Gleanings from the Harvest-Fields of Literature, Science and Art: A Melange of Excerpta, Curious, Humorous, and Instructive

Gleanings from the Harvest-Fields of Literature, Science and Art was first compiled by Charles Carroll Bombaugh in the mid-19th century, serving as a comprehensive anthology designed for the Victorian fascination with commonplacing. During this era, curated collections of anecdotes, scientific curiosities, and literary snippets were immensely popular among the educated middle class, functioning as both a source of entertainment and a tool for intellectual refinement in the domestic sphere.

Bombaugh, a physician and journalist by trade, structured the volume as a literary miscellany intended to gather the fragmented wisdom and oddities of his time into a single accessible guide. The work reflects the widespread 19th-century appetite for encyclopedic knowledge and variety, offering readers a broad cross-section of cultural information. The text has seen periodic reissues over the decades, maintaining its status as a notable example of the compendium genre that captured the scholarly whimsy of its period.