The Library Company of Philadelphia

10/31/2023

Happy Halloween from the Library Company!!

10/30/2023

If you're still looking to put the "trick" in "trick or treat," well, look no further! This ca. 1910 illustrated catalogue of mail order merchandise issued by Thos. L. Noble & Co. of Jenkintown, PA has plenty of tricks to choose from, all at a reasonable price!

10/27/2023

Deadline extended! Applications for 2024-25 long-term postdoctoral fellowships at the Library Company are due on November 6. Details here:
www.librarycompany.org/academic-programs/fellowships/postdoc/

10/26/2023

These illustrations are examples of the very spooky phenomenon of complimentary afterimage. If you stare at the small star in every image for 30 seconds and then look at a blank piece of white paper a negative afterimage will appear. Or maybe it's a ghost...
Spectropia (New York, 1864)

10/24/2023

These stunning squashes are from Johann Wilhelm Weinmann's Phytanthoza iconographia (Regenspurg, 1737-1745). This multi-volume large folio work contains over 1,000 engravings which were printed in color and then hand-colored to capture all the beautiful details.

10/23/2023

Don't worry, we haven't forgotten that it's ! We went looking for bats in the stacks and were not disappointed.

These bats (and their expressive little faces!) are from Thomas Horsfield's Zoological Researches in Java (London, 1824).

10/19/2023

Journey to the fiery center of the Earth with Athanasius Kircher.
Originally from Kircher's Mundus Subterraneus, this plate was published in an English translation of Kircher's work on volcanoes in 1669, shortly after the eruption of Mt. Etna.

The Vulcano's: or, Burning and Fire-Vomiting Mountains (London, 1669)

10/18/2023

See you in a week! We hope you'll join us for the last program in our Year of Phillis Wheatley series, celebrating 300 years of Wheatley's book, Poems on Various Subjects. On 10/25 at 1 PM ET, Dr. Jennifer Y. Chuong will discuss Phillis Wheatley's visual legacy through her one surviving portrait. Register here:

Wednesday, October 25th 1:00 pm ET Virtual Event | Free In the fall of 1773, the Senegambian-born, American-enslaved poet Phillis Wheatley was the first Black woman to publish a book in the transatlantic world. In addition to thirty-nine poems authored by Wheatley, Poems on Various Subj...

10/17/2023

Dr. Thomas D. Mütter was a popular professor of surgery at Jefferson Medical College, and invented a technique that is still used to treat burn victims. However, he was forced to retire in his mid-40s due to ill health. Check out our blog for more about Dr. Mutter’s connections to the Library Company. https://ow.ly/nKlI50PX7Vk

10/16/2023

It's here in Philadelphia, go Phillies!

Image "Red All Over" from our 2017 exhibition, The Living Book.
Check it out online at thelivingbook.librarycompany.org/

10/12/2023

Please join us for our last Year of Phillis Wheatley program, celebrating 300 years of Poems on Various Subjects. On 10/25 at 1pm, Dr. Jennifer Y. Chuong will discuss Phillis Wheatley's visual legacy through her one surviving portrait. Register here:

Wednesday, October 25th 1:00 pm ET Virtual Event | Free In the fall of 1773, the Senegambian-born, American-enslaved poet Phillis Wheatley was the first Black woman to publish a book in the transatlantic world. In addition to thirty-nine poems authored by Wheatley, Poems on Various Subj...

10/12/2023

Object alphabet from Artes orandi, epistolandi, memorandi (Venice, 1485) by Jacobus Publicius, a text about improving memory and the art of organizing. Here, letters are paired with objects that mimic the shape of that letter.

10/11/2023

See you in a week! For this year's Charlotte Cushman Society lecture, we are thrilled to welcome Chris Looby, Library Company shareholder and editor of Q19: The Q***r American Nineteenth Century, to discuss The Memoirs of Stephen Calvert, written by Charles Brockden Brown (who was also a Library Company shareholder.) We hope you'll join us for this exploration of q***r literary history! The free, virtual event will be held at 7pm ET on Wednesday, October 18. Register here:

Wednesday, October 18th 7:00 p.m ET Virtual & Free We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Christopher Looby as our speaker for this year’s Charlotte Cushman Society lecture. Dr. Looby’s talk will be focused on The Memoirs of Stephen Calvert. This lesser-known novel, written by prominent Philadel...

10/06/2023

How did political cartoons come to be what they are today? This art form has a long, rich history and we're excited to be hosting Dr. Allison M. Stagg's to discuss the first chapter of that history through her book, Prints of a New Kind: Political Caricature in the United States, 1789-1828. The event will be held on Friday, October 20 at 1:30 PM ET. Register here:

Friday, October 20 1:30 pm ET Virtual Event | Free Prints of a New Kind details the political strategies and scandals that inspired the first generation of American caricaturists. This book presents all known American political caricatures created in the country’s transformative early years ...

10/05/2023

Happy LGBTQ History Month! Did you know that one of the earliest American novels to feature themes of same-gender attraction was written by a Philadelphian? For this year's Charlotte Cushman Society lecture, we are thrilled to welcome Chris Looby, Library Company shareholder and editor of Q19: The Q***r American Nineteenth Century, to discuss this novel: The Memoirs of Stephen Calvert, written by Charles Brockden Brown (who was also a Library Company shareholder.) We hope you'll join us for this exploration of q***r literary history! The free, virtual event will be held at 7pm ET on Wednesday, October 18. Register here:

Wednesday, October 18th 7:00 p.m ET Virtual & Free We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Christopher Looby as our speaker for this year’s Charlotte Cushman Society lecture. Dr. Looby’s talk will be focused on The Memoirs of Stephen Calvert. This lesser-known novel, written by prominent Philadel...

10/05/2023

Tomorrow, Philadelphia celebrates the 300th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's arrival in Philadelphia! On October 6, 1723, 17 years old and nearly penniless, Franklin arrived in Philadelphia, like many before and since, to build a new life for himself.

We will gather with our friends and colleagues from across the city at the Independence Seaport Museum at 9 am for a reenactiment of "Ben's Landing" and then proceed up to the Second Bank of the United States for the celebratory proclamations at 9:45 am, hosted Philadelphia icon Jim Gardner. There will be special appearances by the Governor's and Mayor's offices, local representatives, and a performance by The Philadelphia Boys Choir & Chorale.

After 11 am, visit The American Philosophical Society and the Library Company of Philadelphia to view Franklin-related artifacts and documents, such as this 1648 Dutch Lion Dollar, a type of coin Franklin later said to be in his possession when he landed in Philadelphia.

We hope to see everyone at this free and public event! Register today: https://ow.ly/XzGY50PTBtT

10/05/2023

How it started...how it's going...

We are thrilled to announce that Koha, the Library Company's shiny brand new online catalog, goes live on Monday, October 9!
This migration has been years in the making and brings significant improvements to our operations and services including a user-friendly interface, enhanced search capabilities, more efficient workflows, and better integration with all the other moving parts at LCP. Give it a search! https://librarycompany.kohacatalog.com/

10/03/2023

The Library Company Papers Project will digitize and provide new online access to thousands of pages of institutional records from our first 150 years of operations, and we’re happy to introduce the person doing all of that digitization: Abigail Guidry, our Digitization and Metadata Technician. Learn more on our blog.
https://ow.ly/9fJ450PS4vn

10/02/2023

Hello, and welcome to October.

This is an arterial tree of the human body, or a map of the arteries that make up the circulatory system. This particular tree comes from "Anatomical Dialogues, or, A Breviary of Anatomy" (London, 1785).

09/29/2023

The Library Company’s institutional records include a handful of reflections about the impacts of the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793, including a note about the death of one of our directors. Learn more on our blog:
https://ow.ly/bEpS50PQkEW

09/28/2023

Constellation charts from Johann Madler's Der Himmel, published in Hamburg in 1869.

Madler was a German astronomer perhaps best known for his large and incredibly precise map of the moon, published in 1834 with Wilhelm Beer. The map was so large that it was printed and issued in four separate sheets.

09/27/2023

Centennial Salmon or Centennial Drab?
With the arrival of autumn this past weekend, that means is finally here.
These dyed wool and cotton samples are from Richard H. Gibson's The American Dyer (Boston, 1878), which contains practical instruction on preparing and using textile dyes.
Which one is your favorite?

09/25/2023

From the bright pink marbled endpapers to the fabulous sprinkled leather binding, there's a lot going on here and we're into it.

The Mercurio Peruano was a bi-weekly newspaper that was published in Lima between 1791-1795. It was an influential publication, known for its liberal, intellectual, and philosophical content.

09/21/2023

Earlier this week we were asked if we had any overmarbled printed music waste in our collection. Paper wasn't cheap in the 19th century, and it wasn't uncommon for marblers to reuse waste paper leftover from printing. They would marble right over the printed text or, in some cases, printed music.

We found these two examples and couldn't help but notice that the marbling colors and pattern are similar, and on top of that, the imprints are the same. Coincidence? Probably not!

Images 1&2: We are Seven (NY: Lane & Scott, 1850)
Images 3&4: The Child's Magazine (NY: Lane & Scott, 1850)

09/19/2023

A gentleman scientist with wide-ranging interests, Reuben Haines III (1786-1831) and his wife Jane Bowne Haines (1790-1843) transformed their family’s Germantown property, Wyck. Check out our blog more about Reuben and Jane and their connections to the Library Company. https://ow.ly/ut9A50PMWIg
Image: Detail from Jane B. Haines share transfer on September 10, 1832. Shareholder Record Book C (1814-1841).

09/18/2023

Felt cute, might delete later

From The Keeley Stove Company, Morning Light Stoves (Philadelphia, 1889).

09/15/2023

Super rad from an 1831 German hymnal. That gridding over the ombre colors is just so unique, we just had to stop and stare (and share).

09/14/2023

Doesn't quite feel like fall yet but that hasn't stopped us from thinking about a leaf-peeping road trip. Bring on the foliage!!

Thomas Murphy, New England Highways and Byways From a Motor Car. (Boston, 1924)

09/12/2023

👀👀 Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust's new book, Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury, has been recommended by The New York Times as a must-read! Dr. Faust will discuss her book, a memoir of her coming of age in the segregationist South, at our 292nd Annual Dinner on November 9. Buy a ticket today to secure your seat and to receive a copy of Necessary Trouble: https://support.librarycompany.org/annualdinner2023.

09/12/2023

Looks like this bookworm enjoyed going back to school!
This (old) insect damage is in a copy of Instructions for Right Spelling, by George Fox, printed in Newport, RI in 1769. We don't love insect damage, especially when it results in losses to the text, but it does happen.
(Don't worry, we are extra careful to keep our books bug-free!)

09/08/2023

Feelin' Fine!

This flowering printer's ornament is from our copy of Journal des voyages de Monsieur de Monconys (Lyon, 1665-1666)

09/06/2023

Happy National Read a Book Day! You know how we'll be celebrating.

This image is from our 1476 edition of Pliny's Historia naturalis, printed in Venice by Nicolas Jenson. Pliny's encyclopedic work is divided into 37 books, or sections. This illumination is from the beginning of book 1.

09/04/2023

This chromolithograph certificate, created around 1900 by Indiana publisher J.M. Vickroy & Co., was meant as a way for its owner to proudly showcase their membership in the United Mine Workers of America. Two years later, the UMWA went on strike in the anthracite coalfields of Pennsylvania.

We are closed today in observance of Labor Day, but come visit us soon to see this certificate on display in our gallery exhibition, Old News: Finding Current Events in Historical Collections. On view through mid-October.

08/31/2023

Spotted in the stacks: stripes.

This very curious stained leather binding is on our copy of John Mason's A Treatise on Self Knowledge (Haverhill, 1812).

08/29/2023

We've never really understood what exactly is happening in this image, but that's not important. What's important is that it exists.

Ricksecker's Skin Soap softens the skin. 25c. Trade card, ca. 1880

08/28/2023

Spotted in the stacks: Stripes. Stripes and spots. Stripes and spots and a wave of color.

These marbled edges are from our 2 volume set of the Memoirs of Grandville Sharp (London, 1828). Grandville Sharp was a British philanthropist, civil servant, scholar, and abolitionist.

08/25/2023

"Ocean & beach from S. of flag pole. Father on boardwalk. August 25, 1887. Time: 3:10 Light: Good sun."

Glass plate negative, taken by Marriot C. Morris, Sea Girt, New Jersey.

08/23/2023

Matthew Clarkson (1733-1800) is perhaps best remembered for his work as mayor during the deadly 1793 Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia. Check out our blog for more about Matthew’s life and connections to the Library Company.

https://ow.ly/qHAT50PBtBC

08/22/2023

Alphabets from the very appropriately titled work, A Set of Alphabets (New York, ca. 1870) by Frederick Copely, intended to be used by architects, designers, sign painters, engravers, etc.
And we threw in the compass designs just in case you get lost.