Details
Creator Poulson, Charles A. (Charles Augustus), 1789-1866, compiler.
Contributor Croome, William, 1790-1860, artist.
Traubel, M. H. (Morris H.), 1820-1897, artist.
Wagner & M'Guigan, printer.
Title Illustrations of Philadelphia. Vol. IX. [graphic] / Vincit qui se vincit. Collected by Chas. A. Poulson.
Publisher PA. Philadelphia. 1857-1858
Date 1857-1858
Physical Description 1 scrapbook (ca. 500 newspaper clippings, prints, and ephemera): letterpress, wood engravings, engravings, and lithographs; scrapbook 34 x 21 cm.(13.25 x 8.25 in.)
Description Scrapbook containing newspaper clippings, prints, and ephemera predominately dated 1857 and pertaining to the built environment, and social, cultural, and economic climate of Philadelphia. Majority of the contents are articles about city businesses and industries; public interest stories; editorials relating to public concerns and social mores; reports, lists, and statistics; and caricatures and cartoons. Several articles concern the new house numbering system; the chartering of Fairmount and Sedgeley parks; the Academy of Music (New Opera House), including the inaugural ball and first opera season; the temporary relocation of the Post Office; progress of Camden; volunteer fire companies, including the debate over the oldest instituted, new fire houses, and parades; fires on the 300 and 600 blocks of Chestnut (i.e., Peterson/Goodyear building and Melodion); transportation, including omnibus lines and the Camden and Atlantic, and Philadelphia and Baltimore Central railroads; and the new coinage of cents issued from the mint. Also contains numerous columns about building dedications, laying of cornerstones, and improvements and new construction to the city’s infrastructure, including Drown’s Umbrella Manufactory (86 Market); the silver plated ware establishment of John O. Mead (Ninth and Chestnut); the Butler house lot (800 block Chestnut); the hall of the "Colored Masons"; the Spring Garden district and Northwestern section of the city (Twelfth, Thirteenth, and Fifteenth wards); the Pennsylvania Bank building; First Welsh Presbyterian Church (1500 Lombard); the Penn Widow’s Asylum; Washington building (000 block S. Third); and the restaurant of John Campbell (500 block Chestnut).
Other articles describe the Library Company’s receipt of the ca. 1720 Peter Cooper painting of Philadelphia; culture, politics, and economy of the year 1856; local medical schools and hospitals, including Penn Medical University, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia small-pox hospital, and Eclectic Medical College; local industries and trades, including Wood & Perot's ornamental iron work establishment, Newell & Knight barrel making machinery and the oyster trade; and Moyamensing Prison. Anecdotal columns and editorials provide commentaries about Philadelphia Insurance companies; Aprils Fools Day; servants; tramps; the city’s “noisy spot” of Third and Chestnut; the lore of stage coaches; popular catch phrases, including those from the theater; the Molly Maquires; the public expense of public lamps and paupers; the importance of newspapers, including as a more perfect venue for advertising than storefront signage; the poor use of the language in classified advertisements; storefront and tavern signages (p.41-42); and the cricket mania. Also contains historical pieces about the University of Pennsylvania; Independence Square; Chew’s Mansion; Zion Lutheran Church; and the Chinese Museum; reports, lists and statistics detailing the crime and mortality rate, sales of stocks and real estate; the retail, cattle and produce markets, meteorology and weather, telegraph use for the year, the comparative health of manufacturing cities, and architectural improvements in progress; a column about how the 1785 city directories represented the population of the city from the series "Philadelphia As It Was"; and an illustrated article about shawls.
Graphics, predominately caricatures and cartoons, include lithographs, engravings, and wood engravings. Majority of cartoons satirize the hoop skirt, including the Clara and Charles series. Other cartoons satirize German beer culture, patent medicine, P.T. Barnum, and the social mores of the upper classes. Caricatures, often racist, depict African Americans while at work, including a sweeper, cook, and painter. Prints also include advertisements, vignettes, and views. Advertisements depict the Union hotel (300 block Arch); Thornley & Chism, importers, jobbers and retailers of fancy & staple dry goods (N.E. cor. Spring Garden and Eighth); Lincoln, Wood & Nichols, manufacturers and importers of straw goods; and Fairbank’s patent platform scales. Vignettes depict a knife cleaning apparatus, Olmstead stove, and a piano. Views show a genre scene titled by Poulson "An ‘omnibus’ sleigh and a 'rung' "; the Academy of Music; Jefferson Medical college, Presbyterian Church; Central Presbyterian Church; and "The Performing Elephants" at the National Circus accompanied by the classified for the performance. Scrapbook also contains ephemera, including the "Deaf and Dumb Alphabet" chart inscribed "In use at Phila Institution 1857 as per report Jany 1858" ; a "Premium medal, Franklin Institute"; and two elaborately illustrated tickets to the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.
Notes Majority of contents annotated by Poulson with dates and explicative manuscript notes.
Title page trimmed and illustrated with a ca. 1856 lithographer's advertisement issued by Wagner & McGuigan after the work of lithographer Maurice Traubel and artist William Croome. Depicts an allegorical, patriotic scene with the figure of Columbia, attired in a toga, American flag, and laurel wreath, and with a broken shackle under her foot as she stands on a pedestal.
Chart "Length of Squares East and West" pasted on verso of title page.
Label inscribed "The "Articles" in the book are taken from fugitive sources only; and the dates affixed to each are those of the newspapers &c from which they were procured CAP" pasted on verso of front free end paper.
"Index to set in back part of vol. XI."
Insert: “Report of the President of the Girard College to the committee on Instruction September 3, 1850
Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
Subject Academy of Music (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Library Company of Philadelphia.
African Americans -- Caricatures and cartoons. -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Asylums -- Caricatures and cartoons. -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Churches -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Firefighting -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Industry -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Medical education -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Stores & shops -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Transportation -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Women -- Clothing & dress -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Geographic subject Fairmount Park (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Philadelphia (Pa.) -- Description and travel -- 19th century.
Philadelphia (Pa.) -- Economic conditions -- 19th century.
Philadelphia (Pa.) -- History -- 19th century.
Philadelphia (Pa.) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century.
Genre Scrapbooks -- 1850-1860.
Advertisements -- 1850-1860.
Clippings -- 1850-1860.
Letterpress works -- 1850-1860.
Wood engravings -- 1850-1860.
Engravings -- 1850-1860.
Caricatures -- 1850-1860.
Cartoons (Commentary) -- 1850-1860.
Ephemera -- 1850-1860.
Satires (Visual works) -- 1850-1860.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Books & Other Texts| Rare| Poulson scrapbooks - vol. 9 [(9)2526.F]
Accession number (9)2526.F