Library Company History & Exhibitions Tour

Friday, June 6th at 11:00 AM

In-Person Event

Join us for a guided tour of the Library Company’s first-floor exhibition galleries. Learn more about the history of the de facto first Library of Congress and oldest colonial cultural institution in the United States. Guests will also learn more about art and artifacts on display in the Logan Room, and as well as hear about the collection materials showcased in our rotating exhibition space.

Space is limited, so please sign up for only one tour time per person. Tickets are available for all First Fridays in May through October.

REGISTER

REGISTER

Wednesday, June 11th, 2025  at 7 PM ET

Virtual Event | Free

Please join us for our June Fireside Chat to discuss Zara Anishanslin’s highly anticipated new book: The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution (Harvard University Press, 2025).

The Painter’s Fire explores an untold story of the American Revolution from the perspective of the artists who dared to defy the British Monarchy. Artists Robert Edge Pine, Prince Demah, and Patience Wright all played an integral role in forging revolutionary ideals on both sides of the Atlantic. From London to Boston, from Jamaica to Paris, from Bath to Philadelphia, these largely forgotten patriots boldly risked their reputations and their lives to declare independence.

Zara Anishanslin is the Associate Professor of History and Art History at the University of Delaware and Director of the American Civilization Program. Professor Anishanslin specializes in Early American and Atlantic World History, with a focus on eighteenth-century material culture. Her first book, Portrait of a Woman in Silk: Hidden Histories of the British Atlantic World (Yale University Press, 2016) was the Inaugural Winner of The Library Company of Philadelphia’s Biennial Book Prize in 2018. Anishanslin is currently a fellow at the David Center for the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society, where she completed work on her forthcoming book, The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists who Championed the American Revolution (Harvard University Press, July 2025).

Hosted by the Program of Early American Economy and Society

Beyond Glass Cases Focus Group

Saturday June 14th, 2025 | 2:00 PM

In-Person Event | Free

Register Here

In 2025, cultural and historical organizations in America are facing unprecedented public and governmental scrutiny. From what institutions collect to how that material is displayed and interpreted, organizations are wrestling with how best to tell the complex stories that make up our history. In 2022, the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage awarded a three-year grant to the Library Company of Philadelphia for the Beyond Glass Cases project that facilitated collaborations with community partners who brought fresh perspectives to our curatorial practices through the creation of new art work, an exhibition gallery installation, and the premiere of a musical composition. Beyond Glass Cases raised provocative questions such as: Whose stories do we tell in our exhibitions and from whose perspective are they told? Should libraries and museums collect and display difficult items and if they do, how do they address the possible harm these items might cause?

As Beyond Glass Cases draws to a close, we are reflecting on what we have learned, why it matters at this particular point in time, and how these lessons can inform the future path of institutions like the Library Company.

Please join us on Saturday, June 14, 2:00-3:30 for a discussion of these important issues moderated by Eric Marsh, Sr., a Community Engagement specialist and non-profit leader in Philadelphia. You will have the opportunity to view the final Beyond Glass Cases exhibition, Reflections, to listen to some of the feedback we have already received through our telephone hotline, and to share your opinions. Light refreshments will be served.

If you are not able to attend this in-person event, please consider calling our anonymous hotline at (267) 715-1584 and responding to the pre-recorded questions.

Space is limited to 50 so please book accordingly

Beyond Glass Cases is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

Library Company History & Exhibitions Tour

Friday, July 11th at 11:00 AM

In-Person Event

Join us for a guided tour of the Library Company’s first-floor exhibition galleries. Learn more about the history of the de facto first Library of Congress and oldest colonial cultural institution in the United States. Guests will also learn more about art and artifacts on display in the Logan Room, and as well as hear about the collection materials showcased in our rotating exhibition space.

Space is limited, so please sign up for only one tour time per person. Tickets are available for all First Fridays in May through October.

REGISTER

REGISTER

Tuesday, July 22nd at 7 PM ET

Virtual Event | Free

In his new book American Laughter, American Fury, Eran A. Zelnik offers a cultural history of early America that shows how humor among white men served to define and construct not only whiteness and masculinity but also American political culture and democracy more generally. This humor — a category that includes “Indian play,” Blackface Minstrelsy, and frontier tall tales — transformed the United States into a white man’s democracy: a country in which only white men could be truly comfortable in their own skin.

Dr. Eran Zelnik received his PhD from UC Davis in 2016 and for the past seven years has been teaching history at Chico State University in California. A cultural historian, his work examines the intersecting categories of race, gender, and nationalism in the early United States. Alongside his recently published book, American Laughter, American Fury, Humor and the Making of a White Man’s Democracy, 1750-1850, he has published articles in the Journal of the Early Republic and in Early American Studies.

Hosted by the Program of Early American Economy and Society