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Information about several papers discussed at a roundtable during the 2013 Modern Language Association's conference in Boston, Massachusetts is presented. Topics of the papers include "The American Jeremiad" by Sacvan Bercovitch, American exceptionalism, and American literary scholarship since the publishing of "The American Jeremiad" in 1978.

The article discusses the 18th century practice of drying and flattening of fishes, and then stitching/gluing them on a paper or slipping them in books. Topics discussed include the preservation of fish specimens, Dutch botanist John Frederick Gronovius' publishing of fish flattening instructions in the 1740s, and naturalist William Dandridge Peck's collection of fish specimens at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology and the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments.

The article discusses the Ribbon Map of the Father of Waters, a map of the Mississippi River. The map was published by entrepreneurs Myron Coloney and Sidney B. Fairchild in 1866. The focus of the map, which is hand-colored lithograph that was printed on one sheet of paper, on the river and its dimensions assert the relevance of the Mississippi River following the Civil War.