Past Seminars
Libraries & Liberty
VIRTUAL
Seminar One: The Books Behind the Declaration
How have libraries aided the cause of liberty, in the United States and elsewhere? What kind of liberty, and for whom? What role do libraries play now in ensuring the continued freedom of people in our country and around the world?
The Libraries & Liberty seminar series is a collaboration between The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and The Rosenbach Museum & Library. Each seminar will build on the last as these three cultural institutions use their collections and areas of expertise to engage with these questions. The Books Behind the Declaration, hosted by the Library Company and lead by director Dr. Michael Barsanti, begins the series by looking specifically at the moment of our country’s founding, and how the books in the collection of the Library Company were a part of the conversation and debate. Following this first seminar, The Rosenbach will host Libraries & Liberty: Liberty and Identity in Sept-Nov of 2022. The final seminar, Libraries & Liberty: Strange Meetings (Jan-March 2023), will explore the Athenaeum’s Record of Strangers guest book, demonstrating how 19th century libraries were sites for people to encounter new ideas and interesting ‘strangers.’ We hope you will join us for each of these exciting courses which will illustrate how the collections of all three organizations can be used to tell the stories of how liberty is, and must be, continually renewed.
Schedule for The Books Behind the Declaration
Wednesday April 20th, 2022 6:00-7:30 Libraries, Books, and the Enlightenment
Wednesday May 18th, 2022 6:00-7:30 The Course of Human Events
Wednesday June 15th, 2022 6:00-7:30 All Men are Created Equal
Wednesday July 6th 2022 6:00-7:30 Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
*This closing session will be hosted in-person at the Library Company with a reception.
Tickets :
Per course : $200 non-members , $180 for members of any institution
You can register for all three seminars at a discount rate of $510
Philadelphia at the Table: Treasures of the Larder Invaded
IN PERSON
Tickets : $150 Non-members | $135 Members
Join food historian and author, William Woys Weaver and What’s Cooking blog writer, Katie Maxwell, as they explore the Treasures of the Larder Invaded in this three-part seminar. This seminar is in-person and space is limited.
The Menu: Culinary Text or Social Commentary?
Tuesday, May 17, 2022 6 PM to 7:30 PM
This session will explore many types of historic menus and the social commentaries hidden in their printed words.
Trade Cards: The Eye Eats First
Tuesday, May 31, 2022 6 PM to 7:30 PM
This session will explore the world of Philadelphia trade card advertising and the value judgements they made about packaged foods, vendors, and the food service industry.
Food as National Anthem: The US Centennial and Culinary Innovation
Tuesday, June 14, 2022 6 PM to 7:30 PM
The United States Centennial in 1876 was such a seminal turning point in American and Philadelphia culinary history that entire books have been devoted to its planning and success. This final session will provide an overview.
Past Seminars
John Dickinson and the Making of the U.S. Constitution, 1776-1788
Convenes 5:30-7:00 p.m. (ET) Wednesday October 21, November 4, and November 18, 2020
Led by Dr. Jane E. Calvert, founding director and chief editor of the John Dickinson Writings Project and Associate Professor of History at the University of Kentucky. Her publications on Dickinson include Quaker Constitutionalism and the Political Thought of John Dickinson and Volume One of The Complete Writings and Selected Correspondence of John Dickinson. She is currently writing a biography of him.
This seminar will consider the innovative contributions of John Dickinson to the creation of the United States Constitution through his work on the Articles of Confederation (1776), the Annapolis Convention (1786) that met to consider the shortcomings of the Articles, the ensuing Federal Convention (1787), and the debate over ratification (1788). As the only leading figure to contribute substantially to every phase of the American Founding beginning with the Stamp Act resistance, Dickinson also played a key role during the constitutional era. In a timely seminar led by Dr. Jane E. Calvert, chief editor of the John Dickinson Writings Project and Associate Professor of History at the University of Kentucky, participants will explore drafts, notes, and essays, along with selected secondary source readings, to understand Dickinson’s contributions to the U.S. Constitution, reflecting on both what he offered and what his colleagues rejected.
Debating Woman’s Place in America, 1860-1880
Convened 5:30-7:00 p.m. (ET) Wednesday September 16, September 30, and October 14, 2020
Led by Dr. Amy Sopcak-Joseph, historian of Early American gender and print culture and assistant professor at Wilkes University.
The 19th Amendment forbids denying the right to vote on the basis of sex. Yet its passage a century ago was less a definitive declaration of women’s equality than it was one episode in a longer history. This seminar contextualizes this important anniversary by examining the 19th-century roots of foundational questions about gender roles: what can women do? What should their roles in society be? The Library Company’s collections illustrate the competing answers posed during the crucial decades of the 1860s and 1870s. American women, both White and Black, shaped political conversations and public spaces in ways that were varied and complex, local and national, progressive and conservative – much like they do today.
Watch Session I (September 16)
Racism and Infectious Disease
Led by Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens (Library Company of Philadelphia), Dr. Richard M. Mizelle, Jr. (University of Houston), and Dr. Samuel K. Roberts, Jr. (Columbia University).
Convened June 17, July 1, and July 15, 2020
In a special seminar organized in conjunction with the 2020 Mellon Scholars Internship program, the seminar explored the history of racism in the diagnosis, treatment, and popular portrayals of infectious diseases. Situated in the context of the racial inequities in healthcare revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Racism & Infectious Disease challenged participants to consider how urban political economies, modern public health systems, racial science, and a host of environmental factors have produced the racial health inequalities that we confront today.
The seminar unfolded in three sessions:
- The first session, which coincided with the Mellon Scholars Internship program, framed the historical roots of racism and pandemics through a panel discussion between Dr. Owens, Mizelle, and Roberts and the Mellon Interns. Watch recording.
- In the second session, Dr. Mizelle discussed his latest research on resiliency and diabetes in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in order to outline how broader environmental conditions shape diagnoses and self-treatment plans. Watch recording.
- Finally, Dr. Roberts delved into the tuberculosis epidemics (1880s-1930s) to consider how urban political economy and racial sciences produce devastating health inequities. Watch recording.
Domesticating Revolution: Founding Women, Material Culture, and Politics at Home
Led by Dr. Zara Anishanslin, Associate Professor of History and Art History, University of Delaware
Convened March 11, April 22, and May 13, 2020.
This seminar explored how Philadelphia women used their homes–and the things in those domestic spaces–to create revolutionary fervor and shape founding era politics from the mid-1760s through the 1790s.
Ghost River in the Making
Led by Dr. William D. Fenton, Library Company of Philadelphia
Convened January 30, February 13, and February 27, 2020
This behind-the-scenes exploration of the Library Company’s public art exhibition and first graphic novel included hands-on access to the eighteenth century materials that inspired this story and presentations from author Dr. Lee Francis IV (Laguna) and artist Weshoyot Alvitre (Tongva).
Victorian Sweets: Exoticism & Agrarianism in Local Confectionery
Led by Eric Berley and Ryan Berley, Co-Owners of The Franklin Fountain and Shane Confectionery and Kevin Paschall, Head Chocolate Maker at Shane Confectionery
Convened on November 21, December 5, and December 17, 2019
Using 19th century advertisements, photos, packaging, and broadsides from the Library Company of Philadelphia’s rich collections, co-owners of The Franklin Fountain Eric Berley and Ryan Berley and head chocolatier of Shane Confectionery Kevin Paschall will explore the written and visual culture of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century trades of confectionary, chocolate, and ice cream.
Mirror of a City: Images of Philadelphia, 1780-1950
Led by Erika Piola, Director of the Visual Culture Program and Sarah Weatherwax, Curator of Print and Photographs, Library Company of Philadelphia
Convened on September 26, October 10, and October 24, 2019
The Print and Photograph Department at the Library Company of Philadelphia holds one of the few public historical, American popular graphic arts collections in the country. With a focus on the visual history of Philadelphia from the era of the early nation through post-World War II, the graphic materials chronicle the evolution of the city and the story of their creators, collectors, and distributors like few others.
Designing Afrofuturism: Imagining Black Futures through Art, History, and Literature
Led by Dr. Walter Greason, Monmouth University
Convened on January 24, January 31, February 28, and March 21, 2019
This seminar examined the surviving art, architecture, and technology from indigenous civilizations across the African diaspora. Complemented by the upcoming Library Company exhibition “From Negro Pasts to Afro-Futures: Black Creative Re-Imaginings,” this seminar, led by Dr. Walter Greason, explored how historical African American leaders envisioned the future. Designing Afrofuturism drew upon the Library Company’s prodigious African American History collections, including rare Afrofuturist literature and drawings, poems and songs, and speeches and protests.
Benjamin Franklin & Immigration
Led by Dr. Carla J. Mulford, Pennsylvania State University
Convened on March 6, 2019
Franklin’s ideas about immigrants and immigration evolved as his career moved from being a colonial leader in Philadelphia to a citizen of the world. Dr. Carla Mulford, a leading scholar on Franklin, curated records that reveal Franklin’s shifting views on immigration, demographics, economics, and the environment. Drawing upon documents from Franklin’s time in Philadelphia, London, and Passy, participants traced how local circumstances shaped Franklin’s early thinking and how later experiences encouraged him to fashion a more global vision about immigration problems, goals, and strategies.
Graphic Materials: Early American Political Cartoons and Propaganda
Led by Dr. William D. Fenton, Library Company of Philadelphia
Convened on October 23, November 8, November 20, and December 4, 2018
This seminar excavated the broadsides, engravings, political cartoons, caricatures, and ephemera that transformed early American politics. Canvasing the African Americana, John A. McAllister, and Political Cartoon collections, Fenton offered participants hands-on access to the Library Company’s vaunted visual culture materials. In addition to an eye-opening companion to election-year politicking, Graphic Material connected participants with leading practitioners, including award-winning editorial cartoonists Signe Wilkinson, Dwayne Booth, Ben Passmore, and John Cole.