Iraqi Delegation Tours the Library Company

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On August 15, the Library Company hosted a delegation of Iraqi librarians and museum administrators on an official visit under the US Department of State’s International Visitors Leadership Program. Responsible for “American Corner”…

Digital Friendship

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  The Program in African American History and the Print and Photograph Department are pleased to announce the launch of lcpalbumproject.org, which annotates and contextualizes our three prized African American women’s friendship albums.…

Google Glass

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The Library Company had a real treat in July: a visit from Google Glass. The new eyewear—which is still hard to get in many places—comes equipped with audio and video recording technology, and a range of software applications. It’s the…

Wolf Papers Now Available to Researchers

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The personal and professional papers of Edwin Wolf 2nd are now available for research! Containing correspondence, research files, books, photographs, and other records, the Wolf Papers document the education, career, and family life of one of…

Light from Dark: woodcuts old and new

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A woodcut speaks in a language that is abstracted, abbreviated, encoded and timeless. With a sharp blade, the artist removes wood from the surface of a smooth wooden plank, paring away what is not needed.  What is left is a raised design…

A View of the Past

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It is always interesting to learn how researchers use the material we make available to them at the Library Company. Obviously, many academics visit us to examine books, documents, and images for use in scholarly publications, but our researchers…

Hunting for Werewolves at LCP

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Today we think of werewolves as a pretty common trope from the Wolfman to Twilight. However, they are just one species in the supernatural cannon. The Library Company holds a host of books dealing with witchcraft, sorcery, spirits and ghosts,…

Catalogers: Art Historical Detectives

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  The Elms, an etching by Augustus Kollner, initially seemed like it would be a relatively straightforward work to catalog. The artist’s name, title and date, 1844, were all printed beneath the image.   However, in…

Mellon Scholars Program: Tools for Success

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In a series of occasional blog posts, participants in our Mellon Scholars Internship and Workshop programs will introduce themselves, discuss their experiences at the Library Company, and share their goals for pursuing careers in the field of…

Mellon Scholars Program: A Training Arena for Budding Historians

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In a series of occasional blog posts, participants in our Mellon Scholars Internship and Workshop programs will introduce themselves, discuss their experiences at the Library Company, and share their goals for pursuing careers in the field of…

Fine and Popular: Print Department at the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Annual Meeting, July 17-20, 2016

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On September 19th, Curator Sarah Weatherwax and Associate Curator Erika Piola happily joined over 500 fellow scholars and academics of early 19th-century history at the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic 36th Annual…

Mellon Scholars Program: Igniting a Scholarly Journey

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In a series of occasional blog posts, participants in our Mellon Scholars Internship and Workshop programs will introduce themselves, discuss their experiences at the Library Company, and share their goals for pursuing careers in the field…

Print Department Welcomes Alison Van Denend

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For the past month Alison Van Denend has been hard at work in the Print Department as our International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Foundation summer curatorial intern. Alison completed her MA in Art History with a Certificate…

Small Wonders

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Currently on display in our “Small Wonders” exhibition are 29 marvelous miniature books by the members of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers. Created in response to a challenge to make books meeting the US definition…

African Americana Graphics Available On-line

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Through the generous support of a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education under the Library Services and Technology Act, more than 900 prints, photographs, and pieces of ephemera documenting the early African American experience…

Learn to Read Moon

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The Visual Culture Program (VCP at LCP) will host an installation by book artist Teresa Jaynes’s in the Logan Room from September 4 to October 10, 2014. The first new work by Jaynes since her directorship of the acclaimed print festival Philagrafika…

Frankliniana on Display

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Having acquired French artist Jean Baptiste Weyler’s gorgeous portrait miniature of Benjamin Franklin in 2013, the Library Company needed to find a fitting way to display it. That challenge inspired us to consider putting more of our precious…

“Sew on Your Own Buttons, I’m Going for a Ride!”

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The Library Company of Philadelphia’s current exhibition That’s So Gay: Outing Early America showcases books, photographs, and graphic material that address gay identity in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Beyond attempting to identify…

Philly-DH@Penn and The Collinson Book

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Philly-DH@Penn is an annual event consisting of workshops, “unconferences,” and lightening talks. The event attracts a wide audience ranging from academic faculty and students to GLAM (Gallery, Library, Archive, Museum) institution staff…

Amy Matilda Cassey’s Friendship Album

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There are few insights into the lives of free wealthy African American women in antebellum Philadelphia as unique as those made possible by the Amy Matilda Cassey Friendship Album. A friendship album is similar to a scrapbook in that it…