My First SDS Conference

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  A few weeks ago, hundreds of disability studies scholars, advocates, and activists gathered for the 28th Annual Meeting of the Society for Disability Studies, June 10-13, 2015. I was fortunate to be one of the attendees on…

Learn to Read Moon

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The Visual Culture Program (VCP at LCP) will host an installation by book artist Teresa Jaynes’s in the Logan Room from September 4 to October 10, 2014. The first new work by Jaynes since her directorship of the acclaimed print festival Philagrafika…

Summer is for Internships

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As in past years, this summer a number of departments will have the benefit of talented young interns—including several funded by prestigious programs such as the highly competitive International Fine Print Dealers Association Foundation…

Except New Jersey

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In fall 2013 the Library Company seized upon the tremendous opportunity to acquire the Joe Freedman Collection of Philadelphia Ephemera. A boon to our visual culture holdings, I have recently had the privilege to begin to process…

A Shout-Out to Special Collections

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Inspired by the Library Company’s Visual Culture Program, researcher Abby Glogower arrived in the summer of 2012 with only a vague direction for her dissertation topic. Associate Curator of Prints & Photographs Erika Piola’s thoughtful…

Collaborative Ephemera Conference Opens Tomorrow

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The broad program starts with a reception and tour of the corresponding exhibition Remnants of Everyday Life:Historical Ephemera in the Workplace, Street, and Home on the evening of September 19. Participants will learn more about the Library…

Getting Creative with Ephemera

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Ephemera!, a mini exhibition showing original work inspired by Remnants of Everyday Life: Historical Ephemera in the Workplace, Street, and Home, will be on view at the Library Company through December 2013. Curators Concetta Barbera, who…

Library Company Events Online

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If you were not able to attend our 2013 spring events in person, you can find podcasts and exhibitions on our website!   The mini exhibition on view through February, The Emancipation Proclamation: One Step Toward Freedom, is now accessible…

Off to the Fair

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As Co-Director of the Visual Culture Program, I am always on the lookout for new materials to add to the library’s visual culture collections. Ephemera has become a particular focus of my treasure hunting in the last year. Although online…

“Endless Amusement” in the Print Department

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After a summer as the VCP artist-in-residence intern, Jesse Lentz has completed ten sculptures inspired by the Print Collections.  Originally struck by an A. Schoenhut & Company trade catalog while on a visit with a University of the Arts…

Outtakes

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Inspired by my visit to the Library Company this spring, I have spent the summer as a Visual Culture Program Intern happily creating new works based on the Schoenhut circus toy catalog from 1917 and the other toy-related materials in…

Reuse

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A big trend in the art world is found-object art, as is using trash to create new things. I find that because my upbringing involved shopping at thrift stores and reusing everything and anything, this is a natural way for me…

Tin Toys and Pulley Animals: My First Month as a VCP Intern

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Toys inspire me. They always have, even back when I thought all their creators were probably dead. I like things that move and things that you can interact with as a viewer, whether they are in the fine art world or in a toy store. When…

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-…

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…

Visual Essay of the Before Madison Avenue Conference, March 15-16, 2012

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The recent conference co-sponsored by VCP at LCP about the visual culture of early American advertising not only inspired thought-provoking discussions, it also inspired the library’s digitization technician and artist Concetta…

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…

Philadelphia on Stone in ImPAC

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Following the excitement of the Philadelphia on Stone exhibition that opened in March 2010 and the submission of the manuscript of the illustrated book in May 2010, Project Assistant Linda Wisniewski focused on completing a final component…

Seeing Shylock: Images of Pawnbroking in Three Centuries

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Thursday, April 22, 2010, 6:00 p.m. Wendy A. Woloson, independent scholar and consulting historian, will discuss her new book, In Hock: Pawning in America from Independence through the Great Depression. This illustrated talk traces…

Exhibition Opening and Daguerreotype Lecture by Keith Davis

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  Exhibition Opening: Catching a Shadow Thursday, October 1, 2009 Reception at 5:30 p.m., program at 6:00 Keith F. Davis, Curator of Photography at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, in Kansas City, and author of numerous books…