Four rare books in need of boxing.

Mr. Rementer’s South Philly Pear Orchard

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I was recently contacted by James Rementer, a descendent of a South Philadelphia family that owned a pear orchard on Irish Tract Lane for more than a century before it was covered with landfill in the late 1800s. Though long gone, Irish…
Four rare books in need of boxing.

March Madness: Early American Advertising Conference

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The evolution of modern advertising in this country continues to garner attention from the scholarly community and the popular media, as well as to influence contemporary visual culture. Paying homage to this ongoing fascination with how we…
Four rare books in need of boxing.

Lost and Found: The Library Company Acquires Three Books from Benjamin Franklin’s Library

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The reconstruction of Benjamin Franklin’s private library obsessed our former Librarian Edwin Wolf 2nd for 44 years. That obsession took hold of him at the estate sale of Franklin Bache (a Franklin descendant) at Freeman’s in 1947. Bache…
Four rare books in need of boxing.

19th-Century Advertising on Exhibit

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Inspired by the upcoming Before Madison Avenue conference, an exhibition highlighting our varied and wide-ranging 19th-century advertising collections will open in our small gallery on February 21. Coordinated with the topics of conference panelists,…
Four rare books in need of boxing.

Spring Events

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Before Madison Avenue: Advertising in Early America Visual Culture Program Conference, Wednesday, March 15, and Thursday, March 16 Speakers at this conference will present new research on advertising in North America before the rise of the…
Four rare books in need of boxing.

The Mourner’s Gift (1837)

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Connie King writes: Much as we send sympathy cards today, Americans gave small volumes of consolation literature to people who were in mourning during the early decades of the 19th century. In recent years, the Library Company has been able…
Four rare books in need of boxing.

Interns Happily Invade the Print Department

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The Print Department is greatly benefiting from the help of college interns this winter and spring. In early January between semesters, Haverford College sophomore Jon William Sweitzer-Lamme volunteered his time in the department processing…
Four rare books in need of boxing.

Things that Make You Go “Hmmm”

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When I first began working at the Library Company more than a decade ago, one of the first Print Department treasures I handled was the silhouette attributed to Raphaelle Peale showing the noted African American silhouettist Moses Williams.…
Four rare books in need of boxing.

Library Company Collections on Flickr

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I’m an intern at the Library Company, working here for the first two weeks of January in the Print Department, doing various tasks relating to the Library Company’s collections of lithographs, drawings, cartoons, photographs, and other…
Four rare books in need of boxing.

Investigating 19th-Century Criminal Enterprise on WHYY

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Curator Wendy Woloson talks with WHYY's Peter Crimins about the Library Company's current exhibition "Capitalism by Gaslight: The Shadow Economies of 19th-Century America." Visit the WHYY website to read the full article.
Four rare books in need of boxing.

LCP Joins the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA)

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The Library Company has become a member of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA). An initiative of the Library of Congress, the NDSA is charged with ensuring the stewardship of our nation’s digital archive as well as employing…
Four rare books in need of boxing.

Readex to Digitize Afro-Americana

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This Spring, Readex, a division of the NewsBank Company, will launch a digital edition of Afro-Americana, 1535-1922: From the Library Company of Philadelphia.  This unique online resource will provide researchers with more than 12,000 searchable…
Four rare books in need of boxing.

Help Put Us on the Map!

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In 2011 the Library Company received a bequest that included 96 rare and extraordinary maps from the estate of Robert L. McNeil, Jr. In 2012 the Library Company will make high resolution digital images of those documents and catalog them…
Four rare books in need of boxing.

New Exhibition Looks at 19th-Century Criminal Enterprise

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“Capitalism by Gaslight: The Shadow Economies of 19th-Century America,” which opens January 17, shines light on underground urban commerce in early America.  Drawing on books, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, prints, photographs, and ephemera…
Four rare books in need of boxing.

Spring Events

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Capitalism by Gaslight: The Shadow Economies of 19th-Century America (on view until August 24) Exhibition Opening Reception, Tuesday, January 24, 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. Drawing on books, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, prints, photographs, and…
Four rare books in need of boxing.

Six Degrees of Shellenberger

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Do you remember the game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon?" I’ll bet you do, and I’ll bet you did not always need six steps to trace a relationship to this Philly native. I often make similar connections between historical figures in my work…
Four rare books in need of boxing.

The Ubiquitous Corrugated Clamshell Box – An Anniversary

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Not many people realize that the corrugated clamshell box (as shown above) was actually developed here at the Library Company. As many of you know, these boxes are very useful in rare book libraries because they are an efficient way to protect…
Four rare books in need of boxing.

Carey Conference Part Two at Trinity College

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The Dublin half of the two-part “Ireland, America, and the Worlds of Mathew Carey” conference co-sponsored by the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Program in Early American Economy and Society,…
Four rare books in need of boxing.

International Photography Curators Visit LCP

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About twenty-five members of Oracle, an international group of photographic curators, visited the Library Company on November 8. Oracle’s annual meeting had been held in Blue Bell, a Philadelphia suburb, the week before, and attendees…