paul Gasford” c. 1834

This text is from an exhibition called “Notions of Niagara” at the Brock University, James A. Gibson Library. Including items found in the Brock Archives and Special Collections. For the Nineteenth Century Visual Culture Class (HAVC 2P90) Winter 2026.

March 3, 2026

The True and Wonderful Story of Paul Gasford was published around 1834 and is a story of a 4-year-old boy who got lost on the shores of Lake Ontario while travelling with his family to Niagara from the Bay of Quinte. This is the smallest book in the collection of Brock University’s Archives & Special Collections.1 It is only 9cm on its longest side and includes 15 pages pertaining to young Paul Gasford’s story. It also contains a16th page upon which a poem labelled “Advice From A Bee” is printed. The book has a paper cover with an illustrated title page and a list of recommended works on the back. Inside the book are 10 other illustrations, all of which are about thumbprint sized, the first being a duplicate of the cover page, and those on pages 10 and 12 seem to have been coloured in by a child at some point in this book’s history. 

The pages on display (pages 10 and 11), include a small woodblock print (which is like a stamp2) of Paul, looking a bit ambiguous in age, holding a stick that he used to mark the direction of his path whenever he stopped to sleep. He reaches up into a tree, presumably looking for fruit he can eat. The background contains a small portion of water and a vague depiction of foliage and hills. This image was likely kept vague and simple to both keep costs low and to be reusable in different stories. Printing the same woodcut in multiple different chapbooks was a somewhat common practice.3 This book also includes a blatantly racist representation of Indigenous people as potential kidnappers, whose communities were in fact victims of mass, systemic kidnappings, abuse and genocide by white Christian colonists.4 

 As tiny as this book is, the 19th century saw the popularization of even smaller, “miniature books” (less than 7.7 cm5) an example of Victorian society’s overall interest in miniature goods.2  The size of this book makes it a chapbook. 

Chapbooks were typically shortened forms of other works sold by Chapmen and for  a couple of pennies. The word “chapbook” actually shares origins with the word “cheap,” indicating their typical price point.7 Chapmen were travelling salesmen who carried a wide variety of items, not just books.8 The printer, publisher, and seller Mahlon Day, who took this story from another publication called the Christian Advocate, was one of many others who took on several production duties to minimize the cost of producing these books.9 

The production of chapbooks usually included folding sheets of paper, often made into 24 or 16 pages.10 Both confining a story to, and filling up the fixed amount of pages were important tasks,11 which we can find evidence for in this example with the seemingly filler poem, “Advice From a Bee.” The illustrations in these books, usually made by woodcut printing, are considered a distinct characteristic that makes up a chapbook.12 Their subject matter was not exclusive to any one topic, and in fact covered a very broad spectrum13 but were predominantly marketed towards children by the 19th century,14 though they are known to have been in circulation since the 17th.15 

 Unfortunately, the claim of the story being true is unverifiable, but it is quite wonderful and even makes mention of young Paul surviving by eating only grapes.16 Grapes are now an integral part of the identity of the Niagara region, but in 1834 they were not yet widely cultivated despite already being known to thrive here due to the area’s climate.17 

by: Althea Da Graca

Full Text Available

Day, Mahlon. The True and Wonderful Story of Paul Gasford. 1834. http://hdl.handle.net/10464/5121 

Brock’s Digital Repository Appearance

Day, Mahlon. The True and Wonderful Story of Paul Gasford, : Who, When Only about Four Years Old Was Lost in the Woods, and by His Own Remarkable Contrivance and Wisdom, after Four Days’ Travel, Got Safe to His Parents, at Niagara, 40 Miles from the Place Where He Was Lost. Printed and sold by Mahlon Day, at the New Juvenile Bookstore, no. 376, Pearl-street, 1827. http://dr.library.brocku.ca/handle/10464/5121.

References

  1. David Sharron (Head, Special Collections & Archives, Brock University) in discussion about the book, January 2026. 
  1. [2]“What Is a Woodblock Print?” BIG INK, n.d. https://www.bigink.org/what-is-a-woodblock-print/. 
  1. [3]Daniel Hahn. “Chapbooks.” In The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2015. 
  1. [4]Sierra, Ashlee. “The History and Impact of Residential Schools.” PBS, December 19, 2023. https://www.pbs.org/articles/the-history-and-impact-of-residential-schools. 
  1. [5]Forsberg, Worlds Beyond. p. 19. 
  1. [6]Forsberg, Laura. Worlds Beyond : Miniatures and Victorian Fiction. Yale University Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300258417. p. 1  
  1. Hahn, “Chapbooks” 
  1. Alex Davis. “Chapbooks.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature, 1st ed. Oxford University Press, 2006. 
  1. Kaliambou, Maria. The Routledge Companion to Media and Fairy-Tale Cultures, 1st ed., edited by Naomi Hamer, Pauline Greenhill, Lauren Bosc, and Jill Terry Rudy. Routledge, 2018. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315670997-46. p. 428 
  1. Hahn, “Chapbooks” 
  1. Hahn, “Chapbooks” 
  1. Kaliambou, The Routledge Companion  p. 429 
  1. Kaliambou, The Routledge Companion. p. 427  
  1. Gillian Avery. “Chapbooks.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, 1st ed. Oxford University Press, 2006. 
  1. Dinah Birch. “Chapbook.” In The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 7th ed. Oxford University Press, 2009 
  1. Patricia Bowen. “Grape.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published April 23, 2013; Last Edited March 13, 2015. 
  1. Hughes, Alun, John Burtniak, and Historical Society of St. Catharines. Porter Adams and Grape-Growing in Niagara. Edited by John Burtniak. Historical Society of St. Catharines, 2011. p. 8