All News – Page 14 – The Library Company of Philadelphia

Wm. A. Selser, Bee Farmer and Breeder of Italian Bees & Queens. Blossom Nectar and Beeswax. Jenkintown, Pa. (Philadelphia: Craig, Finley & Co., ca. 1900).

A Bee Farmer’s Ode to Summer

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]: Selection of trade cards from the Gwen Goldman African Americana Trade Card Collection. Gift of David Doret.

The Gwen Goldman African Americana Trade Card Collection

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Detail from William Russell Birch’s hand-colored engraving, “Bank of Pennsylvania, South Second Street Philadelphia, Designed & Published by W. Birch Enamel Painter 1804” at the Library Company of Philadelphia.

LCP in the News: Fine Books & Collections Magazine

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Hand-colored lithograph depicting diadelphia in flower, from Botanical Specimens (Liverpool, 1828).

A Portfolio of Botanical Illustrations at the Library Company

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18 Juneteenth

Black Liberation Past and Present

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Fellow Spotlight: Dr. Nazera Wright

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Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens, Director of the Program in African American History

LCP in the News: The 25 Moments From American History That Matter Right Now

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Mellon Scholars Recap

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Discovering Freedom Dreams

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Detail from William Russell Birch’s hand-colored engraving, “Bank of Pennsylvania, South Second Street Philadelphia, Designed & Published by W. Birch Enamel Painter 1804” at the Library Company of Philadelphia.

LCP In the News: The Library Company and Free Library unpack their treasures for two must-see exhibits

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Uncovering History at the Library Company of Philadelphia

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Claypoole, James. The German Bleeds & Bears ye Furs Of Quaker Lords & Savage Curs ... (Philadelphia, 1764).

LCP In the News: The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Announces Redrawing History

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From the First Annual Report of the Home for Destitute Children. Philadelphia : Crissy & Markley, 1856. Arrow added digitally.

Shareholder Spotlight: Ms. Mary Jeanes

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RayLee Otero-Bell

African American Women and Historical Agency

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Intern Spotlight: Lydia Shaw

Intern Spotlight: Lydia Shaw

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Printed in color and selling for a dollar wholesale, the “orange blossom” certificate was the preference of the about twenty-five-year-old Thomas Radle (b. 1861) and teen-aged Mary Dasher (b. ca. 1867-1894). Containing their portrait photographs, the certificate documents that D.W. Proffitt (1841-1913) of the United Memorial Brethren Church married the couple in September 1885 in Pittsburgh. Thomas appears in a suit, derby hat, and with a cigarette in his mouth. Mary wears a long-sleeve, dark-colored dress with a bustle. Although used in a marriage certificate, and especially given Radle’s pose, the photographs, as with the previous couple, were probably ones the couple already possessed. They had not acquired them for the occasion, although possibly for the certificate. A genealogical record, the certificate’s content also provides a trail of evidence for more concrete information about the couple. Mary, likely a domestic servant before her marriage, passed away in 1894. As traced in census and marriage documents, Thomas, a railroad laborer, then farmer, later marries her sister Clara Dasher (1872-1960). He is listed as widowed and she as his housekeeper in the 1900 census. By the summer of 1900, a Pennsylvania marriage license has been issued to the couple. And in the 1910 census, Clara is described as Thomas’s wife. Weddings are history-making events for the couple married. In the modern era, they can also be history making in terms of cost. The Crider & Brother prints and ephemera are humble, yet symbolic artifacts of wedding commercialization. They are captivating mementoes of wedding practices of the past, while also perspicacious harbingers of wedding practices of today. Erika Piola Associate Curator, Prints and Photographs and Director, Visual Culture Program Sources: Ancestry.com accessed April 16 and 17, 2018. Crider & Brother, Publishers and Proprietors of the Original Photograph Marriage Certificates, York, Pa. (York, Pa., 1884). George Reeser Prowell, History of York County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1907), vol. 2, 497-498.

Wedding Industry, Victorian-Style

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Articles of Association. Manuscript on vellum, Philadelphia, July 1, 1731.

Shareholder Spotlight: Mr. Robert Grace

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Positively Philadelphia: New Art Exhibit Looks At 18th Century Philadelphia (KYW News Radio)

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Book on left, with errant leaf in place: Female Association of Philadelphia for the Relief of Women and Children in Reduced Circumstances. The constitution of the Female Association of Philadelphia for the Relief of Women and Children in Reduced Circumstances. Philadelphia : Printed by Jane Aitken, 1803. Book on right, with last leaf missing: Van Pelt, Peter I.,1778-1861. The goodness of God to be praised by men ... : a discourse delivered on the fourth of July, in the North Brick Church / New-York : Printed by Pelsue and Gould, 1812.

The Errant Leaf

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Fellow Spotlight: Meet Dr. Michael Verney

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