Philadelphia at the Table: Treasures of the Larder Invaded

Session 2 –Trade Cards: The Eye Eats First

Tuesday, May 31st, 2022, 6 PM to 7:30 PM

 $150 Non-members | $135 Members

Join food historian and author, William Woys Weaver and What’s Cooking blog writer, Katie Maxwell, as they explore the Treasures of the Larder Invaded in this three-part seminar. This seminar is in-person and space is limited.

Trade cards developed as a new type of culinary graphic in during the Nineteenth Century. Their message was short, eye catching, and intended to convey important information in a limited amount of space. This session will explore the world of Philadelphia trade card advertising and the value judgements they made about packaged foods, vendors, and the food service industry.

Please note: This is a series. One registration covers all three sessions.

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The 8th Annual Lecture in Honor of John C. Van Horne, with Humanities Scholar Clay S. Jenkinson

Tuesday, June 7 at 5:30 pm

Hybrid Event

Benjamin Franklin Hall, American Philosophical Society, 427 Chestnut St., Philadelphia

Jenkinson will be discussing German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) and his memorable 1805 visit with Thomas Jefferson. Humboldt took a long detour in his journey from Mexico to Europe to spend a few days with Jefferson, then serving his second term as President of the United States. The visit took place precisely at the time Lewis and Clark were exploring Montana and Idaho on the president’s behalf, and Humboldt’s encounters with Jefferson are revealing and delightful. Help us celebrate Dr. John C. Van Horne’s legacy of education and scholarship by joining us at the free public lecture and book signing, pre-lecture reception, and private dinner immediately following the event.

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Philadelphia at the Table: Treasures of the Larder Invaded

Session 3 –Food as National Anthem: The US Centennial and Culinary Innovation

Tuesday, May 17, 2022, 6 PM to 7:30 PM

 $150 Non-members | $135 Members

Join food historian and author, William Woys Weaver and What’s Cooking blog writer, Katie Maxwell, as they explore the Treasures of the Larder Invaded in this three-part seminar. This seminar is in-person and space is limited.

The United States Centennial in 1876 was such a seminal turning point in American and Philadelphia culinary history that entire books have been devoted to its planning and success. Foremost, the fairgrounds offered foods of all kinds, both foreign and new-fangled.  This session will provide an overview of the Centennial’s food scene and not in the least, how the Women’s Committee managed to make it profitable.

Please note: This is a series. One registration covers all three sessions.

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Libraries & Liberty Seminar One:  The Books Behind the Declaration

Session 3 – All Men are Created Equal

Wednesday, June 15th, 2022, 6 PM to 7:30 PM

 $200 Non-members | $180 Members

How have libraries aided the cause of liberty, in the United States and elsewhere? What kind of liberty, and for whom? What role do libraries play now in ensuring the continued freedom of people in our country and around the world?

The Libraries & Liberty seminar series is a collaboration between The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, The Library Company of Philadelphia, and The Rosenbach Museum & Library. Each seminar will build on the last as these three cultural institutions use their collections and areas of expertise to engage with these questions. The Books Behind the Declaration, hosted by the Library Company and lead by director Dr. Michael Barsanti, begins the series by looking specifically at the moment of our country’s founding, and how the books in the collection of the Library Company were a part of the conversation and debate.

Schedule for The Books Behind the Declaration
Wednesday April 20th, 2022 6:00-7:30 Libraries, Books, and the Enlightenment
Wednesday May 18th, 2022 6:00-7:30 The Course of Human Events
Wednesday June 15th, 2022 6:00-7:30 All Men are Created Equal
Wednesday July 6th 2022 6:00-7:30 Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
*This closing session will be hosted in-person at the Library Company with a reception.

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Fireside Chat with Xine Yao

 Disaffected: The Cultural Politics of Unfeeling in Nineteenth-Century America

Celebrate Juneteenth at the Library Company of Philadelphia

Erecting New Monuments

June 17th, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. ET

Free & Hybrid

This year’s Juneteenth Freedom Program will feature public historian and artist Michelle Browder, the visionary behind the new The Mothers Of Gynecology Monument in Montgomery Alabama which opened in February of 2022. The Mothers of Gynecology immortalizes three of the women — known as Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey — who went under J. Marion Sims’s knife, a doctor known as “father of modern gynecology” who performed experimental surgeries on enslaved women in antebellum era Alabama. Browder, who has been leading local award-winning history tours (known as “More Than Tours”) for the past ten years, will present on her decades long practice of intervening in dominant historical narratives and building alternative institutions.

Sponsored by the Program in African-American History

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Historical Happy Hour: Red, White and Booze with the First Ladies of Philadelphia

Tuesday, June 28, at 7:00 pm

Virtual Event

For a decade, Philadelphia served as our nation’s capital. Two women — Martha Washington and Abigail Adams — served as First Ladies during that time. We’ll compare the stories of these two founding mothers while mixing up a refreshing Red, Blue and White Sangria. Hosted by storyteller and mixologist Jacey Powers of Feminist Cocktail Hour. The ingredient list for our cocktail (or alternate mocktail) will be sent to registrants at least two weeks before the event.

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Libraries & Liberty Seminar One:  The Books Behind the Declaration

Session 4 – Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Wednesday, June 15th, 2022, 6 PM to 7:30 PM

 $200 Non-members | $180 Members

How have libraries aided the cause of liberty, in the United States and elsewhere? What kind of liberty, and for whom? What role do libraries play now in ensuring the continued freedom of people in our country and around the world?

The Libraries & Liberty seminar series is a collaboration between The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, The Library Company of Philadelphia, and The Rosenbach Museum & Library. Each seminar will build on the last as these three cultural institutions use their collections and areas of expertise to engage with these questions. The Books Behind the Declaration, hosted by the Library Company and lead by director Dr. Michael Barsanti, begins the series by looking specifically at the moment of our country’s founding, and how the books in the collection of the Library Company were a part of the conversation and debate.

Schedule for The Books Behind the Declaration
Wednesday April 20th, 2022 6:00-7:30 Libraries, Books, and the Enlightenment
Wednesday May 18th, 2022 6:00-7:30 The Course of Human Events
Wednesday June 15th, 2022 6:00-7:30 All Men are Created Equal
Wednesday July 6th 2022 6:00-7:30 Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
*This closing session will be hosted in-person at the Library Company with a reception.

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“I Have Sometimes Imagined a Library”: Browsing the Shelves with Henry Thoreau, Featuring Christine Nelson

Tuesday, July 12th

Reception for in-person attendees 6:30-7:00 pm

Lecture begins at 7:00 pm

Hybrid Event

If Thoreau had been a Philadelphian, would he have read at the Library Company? He would have found much to engage him here. But after spending a day in Boston’s venerable libraries in 1852, he imagined a more elemental home for the books he valued: a primitive forest where literary and scientific works would be shelved side by side in crumbling natural alcoves. Join us on Thoreau’s 205th birthday as Fellowships Manager Christine Nelson explores his dynamic relationship with books and reflects on her many years as the keeper of his journal at New York’s Morgan Library & Museum—the unlikely repository of the notebooks of our nation’s most famous simplifier. Presented in association with the release of the anthology Ways of Walking (New Door Books, 2022).

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Fireside Chat with Dr. Elizabeth Rule

Historical Happy Hour: Hard Tea and Artistry

Tuesday, August 9, at 7:00 pm

Virtual Event

Philadelphia has a long history of nourishing the talents of female artists. One of the most famous American artists of all time, Mary Cassatt, honed her craft in the city and drew inspiration for her paintings depicting motherly love. We’ll honor Cassatt and the legacy of female artists with a delicious (and visually stunning) tea-infused cocktail. 

Hosted by storyteller and mixologist Jacey Powers of Feminist Cocktail Hour. The ingredient list for our cocktail (or alternate mocktail) will be sent to registrants at least two weeks before the event.

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Director’s Hour with Michael Barsanti: Benjamin Franklin and the Making of Modern Money

Tuesday, August 16th

Reception for in-person attendees 6:30-7:00 pm

Lecture begins at 7:00 pm

Hybrid Event

In Philadelphia, we tend to think of Benjamin Franklin’s legacy in terms of the institutions (like ours) that he helped to establish. In his lifetime, he was known mostly as a scientist, as the man who “stole lightning from the skies.” Today, around the world, Franklin is probably most recognized as the face on the $100 bill. His place there signifies that beyond his role as a diplomat, legislator, and scientist; he was very concerned with money itself and how it helps an economy function. Library Company of Philadelphia Edwin Wolf 2nd Director Michael Barsanti, Ph.D., will talk about Franklin and money – its role in his life and business, his arguments for the use of paper money, his innovations for making paper money more secure – but also how Franklin’s work with money anticipated the current development of cryptocurrency.

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Fireside Chat with Mathew Kruer

Hearing Voices: Memoirs from the Margins of Mental Health Presents

Art Therapy in History and Practice

Saturday, August 20th, 1-4:00 pm

Art Psychotherapist and Licensed Professional Counselor Marlie Krickus, from The Child and Family Art Therapy Center, will give a historical overview of art therapy as an integrative mental health treatment followed by an interactive exercise in community art therapy and support in which we will create and exchange “affirmation tags.” This activity is designed to accommodate a wide age group with any level of artistic experience, and involves writing or drawing. Self -guided tours of the exhibition, which features original art created by and related to those who received treatment in 19th century asylums, will be encouraged.

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The Caregivers: A Photography Project Addressing Emotional and Physical Labor During a Pandemic

Lecture by Helen Maurene Cooper

September 8th, 2022 at 5:30 p.m. ET

Free & Hybrid

Learn about The Caregivers, artist and educator Helen Maurene Cooper’s current portrait project rooted in 19th-centry wet-plate collodion photographic techniques and a sidewalk studio. Cooper’s ambrotype portraits explore caregiving not as a given role for women but within the context of queer and feminist ideologies and the notion of this labor as a radical act. Spend the evening with Ms. Cooper as she shares portraits from The Caregivers  and discusses the artistic process for her newest body of work that addresses public space and the politics of family and intimacy during a period of self-isolation.

Sponsored by the Visual Culture Program 

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Fireside Chat with Camille Kaszubowski

Functional Design: Library Furniture in the Collection, Presented by Linda Kimiko August

A Library Company Virtual Collection Review

Tuesday, September 20th, at 7:00 pm

Virtual Event

A working library requires numerous pieces of furniture to operate and serve its readers. The Library Company acquired many of these items over its long history, from the practical to the functional to cutting-edge technical innovations. Curator of Art and Artifacts and Visual Materials Cataloger Linda Kimiko August will share highlights from the Library Company’s collection, including a set of Windsor chairs made by Joseph Henzey in 1792; a clock made by John Child to ring at the Library Company’s closing time at sundown; and the then-innovative card catalog introduced in 1876.

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Fireside Chat with Caylin Carbonell