Librarian Jim Green Talks Junto

,
  In September 2013 Geoff DiMasi, principal at the South Philadelphia web design firm P’unk Avenue, organized a two-day meeting that he called the Junto Retreat.  According its website, it was “a place for business leaders to talk about…

Giving Tuesday

,
After the traditional day of family togetherness and gluttony that is the fourth Thursday in November, and the somewhat newer traditions of commercial mayhem that are the following Friday and Monday, the non-profit community has thoughtfully…

LCP’s Digital Guestbook

,
Thanks to a simple online form builder called JotForm, visitors are now able to sign in to the Library Company electronically.  For fellows who come in and out several times a day, for a period of weeks, the convenience and time savings is…

Reconstructing Fragments of African American Life

,
The Library Company’s next major exhibition, The Genius of Freedom: Northern Black Activism and Uplift after the Civil War, will be on display from November 11, 2014, through June 26, 2015. One of the more unusual items in the exhibition…

Negative/Positive

, , ,
The way we experience photographs today is very different from the way people experienced them 120 years ago.  We press the shutter on our digital cameras without concern; if the photograph doesn’t turn out it can easily be deleted.  We…

“Ghosts Everywhere, and of Every Color”: Spectral Visions at the Library Company

,
The catalog entry for Spectropia; or, Surprising Spectral Illusions (New York, 1864) piqued the interest of Library Company Fellow Jessica Linker, who is researching women science practitioners in early America. Upon examination, she discovered…

Marriott C. Morris Collection Online

, , , ,
Over the next year, more than 1600 glass negatives, photographic prints, film negatives, and lantern slides by Philadelphia photographer Marriott Canby Morris (1863-1948) will be processed, digitized, and used to create a permanent online exhibition. …

Light from Dark: Woodcuts Old and New

,
A new mini exhibition by Conservator Andrea Krupp explores her fascination with historic woodcuts—which speak to her in a language that is abstract, abbreviated, coded, and also timeless—and presents her own original contributions to the…

WWI Graphics on ImPAC

,
On the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand this June, a consortium of archival institutions in the Delaware Valley launched "Home Before the Leaves Fall:  The Great War," a digital resource highlighting little-known…

LCP in Demand in Cyberspace

,
Partnerships with a range of online publications are giving the Library Company’s collections and curatorial insights new visibility. The Print Department’s charming and informative blog posts began to reach an audience of a whole…

The Marriott C. Morris Photograph Collection

, , ,
A young woman leans against a painted brick wall, her back straight and her hair dark hair pulled into a knot at the top of her head. She holds a baby in her arms wrapped snugly in a knitted blanket. The baby’s left hand is a blur of motion;…

Iraqi Delegation Tours the Library Company

,
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

,
  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

,
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

,
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

,
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

,
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

,
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

,
  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

,
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…