While Reading a One-hundred-twenty-eight-year-old Book

Bought this collection of Bryant's poems at a thrift store. This book seems to have been published in 1889, and was presented to someone for her birthday on June 30, 1892. The message goes: "Wishing you many happy returns of your birthday!"

It was the late 19th century when there was not many advanced technologies or mass media (including books). I can imagine the people of the time obtained information through books or newspapers. However, information they could receive might have been limited, and they might not have had a television or a radio during this period of time. When I do some simple search on the internet, this information is found: "8XK became KDKA in 1920. KDKA received the first federal license and began broadcasting on November 2, 1920."  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_in_the_United_States)

I wondered what it might have been like for this person to receive this book, and what this birthday present had meant to her. I wondered if even this collection of poems might have been important information. I don't know if she even liked it or not. I wonder what it meant in the late 19th century to receive a printed book from someone? It might mean a lot different than now today, where there are so much information through millions of copies of books, magazines, websites, schools, etc.

While reading this book today in 2017, one hundred and 25 years after it was presented to someone for a birthday gift, I imagined a lot of things when these people were still living.