On October 22 a group of Library Company members traveled north of Center City to partake in an intimate tour of some very special collections housed within Temple University Libraries. The pictures were taken in the Urban Archive department with Brenda Galloway-Wright, Associate Archivist. The department was established in 1967 to document the social, economic and physical development of the Philadelphia metropolitan area from the mid-19th century to the present with books, manuscripts, and photographs. Additional pictures show a white glove tour of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, led by Diane Turner, the curator of the collection.
Modern conspiracy-theory enthusiasts can learn from their 17th-century counterparts in The Popish Plot, an exhibit documenting anti-Catholic paranoia during the reign of Charles II of England. The exhibit features six volumes of pamphlets that belonged to Benjamin Franklin and include documents chronicling the fantastic accusations, trials, and controversies arising from the Popish Plot and other fictitious plots against the Crown.
Nineteenth-Century Pharmacists’ Trade Cards features a selection of trade cards from the William H. Helfand Collection. A growing number of pharmacists competing for customers and advances in color lithography are but two of the forces that combined to make trade cards an affordable and popular form of advertising that reached its peak in the 1880s. These delightful cards depict a variety of subjects and scenes and provide a unique perspective on the history of commerce, consumerism, and pharmacy. The mini exhibit at the Library Company is paired with an extensive online exhibition which can be viewed at http://www.librarycompany.org/Helfand.
Down the Shore: Images of Summer, 1865-1935 highlights photographs of the beautiful beaches, boardwalk entertainments, shops, seafood restaurants, and luxury hotels that have drawn Philadelphians to the Jersey shore from the early 19th century to the present day.
What better items for a miniature exhibit than miniature books? Go Forth, Little Book! features small-format gift books from the mid-19th century. Some as small as two or three square inches, these little books of poetry, advice, and religious instruction were designed as gifts for children, young adults, newlyweds, and those in mourning.