Mr. Rementer’s South Philly Pear Orchard
All News, Beyond the Reading Room
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…
March Madness: Early American Advertising Conference
All News, LCP News, VCP NewsThe 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…
Lost and Found: The Library Company Acquires Three Books from Benjamin Franklin’s Library
All News, LCP News
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…
19th-Century Advertising on Exhibit
All News, LCP NewsInspired 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,…
Spring Events
All News, LCP NewsBefore 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…
The Mourner’s Gift (1837)
All News, Beyond the Reading Room
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…
Interns Happily Invade the Print Department
All News, Graphic Art Department News
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…
Things that Make You Go “Hmmm”
All News, Beyond the Reading Room
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.…
Library Company Collections on Flickr
All News, Beyond the Reading Room
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…
Investigating 19th-Century Criminal Enterprise on WHYY
All News, LCP NewsCurator 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.
LCP Joins the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA)
All News, LCP NewsThe 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…
Readex to Digitize Afro-Americana
All News, LCP News
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…
Help Put Us on the Map!
All News, LCP News
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…
New Exhibition Looks at 19th-Century Criminal Enterprise
All News, LCP News“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…
Spring Events
All News, LCP NewsCapitalism 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…
Six Degrees of Shellenberger
All News, Beyond the Reading Room
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…
Curator’s Favorite: Albert Hatch Photograph Album
All News, Beyond the Reading Room, Curator's FavoritesThe Ubiquitous Corrugated Clamshell Box – An Anniversary
All News, Beyond the Reading Room, Bookbinding Research
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…
Carey Conference Part Two at Trinity College
All News, LCP NewsThe 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,…
International Photography Curators Visit LCP
All News, LCP News
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…