In 1886 Philadelphia antiquarian John A. McAllister (1822-1896) presented his collection of Civil War era printed ephemera, graphics, and manuscripts to the Library Company. With over 50,000 items, it was probably the largest ephemera collection of its time. For over a hundred years access to it has been limited, but now thanks to generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the William Penn Foundation, it has finally been conserved and cataloged. The McAllister collection is an invaluable resource for the study of Philadelphia business and life over the course of a century. It is as massive as it is diverse. At its core are tens of thousands of examples of printed ephemera, most from the Civil War years, including ca. 600 recruiting posters, as well as newspapers, political broadside and leaflets, tickets, trade cards, cartoons, and a complement of ribbons, buttons and other ephemeral items constituting the largest such collection documenting the Philadelphia home front.
Curated by James N. Green, 2007.
Resources
McAllister Civil War Scrapbooks Collections
American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads and Poetical Broadsides Collection
