Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

Philadelphia on Stone Wins Award

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In May Curator of Prints and Photographs Sarah Weatherwax attended the annual meeting of the American Historical Print Collectors Society (AHPCS).  Held this year in Cincinnati, the group’s annual gatherings include lectures and behind the…
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

Off to the Fair

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As Co-Director of the Visual Culture Program, I am always on the lookout for new materials to add to the library’s visual culture collections. Ephemera has become a particular focus of my treasure hunting in the last year. Although online…
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

Dr. Ellen Gruber Garvey: Writing With Scissors

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May 21, 2013 Lecture  Presented at the 282nd Annual Meeting of the Library Company of Philadelphia Dr. Ellen Gruber Garvey discussed the history of scrap-booking based on her recent book Writing with Scissors: American Scrapbooks from…
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

282nd Annual Meeting

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282nd Annual Meeting of The Library Company of Philadelphia May 21, 2013 2013 Annual Meeting from Library Company on Vimeo.
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

Abolitionist Women at Pennsylvania Hall

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As noted in a previous post, this year marks the 175th anniversary of the dedication of Pennsylvania Hall. Constructed as a forum for free discussion of abolitionism and other reform movements, the building was inaugurated on May 14,…
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

John Van Horne to Step Down in 2014

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Library Company Director John Van Horne has announced that he will retire in May 2014 after almost thirty years at the helm. When he took over leadership of the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1985, special collections libraries operated…
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

Made for a Day, Yesterday—Historical Ephemera at the Library Company

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Remnants of Everyday Life: Historical Ephemera in the Workplace, Street, and Home, on display through December 13, 2013, showcases the Library Company’s unique collections of early American ephemera which range from small fragments…
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

2013 Juneteenth Freedom Seminar

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On June 19th, 1865—two-and-a-half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued—Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. The anniversary…
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

Rare Book Expert Michael Suarez to Speak at 2013 Annual Dinner

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Dr. Michael Suarez, Director of the University of Virginia’s Rare Book School, will be this year’s Annual Dinner speaker on Tuesday, November 19. A preeminent scholar on the history of the book and eighteenth-century literature, he co-edited…
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

Commemorating Abolitionism in 1830s Philadelphia

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On April 23rd, Beverly Tomek, a former Library Company fellow, took part in a panel discussion on her upcoming publication on the Pennsylvania Hall entitled Pennsylvania Hall: A ‘Legal Lynching’ in the Shadow of the Liberty Bell,…
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

The Philadelphia Cartoonist Society meets the Ephemera Collection

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As part of all things ephemera at the Library Company, I was asked to curate a mini-exhibition in collaboration with the Philadelphia Cartoonist Society. Nine artists will be making work inspired by the Ephemera Collection to be put on display…
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

Announcing the Mellon Scholars in Early African American History

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This June, the Library Company will launch its Mellon Scholars Program, a four-year initiative designed to strengthen the field of Early African American History by promoting scholarship in this area and helping to diversify the ranks of academic…
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

Going Beyond the Reading Room

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Our blog has become one of the best places to learn about what goes on behind-the-scenes at the Library Company. Started in 2009, our staff members share their latest curatorial discoveries and research interests. This March, Chief of…
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

Meet Louise Beardwood

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While the Library Company depends on financial support from individuals, foundations, and other sources to maintain our standards as one of the country’s preeminent research libraries, a dedicated corps of volunteers makes equally valuable…
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

Who Are These Beautiful Women?

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Recently, the Library Company acquired a fifth copy of The American Book of Beauty, or, Token of Friendship (Hartford: Silas Andrus & Son, 1847). The first four copies (three given by Todd and Sharon Pattison and one by Michael Zinman)…
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

Announcing the 2013-2014 Post-Doctoral Fellows

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The Library Company is pleased to announce the recipients of National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and Program in Early American Economy and Society (PEAES) Post-Doctoral Fellowships for 2013-2014. Each of the fellows will spend a semester…
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

Strategic Planning at the Library Company

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You might wonder what is left to plan for a 282-year-old organization already recognized as being among a handful of the world’s very best research institutions. But, of course, as ways of doing research change and evolve—and as technology…
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

PIFA Comes to the Library Company for Visual Resources

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This spring, the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA) will bring together more than 150 partners in the arts for a month-long celebration of the city’s cultural life. With a “time machine” as the inspiration and a general…
Trade card for the Philadelphia Roller Skating Rink. (ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.

A Crowd of Railroad Fans for Froio Talk

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Almost 100 people attended Understanding the Pennsylvania Railroad: Contemporary Photographs in Response to the Historic Works of William H. Rau on March 7. Speaker Michael Froio is an artist and professor in Drexel University’s photography…