One of our members recently informed us about a piece of our own history up for sale on eBay. We became the successful bidders on the etching illustrated here entitled Library Company of Philadelphia–Last Tea. Sketched by M. Nefferdorf of Cape May Court House, New Jersey on November 28, 1939, the etching depicts the final tea hosted by the library’s women’s committee at our Juniper Street branch prior to our vacating the Frank Furness-designed building and consolidating all operations at the Ridgway Library building on South Broad Street. Attendees at the late afternoon event heard Mrs. Alfred Coxe Prime speak on “Old Philadelphia.” As can be seen in the etching, guests also had the opportunity, under the watchful eye of Minerva, to view an exhibition of the library’s paintings, sketches, and drawings. Although called the last tea, this event may not have involved tea at all, since our 1939 Annual Report noted that the women’s committee rather testily declared that they were “very much interested in the new arrangements at the Ridgway which must be made to make it possible for us to serve tea.”

We do not yet know the identity of the artist M. Nefferdorf. The etching is quite nicely rendered, but Nefferdorf does not appear in any standard references as a practicing artist. He or she was not a Library Company shareholder, and so may have attended the event as a friend of a member. This visual representation of one of the last events at our Juniper Street branch complements an invitation to the tea and a newspaper account of the event currently housed in a Library Company scrapbook.

Addendum:

We have made a tentative identification of the artist of the etching Library Company of Philadelphia- Last Tea, featured as last month’s Curator’s Favorites. M. Nefferdorf is probably Margaret Nefferdorf, who upon graduating from Philadelphia’s William Penn High School in 1921 was awarded a scholarship to attend the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Arts (today the University of the Arts). Nefferdorf enrolled in the school’s Interior Decoration department and received her diploma in 1925.

Sarah Weatherwax
Curator of Prints and Photographs