author
A. S. (Alfred Stevens) Burbank
1856–1946
A longtime Plymouth bookseller, publisher, and local historian, he turned the town’s Pilgrim past into lively guidebooks, souvenirs, and photographs for generations of visitors. His books remain a window into how early-twentieth-century New England remembered its own history.
1 Audiobook
Guide to Historic Plymouth: Localities and Objects of Interest
by A. S. (Alfred Stevens) Burbank
About the author
Born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1856, Alfred Stevens Burbank built his life and work around the town where the Pilgrims landed. Records tied to his publications and later memorial listings identify him as a bookseller and stationer, and several library catalogs preserve the historical guidebooks he published under the name A. S. Burbank.
Burbank is best known for books such as Guide to Historic Plymouth, Historic Plymouth, Handbook of Old Burial Hill, and A Brief History of the Pilgrims. These works focused on Plymouth’s landmarks, burial grounds, and colonial memory, written for readers and travelers who wanted a practical, story-rich introduction to the town’s past. Museum and collection records also describe him as a publisher of photographs, postcards, and souvenirs connected with Plymouth history.
He appears to have operated the Pilgrim Bookshop in Plymouth for many years, with one collection source noting the business ran from 1872 to 1932. Burbank died in 1946. Today, his writing offers more than local history alone: it also captures how Plymouth presented itself to visitors in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.