Details
Contributor P.S. Duval & Co., printer.
Title The Wagner Free Institute of Science of Philadelphia. [membership certificate] : Incorporated March 9th 1855. [graphic].
Publisher Philadelphia: Lith. of P.S. Duval & Co
Date [ca. 1855]
Physical Description 1 print: lithograph, tinted with one stone; 49 x 58 cm.(19.25 x 22.75 in.)
Description Life membership certificate containing a montage of plants, animals, minerals and fossils to represent different fields of the natural sciences, i.e., natural history, taught at the institute. Iconography encircles an oval containing the certificate text. Includes a bat for "Mammalia"; a human skull for "Anatomy"; an eagle for "Ornithology" perched on a slab with rocks and minerals for "Mineralogy"; a butterfly for "Entomology"; stems of flowers and plants for "Botany"; a thorny fish for "Ichtheology"; pre-historic crustaceans for "Palaeonotolgy"; the skeleton of an elephant for "Comparative Anatomy"; a shell for "Conchology"; a rattlesnake for "Herpetology"; a horseshoe crab for "Crustacea"; and Fossils - "Botany," Entomology," "Crustacea," and "Zoology" showing a fossilized plant, fish, dragon fly and lobster. Filigree adorns the corners. Wagner Free Institute was founded in 1855 by philanthropist and professor William Wagner to provide free public education in the sciences. Wagner donated his large collection of specimens and his science library in addition to monetary support to establish the institution.
Notes Not in Wainwright.
Philadelphia on Stone
POSP 266
Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Certificates - Wagner Free
P. S. Duval & Co. operated as a firm 1851-1857.
Inscription lower left corner torn: Est. C. J. [ ?].
Subject Wagner Free Institute of Science.
Natural history.
Animals.
Birds.
Crustacea.
Fish.
Fossils.
Minerals.
Plants.
Skeletons.
Genre Lithographs -- Tinted -- 1850-1860.
Membership certificates -- 1850-1860.
Location Historical Society of Pennsylvania| Print Department| HSP at LCP| HSP Certificates - Wagner Free