The Stuff of Everyday Life at the Library Company

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  After two years of dedicated work, the Library Company has completed an extensive National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)-funded project to catalog, conserve, and selectively digitize our uncataloged collections of 18th-…

African Americana and Frank H. Taylor Collections Now on ImPAC

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Three of the rarest and most popular resources for African American research in the Print and Photograph Department are now accessible in our digital collections catalog.  The 19th-cenutry African American women's friendship albums by Amy…

Welcome Krystal Appiah

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We are very pleased to announce that Krystal Appiah started as the Library Company's African Americana Specialist and Reference Librarian on June 11.  She comes to the Library Company from the Maryland State Archives, where she improved access…

LCP Acquires a History of London Belonging to Peter Collinson

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At the recent New York Book Fair we were fortunate to be able to acquire an important copy of William Maitland’s gorgeous folio History of London belonging to the Library Company’s original purchasing agent Peter Collinson (1694-1768)…

Introducing Artist-in-Residence Jessica Lentz

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This summer, the Library Company will host Moore College of Art student Jessica Lentz as the Visual Culture Program’s artist-in-residence intern. A junior majoring in 3D Fine Arts with experience in sculpture, Ms. Lentz will design…

Capitalism by Gaslight Conference June 6-7

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Inspired by the Library Company's current "Capitalism by Gaslight” exhibition, this conference will showcase innovative research being done by historians of capitalism and its culture. The 15 papers presented by scholars from around the country…

May Events

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Members-Only Annual Meeting & Public Lecture Tuesday, May 15, 5:00 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. Join us for our Annual Meeting (5:00) followed by a talk by Wendy Woloson, guest curator of “Capitalism by Gaslight” (5:45). Dr. Woloson will discuss…

Royal Female Magazine Acquired

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Very seldom do we have the opportunity to add to our 18th-century periodicals. Many are already on our shelves, the Library Company having acquired them when they were first issued. The titles not on our shelves are notably scarce today. Thus,…

Shareholder Spotlight: Anne Wetzel

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Anne Wetzel, the current owner of Library Company Share #1630, grew up with the Library Company in the family. Her father, Carroll R. Wetzel who was President of the Board of Trustees from 1975 to 1982, “talked about it all the time.”…

LCP Awards Five Post-Doctoral Fellowships for 2012-13

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The Library Company is pleased to announce the recipients of five post-doctoral fellowships for 2012-13.  Four of them are one-semester National Endowment for the Humanities Fellows, and the fifth is a two-semester Program in Early American…

Upcoming Events

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Members-Only Annual Meeting & Public Lecture Tuesday, May 15, 5:00 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. Join us for our Annual Meeting (5:00) followed by a talk by Wendy Woloson, guest curator of “Capitalism by Gaslight” (5:45). Dr. Woloson will discuss…

Welcome Print Department Intern Lydia Bello

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The Print Department is greatly benefiting from the help of college interns this winter and spring. Currently, the department is fortunate to host Lydia Bello, a Bryn Mawr College senior, who will spend approximately eight hours a week throughout…

An Influential African-American Painter Remembered

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If you missed Curator of African-American History Phil Lapsansky’s op-ed piece in the Inquirer last month, you may not know the extent of the influence of Robert Douglass, Jr., whose painting of Washington crossing the Delaware hung…

A Rogue in the Sunlight: The Life and Death of James Fisk

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We discovered James Fisk (1834-1872) in the course of developing our current exhibition “Capitalism by Gaslight.” Unlike most of the petty criminals, con artists, and other shady characters featured in the show, Jim Fisk swindled…

Lost and Found: The Library Company Acquires Three Books from Benjamin Franklin’s Library

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The reconstruction of Benjamin Franklin’s private library obsessed our former Librarian Edwin Wolf 2nd for 44 years. That obsession took hold of him at the estate sale of Franklin Bache (a Franklin descendant) at Freeman’s in 1947. Bache…

March Madness: Early American Advertising Conference

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The evolution of modern advertising in this country continues to garner attention from the scholarly community and the popular media, as well as to influence contemporary visual culture. Paying homage to this ongoing fascination with how we…

19th-Century Advertising on Exhibit

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Inspired by the upcoming Before Madison Avenue conference, an exhibition highlighting our varied and wide-ranging 19th-century advertising collections will open in our small gallery on February 21. Coordinated with the topics of conference panelists,…

Spring Events

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Before Madison Avenue: Advertising in Early America Visual Culture Program Conference, Wednesday, March 15, and Thursday, March 16 Speakers at this conference will present new research on advertising in North America before the rise of the…

Investigating 19th-Century Criminal Enterprise on WHYY

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Curator Wendy Woloson talks with WHYY's Peter Crimins about the Library Company's current exhibition "Capitalism by Gaslight: The Shadow Economies of 19th-Century America." Visit the WHYY website to read the full article.

Help Put Us on the Map!

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In 2011 the Library Company received a bequest that included 96 rare and extraordinary maps from the estate of Robert L. McNeil, Jr. In 2012 the Library Company will make high resolution digital images of those documents and catalog them…