James Rush and the Siamese Twins
All News, Beyond the Reading Room
Recently, I was preparing a display of materials for a visitor who had a particular interest in Shakespeare. Library Company benefactor James Rush (1786-1869), son of Declaration of Independence signer and famed doctor Benjamin Rush (1746-1813),…
Traipsing Through the Woods of Tacony
All News, Beyond the Reading Room
Researcher Joseph Jones recently approached us looking for images of several estates once located in the present-day Tacony section of Northeast Philadelphia. We were able to locate an image of the Lardner family farmhouse, shedding…
Large Pages into Small Spaces
All News, Beyond the Reading Room, Bookbinding Research
The three conservators in the McLean Conservation Department (Jennifer Rosner, Andrea Krupp, and Alice Austin) are all active members of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers. On November 5 and 6, 2011, they hosted a…
A Bond by Any Other Name….
All News, Beyond the Reading Room
“What a striking street scene!” was my first thought on seeing the Philadelphia Traction Company bond sent to me on approval from the New England ephemera dealer George LeBarre Galleries.
Given my interests as a print curator, I hardly…
“Ireland, America, and the Worlds of Mathew Carey”
All News, Beyond the Reading RoomA conference sponsored by The McNeil Center for Early American Studies,
The Library Company of Philadelphia,
the Program in Early American Economy and Society,
and the University of Pennsylvania Libraries
The first half of the Mathew…
Auction Success
All News, Beyond the Reading Room
I just returned from bidding on a few lots at a sale at Freeman’s Auction, and my heart is still pounding. The adrenaline really gets going when there is bidding happening on the floor, on the phones, and on the internet and you don’t…
On-line Exhibition Celebrates 40 Years of the Print Department
All News, LCP News
On September 13, 1971, Stephanie Munsing began work as the Library Company’s first Curator of Prints and Photographs. The library had been collecting graphics for a long time and Ms. Munsing’s appointment was public recognition of the…
LCP Collections on Loan
All News, Beyond the Reading Room
We recently had a few items that were on loan to other institutions returned to us and it got me thinking about where else people can see Library Company collections outside of our building. If anyone is going to be in New York City, be sure…
Two Emmys for “A Taste of History”
All News, LCP News
For “A Taste of History,” the television series that explores America’s culinary roots, City Tavern Chef Walter Staib immerses viewers in the dishes and cooking techniques of the nation’s founders as a way into the historical context.…
Capital Improvements: LCP Generates Heat!
All News, LCP NewsThis fall, the Library Company is making an investment in high-efficiency heating and humidification equipment that will save an estimated $40,000 to $50,000 annually and help ensure environmental stability for our priceless collections.
When…
Shareholder Spotlight: Betty Shellenberger, Share No. 568
All News, LCP NewsBetty Shellenberger, age 90, remembers bi-weekly trips downtown with her mother and father to visit the Library Company in our previous Frank Furness-designed home at Juniper and Locust streets. At the time the Library Company still functioned…
Poulsons and Peales at the Library by Carol Soltis
All News, Podcasts(October 17, 2011)
Audio Download (MP3) - Program
Adobe PDF Document - Slides
Carol Soltis, Library Company Trustee and Curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Center for American Art, will discuss the work of the artist James…
Staff News
All News, Graphic Art Department News
This past summer, Digitization Technician Concetta Barbera embarked on a Practicum project at the Library Company as part of her Library and Information Science master’s degree in Archives at Drexel University. During the 120 hours required…
Audio Tour of ““Building a City of the Dead: The Creation and Expansion of Philadelphia’s Laurel Hill Cemetery” by Curator Aaron Wunsch
All News, PodcastsLaurel Hill Cemetery is among the most celebrated – and most densely populated – swaths of Greater Philadelphia. Beneath seventy-eight acres of lawn, trees, and monuments lie some 70,000 bodies – a sprawling and silent subdivision that…
Erica Armstrong Dunbar Named PAAH Director
All News, LCP News
Erica Armstrong Dunbar, an associate professor of history at the University of Delaware, has been named the first Director of the Library Company's Program in African American History. Dunbar specializes in 19th-century African American and…
New Partnership with University of Georgia Press
All News, LCP News
In a significant enhancement to the Program in African American History, the Library Company has formed a partnership with the University of Georgia Press to support Race in the Atlantic World, 1700-1900, a series of books focused on racial…
LCP Acquires Rare Reason Letterhead
All News, LCP News
The Library Company has just purchased at auction a piece of letterhead engraved by Patrick Henry Reason, one of a very small number of commercially successful African American engravers. The stationery pictures the figure of a kneeling female…
Travelling Librarian Visits the Library Company
All News, LCP NewsEach year the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals bestows the English Speaking Union’s Travelling Librarian Award on a librarian in the UK to support travel to libraries and archives in the United States for the purpose…