LCP News

Portrait of Gail Hamilton in Gail Hamilton’s Life in Letters (1901).

Getting One’s Due: An Episode in the 19th-Century Book Industry

August 23, 2018/by nscalessa
Wm. A. Selser, Bee Farmer and Breeder of Italian Bees & Queens. Blossom Nectar and Beeswax. Jenkintown, Pa. (Philadelphia: Craig, Finley & Co., ca. 1900).

A Bee Farmer’s Ode to Summer

August 15, 2018/by nscalessa
]: Selection of trade cards from the Gwen Goldman African Americana Trade Card Collection. Gift of David Doret.

The Gwen Goldman African Americana Trade Card Collection

August 7, 2018/by nscalessa
Detail from William Russell Birch’s hand-colored engraving, “Bank of Pennsylvania, South Second Street Philadelphia, Designed & Published by W. Birch Enamel Painter 1804” at the Library Company of Philadelphia.

LCP in the News: Fine Books & Collections Magazine

August 2, 2018/by nscalessa
Hand-colored lithograph depicting diadelphia in flower, from Botanical Specimens (Liverpool, 1828).

A Portfolio of Botanical Illustrations at the Library Company

August 1, 2018/by nscalessa
18 Juneteenth

Black Liberation Past and Present

July 20, 2018/by Clare Lowry

Fellow Spotlight: Dr. Nazera Wright

July 19, 2018/by nscalessa
Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens, Director of the Program in African American History

LCP in the News: The 25 Moments From American History That Matter Right Now

July 18, 2018/by nscalessa

Mellon Scholars Recap

July 13, 2018/by nscalessa

Discovering Freedom Dreams

July 4, 2018/by nscalessa
Detail from William Russell Birch’s hand-colored engraving, “Bank of Pennsylvania, South Second Street Philadelphia, Designed & Published by W. Birch Enamel Painter 1804” at the Library Company of Philadelphia.

LCP In the News: The Library Company and Free Library unpack their treasures for two must-see exhibits

June 30, 2018/by nscalessa

Uncovering History at the Library Company of Philadelphia

June 27, 2018/by nscalessa
Claypoole, James. The German Bleeds & Bears ye Furs Of Quaker Lords & Savage Curs ... (Philadelphia, 1764).

LCP In the News: The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Announces Redrawing History

June 21, 2018/by nscalessa
From the First Annual Report of the Home for Destitute Children. Philadelphia : Crissy & Markley, 1856. Arrow added digitally.

Shareholder Spotlight: Ms. Mary Jeanes

June 21, 2018/by nscalessa
RayLee Otero-Bell

African American Women and Historical Agency

June 20, 2018/by nscalessa
Intern Spotlight: Lydia Shaw

Intern Spotlight: Lydia Shaw

June 11, 2018/by nscalessa
Printed in color and selling for a dollar wholesale, the “orange blossom” certificate was the preference of the about twenty-five-year-old Thomas Radle (b. 1861) and teen-aged Mary Dasher (b. ca. 1867-1894). Containing their portrait photographs, the certificate documents that D.W. Proffitt (1841-1913) of the United Memorial Brethren Church married the couple in September 1885 in Pittsburgh. Thomas appears in a suit, derby hat, and with a cigarette in his mouth. Mary wears a long-sleeve, dark-colored dress with a bustle. Although used in a marriage certificate, and especially given Radle’s pose, the photographs, as with the previous couple, were probably ones the couple already possessed. They had not acquired them for the occasion, although possibly for the certificate. A genealogical record, the certificate’s content also provides a trail of evidence for more concrete information about the couple. Mary, likely a domestic servant before her marriage, passed away in 1894. As traced in census and marriage documents, Thomas, a railroad laborer, then farmer, later marries her sister Clara Dasher (1872-1960). He is listed as widowed and she as his housekeeper in the 1900 census. By the summer of 1900, a Pennsylvania marriage license has been issued to the couple. And in the 1910 census, Clara is described as Thomas’s wife. Weddings are history-making events for the couple married. In the modern era, they can also be history making in terms of cost. The Crider & Brother prints and ephemera are humble, yet symbolic artifacts of wedding commercialization. They are captivating mementoes of wedding practices of the past, while also perspicacious harbingers of wedding practices of today. Erika Piola Associate Curator, Prints and Photographs and Director, Visual Culture Program Sources: Ancestry.com accessed April 16 and 17, 2018. Crider & Brother, Publishers and Proprietors of the Original Photograph Marriage Certificates, York, Pa. (York, Pa., 1884). George Reeser Prowell, History of York County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1907), vol. 2, 497-498.

Wedding Industry, Victorian-Style

June 8, 2018/by nscalessa
Articles of Association. Manuscript on vellum, Philadelphia, July 1, 1731.

Shareholder Spotlight: Mr. Robert Grace

May 21, 2018/by nscalessa

Positively Philadelphia: New Art Exhibit Looks At 18th Century Philadelphia (KYW News Radio)

May 15, 2018/by nscalessa
Book on left, with errant leaf in place: Female Association of Philadelphia for the Relief of Women and Children in Reduced Circumstances. The constitution of the Female Association of Philadelphia for the Relief of Women and Children in Reduced Circumstances. Philadelphia : Printed by Jane Aitken, 1803. Book on right, with last leaf missing: Van Pelt, Peter I.,1778-1861. The goodness of God to be praised by men ... : a discourse delivered on the fourth of July, in the North Brick Church / New-York : Printed by Pelsue and Gould, 1812.

The Errant Leaf

May 7, 2018/by nscalessa
Mike Verney Headshot

Fellow Spotlight: Meet Dr. Michael Verney

April 30, 2018/by Clare Lowry
Digitization at LCP: Civil War Ephemera 2

Digitization at LCP: Civil War Graphics and Ephemera

April 30, 2018/by Clare Lowry
Kate Field: Women's History Month Program

Kate Field: Women’s History Month Program

April 30, 2018/by Clare Lowry
Donald C. Taber, An Artist's Conception of Swarthmore Crest. A Highly Restricted Residential Park, ca. 1930. Pencil and watercolor.

To Beguile and Belie

April 30, 2018/by nscalessa

Join or Die!

April 13, 2018/by nscalessa