Collection of ephemera reflecting American social and economic development, with an emphasis on the book trades. Includes samples of mid-19th-century raised letter printing for the blind and pre-1801 legal forms, 18th-19th centuries.
The World War One graphics collection consists of materials relating to the conflict and its immediate aftermath. The photographs, postcards and scrapbooks in this collection are primarily from the Philadelphia region and include views of the Philadelphia Navy Yard and patriotic parades and rallies held around the city. The posters in this collection encourage American military enlistment, the purchase of war bonds, home front frugality, and support for relief organizations, including the Red Cross. A small number of posters relate to specific Philadelphia events.
Collection predominantly of negatives depicting informal portraits, residences, and the survey work of members of the related Quaker Webster and Smedley families, 1885-1905.
Collection featuring 285 of the lithographs described by Nicholas B. Wainwright in his book Philadelphia in the Romantic Age of Lithography: An illustrated history of early lithography in Philadelphia with a descriptive list of Philadelphia scenes made by Philadelphia lithographers before 1866 (Philadelphia: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1958).
Souvenir viewbook, probably issued during the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, containing fifteen captioned views of prominent sites and landmarks in the city.
Album of snapshots showing the Logan family residence Loudoun erected for Thomas Armat (photographer's great grandfather) in 1800 at 4650 Germantown Avenue and Stenton, the Logan family country seat at 4601 North Eighteenth Street in Germantown.
Album of photographs of aerial and landscape views taken in the park during the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which celebrated the centennial of the United States through an international exhibition of industry, agriculture, and art. Photographs predominately depict views from observation towers at George's Hill and Lemon Hill.
Album of 12 photographic views showing the West Philadelphia estate of Philadelphia banker and collector Clarence Howard Clark at 4200 Locust Street. Images depict the front gate to the residence, the residence, green house and garden, and pond with fountain. Also depicts members of Clark's family posed at the residence, on the grounds, in a goat carriage, and in a boat on the pond. Views also include an African American servant posed near an entrance, gardeners at the greenhouse, wooded areas, paths, and lawn chairs.
Limited edition, souvenir miniature book containing a photographic frontispiece and describing a Vaux family trip to the Yellowstone National Park in August 1885. Photograph shows a woman and young man, probably Mary Vaux and one of her brothers, standing near a geyser, probably one of the several described in the text.
Augmented collection of advertisements for 19th-century Philadelphia businesses originally compiled by local Jewish socialite Emily Phillips, ca. 1860-ca. 1880s.
Album containing amateurly-cut, primarily bust-length silhouettes of men and women. Majority include caricatured or non-descript features. Small number of the prints depict full-length silhouettes, including a man holding an eye glass, a man holding a book near a table, and a man holding a filled basket. Also includes a silhouette of a tall male figure and squat female figure and corresponding pencil sketch. Many silhouettes also include hair adornments and other fashion details.
Various items found inserted in the Library Company's collection of books. Includes holy cards, paper dolls, stamps, clippings, tickets, ribbons, plants, etc., 19th century.
Based in Philadelphia, the American Sunday-School Union was the most prolific publisher of children's books in 19th-century America. The Union illustrated its books and periodicals copiously, mainly with wood engravings. The original woodblocks were used through multiple printings and retained by the Union.
Album and loose prints compiled by a member of the African American Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning family containing portrait photographs of family and friends, ca. 1860-ca. 1925.
Collection of nearly 3,000 stereographs published and distributed in or of Philadelphia. The photographs mainly portray commercial and residential street scenes, particularly Market and Chestnut streets; religious, public, financial, and industrial buildings and institutions; and historic and prominent landmarks as well as a small selection of non-Philadelphia views.
Scrapbook of print specimens and proofs compiled circa 1852-circa 1876 probably by a printer associated with the Philadelphia lithographic firm Stein & Jones. Contains book and periodical plates and illustrations; sheet music covers; proof prints; collecting cards; trade cards (several glossed); bank notes, checks, billheads, and receipts; certificates; advertising calendars; and chromolithographed labels and scraps. Commercial ephemera document primarily Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago businesses and organizations, including banks, printers, and art supply dealers.
Majority of contents include several plates from religious texts published in Philadelphia such as Albert Barnes’s "Scenes and Incidents in the Life of the Apostle Paul” (Philadelphia, 1869); illustrations and plates from children and gift books, and periodicals, including from "Peterson’s Magazine" (plates engraved by Illman Brothers); and several works printed by Stein & Jones and Cincinnati lithographers Klauprech & Menzel and Ehrgott & Fobriger. Also includes portraits of lithographers Rudolph Stein and Alfred Jones and color printed and numbered proof lithographs after plates in McKenney & Hall's "History of the Indian Tribes of North America."
Scrapbooks compiled by Mary Rebecca Darby Smith (1814-1886), the daughter of Philadelphia Quakers Hannah Logan Fisher (1777-1846) and James Smith (d. 1826) and great great granddaughter of scholar and William Penn’s secretary James Logan (1674-1751). Smith was an author, poet, a world traveler, autograph collector, and socialite.
Scrapbooks contain printed and original art works; photographic reproductions of art works, including sculpture; book and periodical illustrations; and newspaper clippings. Subjects of the imagery include American and European landscapes and marinescapes; views of European cities, landmarks, and historical sites; portraiture, including Queen Victoria; views of animals; scenes of rural life; figure studies; and allegorical, religious, and sentimental (often courtship) scenes.
Photograph album containing predominantly posed portraits of the family, extended family, and friends of prominent Philadelphia Quakers John Jay and Rachel Collins Pearsall Smith.
Montgomery P. Simons (1816-1877), one of the earliest practitioners of photography in Philadelphia, was also a successful photographer of stereographs. The Library’s stereograph holdings contains several of Philadelphia businesses, religious institutions, and public buildings and spaces from the Simons studio circa 1865-circa 1875. A large number of the stereographs show Fairmount Park and Water Works in addition to views of churches, including St. James the Less (East Falls) and Holy Trinity (6th and Spruce streets). Images depicting the Betsy Ross House, Custom House, the Post Office, State House, and Headhouse Market are also found in the stereographs as well as views of banks, the Apprentice Library, and the Wire Suspension Bridge at Fairmount. In addition, the collection includes panoramic views, most from the State House, but also one from the La Pierre House (Broad Street) showing Penn Square.
Collection of over 1,000 silhouettes, including the portrait of African American silhouettist Moses Williams, and hundreds stamped Peale Museum, ca. 1800s-ca. 1830s.
Scrapbook of print specimens, proofs, and original drawings primarily delineated and compiled by German-born Philadelphia engraver John Serz (1808-1881), an engraver, professor of drawing at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, and president and secretary of the old Artists Club. Contents include book and periodical illustrations; separately-issued views; portrait prints; certificates; and job printing specimens. Majority of graphics depict religious, landscape, historical, genre, and fashion views, including plates from "Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints" (New York, 1864); Auerbach’s "Tales of the Black Forest"; Sartain’s Magazine; Graham’s Illustrated Magazine; W. Alvin Lloyd’s Railroad Guide; and Demorest’s Monthly Magazine.
Photomechanical reproduction of a mechanical drawing of a cross section of the pumping machinery for the waterworks, including the boiler and reservoirs, which when full were able to hold 17,660 gallons of water. Also includes smaller vignettes in the upper left and right corners showing the elevation and plan of the waterworks. The neo-classical style marble pump house was completed in 1800 after the designs of architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, in the tree-lined public square at High (Market) and Broad streets. The city's first waterworks delivered water from the Schuylkill River to subscribers and city hydrants until 1815, when superseded by the Fairmount Waterworks. The pump house was razed in 1827.
Eccentrically-arranged scrapbook predominantly containing newspaper clippings, patent medicine almanac advertisements, and comic valentines. Also contains scraps, trade cards, and labels. Clippings, many published in the sensational periodicals “National Police Gazette” and “Days' Doings” primarily depict illustrations of murders and violence, crimes and punishments, human curiosities, animal attacks, human peril, women in distress, evocative theatrical performances, acts of daring, cross dressing and comic scenes in silhouette.
Scrapbook possibly compiled by Fanny Keene containing trade cards, sentiment cards, holiday cards, rewards of merit, die cut and embossed scraps, and a temperance pledge card primarily issued in New England. Majority of the contents are chromolithographs and some contain trompe l'oeil, embossed, die cut and overlay designs.
Scrapbook containing primarily engraved periodical illustrations issued between circa 1820 and 1852 from American publications, including "Wellman's Literary Miscellany" and "Sartain's Magazine." Illustrations predominantly depict sentimental, religious, and genre views, many after European paintings, and often including children and animals, predominantly dogs.
Scrapbook compiled by Philadelphia socialite Minnie Campbell Wilson (neé Harris) primarily containing ephemera from luncheons, suppers, university class days, and other high society social events. Events attend by Harris include dances and recitals at Wissahickon Inn; receptions, club socials, and a gymnastics exhibition at Princeton University; class days at Harvard, Brown, Princeton, and University of Pennsylvania (1885-1891); a Cricket Ball (1888); Authors Dance for the benefit of the School of Industrial Art and Pennsylvania Museum (1890); U.S.S. New York launching at Cramp's Shipyard (1891); and "supper at the Stratford after seeing [Sarah] Bernhardt given by Charles Lea, Feb. 1891." Ephemera includes programs, invitations, menus, and place, dance, holiday, and tally cards. Majority of the cards are printed, with some designed by hand. Holiday cards often depict religious, sentimental, and genre imagery, including children, animals, flowers, landscapes, and costumed and historical figures.
Scrapbook compiled by Philadelphia socialite Minnie Campbell Wilson (neé Harris) containing primarily place, greeting, holiday and calling cards predominantly issued in the United Kingdom and the Northeast United States. Majority of the cards are printed and or chromolithographs, with a small number illustrated with drawings by hand. Many cards also contain ornate border details, embossing, and adornments, including ribbons, fringe, lace, a wishbone, and overlays.
Scrapbook compiled circa 1821- circa 1894 containing tickets, invitations, textile and perfume labels, tokens, and trade cards, primarily issued in Philadelphia. Materials included document University of Pennsylvania medical department courses; Pennsylvania Horticultural Society events, including bazaars; and advertising souvenirs from the Centennial Exhibition (1876). Imagery depicts buildings, genre scenes, and allegorical figures.
Album of photographs documenting the Philadelphia, Middle, and Pittsburgh divisions of the Pennsylvania Railroad, incorporated in 1846. The consolidated company sought to build a trunk route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh through the Allegheny mountains in order to compete with the Erie Canal for freight traffic. In 1854, rail passage through the Alleghenies via the "Horse Shoe Curve" was achieved and spurred the establishment and growth of the several towns depicted along the route.
Volume composed of reprinted "Saturday Jaunts" columns (spring and summer 1891) and 25 photographs documenting the one-day excursions of the "Saturday Jaunters," employees of the Public Ledger in Philadelphia. Saturday Jaunters (identified with "monkish" pseudonyms) referenced in and authors of the columns include Bonifacius (William E. Meehan), Benedict (Addison B. Burk), Chrysostum (Joel Cook), Angelo (John J. Mckenna), Damon (Charles S. Spangler), Photius (Edmund Stirling), Friar Tuck (Edward Robinson), Constantius (Stephen J. Burke), Pius (Israel F. Sheppard), Sacristan (C. Johann), Fabian (Dr. William H. Burk), Medicus, Ananias (Collins W. Walton), Titian (John A. Johann), Cephas (Peter J. Heborn), and Brother Alban (Captain Robert C. Clipperton). Contains the columns: I. Marble Hall and Spring Mill. II. A Visit to the Coal Fields of Pottsville. III. A Trip along Cresheim Creek and the "Happy Valley." IV. A Roundabout Journey to Edge Hill. V. A Pilgrimage through the Gulf and to Belvoir. VI. A Pilgrimage through the Gulf and to Belvoir (Continued). VII. A Pleasant Pilgrimage into New Jersey. VIII. A. Walk Up the Wissahickon Valley. IX. A Trip to Reading and Its Grand Environs. X. The Soapstone Quarries and Rockdale. XI. Villanova and Its Vicinity. XII. Glimpses from a Car window of a Picturesque Country. XIII. A Trip to Mount Gretna and the Cornwall Ore Banks.
Broadsides, certificates, songs and prayers reflecting Pennsylvania German-American folk culture collected by Don Yoder and William Woys Weaver, mostly 19th century.
Bound volume of portraits primarily delineated by Max Rosenthal showing prominent Philadelphians, and historical and military figures, including members of the Continental Congress, clergyman, legislators, government officials, physicians, military officers, artists, and authors. Contains full-length, half-length, bust-length, and profile portraits, with some containing backgrounds and props. Also includes the front page of a September 1885 edition of "Paper and Press" containing a portrait and biography of Philadelphia publisher Henry Carey Baird and an article about printed blanks.
Collection of photographs attributed to Philadelphia painter and pioneer photographer Richards of 18th-century public, commercial, and residential buildings in Philadelphia.
Collection of landscape photographs taken 1885-1900 by Philadelphia-area naturalist photographer and Photo-Secessionist Robert Redfield (1849-1923). Images primarily depict the Brandywine Creek and Mill Creek (PA); Twin Lakes (CT); and Mount Washington (MA) as well as unidentified creeks and streams. Many of the views include people at recreation and sheep or cows. Collection also includes views of the office and darkroom of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia (South Fifteenth Street) and the photographer’s residence in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
Folio volume of panoramic views of businesses on the 200-900 blocks of Chestnut Street and corresponding pages of advertisements. Also contains a preface, which details that inclusion in the directory required subscription to or purchase of the volume; the intention to "issue the Panoramic View annually"; and the publisher's endeavor to correct all lettering errors "upon the publication of the second edition." Volume also includes interspersed full-, half- and, one-third-page advertisements for business subscribers tenanting, as well as not located on Chestnut Street. Publisher issued only the 1851 directory.
This collection includes historical materials or references to or descriptions of historical materials that may be considered offensive or harmful. Historical records are evidence of the time in which they were created and often contain language and images that are racist, homophobic, sexist, ableist, or otherwise derogatory and insensitive. The Library Company takes responsibility for these materials and their importance for the study of the past seriously. The Library does not endorse the views expressed in these materials.
If you encounter language in this digitized collection, or elsewhere that you find offensive or harmful, or if you have questions about the statement above or about our work, we welcome your feedback. A full statement and feedback form where you can alert us of potentially harmful material is here.
The Race and Visual Culture Digital Collection contains historical visual material and popular art works, often racist in content, that pertain to the visual culture of race and its social, cultural, and historical complexities and biases. The collection, in correlation with the African American History Graphics Digital Collection, includes over 1,600 images and descriptions of visual material that depict or reference the BIPOC community between the 18th and 20th centuries. The sub collections contained within are arranged by date spans based on the creation date of the item. The supplied titles, descriptions, and subject headings were reviewed, revised, and remediated to include anti-racist language as part of a 2021-2022 remediation cataloging project of our African American History Graphics Collection. Many records still include legacy Library of Congress Subject Headings, which conform to national and institutional cataloging standards that are under review for their continued public use in our catalogs. The collection was first published in 2023.
Resources:
Antracoli, Alexis A., Annalise Berdini, Kelly Bolding, Faith Charlton, Amanda Ferrara, Valencia Johnson, and Katy Rawdon. “Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia: Anti-Racist Description Resources.” October 2020.
https://archivesforblacklives.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/ardr_202010.pdf
Berry, Dorothy. Descriptive Equity and Clarity around Blackface Minstrelsy in H(arvard) T(heater) C(ollection) Collections, 2021.
https://www.dorothy-berry.com/minstrel-description
Jeannet, Paula. “The Ethics of Describing Images: Representing Racial Identities in Photographic Collections,” Catalogue & Index, March 2021.
https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.cilip.org.uk/resource/collection/CC45A47F-BE48-4BA1-B6D4-25BF10F1BC41/C&I202Jeannet_describing_images.pdf
Scrapbook of dated textual and illustrated newspaper clippings describing the history, society, built environment, and political climate of Philadelphia, ca. 1830-ca. 1860.
The Library Company's ongoing Portraits of American Women project identifies portraits that appeared in books and periodicals before 1861 and makes them accessible online. In antebellum America, before the development of photomechanical image reproduction, such portraits represented a significant investment of time and money.
Bound volume of portrait plates issued between circa 1804 and 1831 from various publications, including "Mechanics Magazine"; "New British Lady's Magazine"; and the compilation "Boxiana or Sketches of Antient [sic] and Modern Pugilism" (London: George Virtue, 1829). Portraits depict prominent and celebrity European figures, predominantly from Great Britain, including clergymen, legislators, entertainers, scientists and inventors, royalty and pugilists. Plates include full-length, half-length, and bust-length portraiture, with some containing backgrounds, props, or ornate borders. Portraits of religious figures predominantly published by London publishers F. Westley and Westley & Davis and arranged in alphabetical order by sitter's name. Portraits of legislators, celebrity and other prominent figures predominantly published by London publishers Fisher Son & Co. and J. Robins & Co. and arranged in alphabetical order by sitter's name. Portraits of pugilists predominantly published by G. Smeeten and Sherwood, Jones & Co. and most arranged in alphabetical order by sitter's name. Volume also includes a title page and views titled "The John Bull Fighters Splendid Silver Cup" and "A Sparring Match at the Fives Court" from the Pierce Egan's "Boxiana" series originally published in parts in 1813 and later as volumes between 1818 and 1828., Sitters include reverends George Burder (Senior Secretary of the London Missionary Society), William Milne (Late Missionary to the Chinese), David Stuart (Theological Tutor of the Irish Evangelical), and Robert Vaughan; physician Carl Linnaeus; inventor Sir Richard Arkwright; Queen Caroline; statesman John Wilson Croker; authors Madame De Genlis, Madame De Stael, and Hannah More; (Victoria Mary Louisa) Duchess of Kent; George I, II, III, and IV; performers Josephine Girardelli and Anna Maria Tree; architect Peter Nicholson; Whig politician Thomas Spring Rice; and chemist William Hyde Wollaston. Sitters also include pugilists Peter Crawley; Dick Curtis; Josh Hudson; Tom Owen; Ned Painter; Dutch Sam (i.e., Samuel Elias); Ned Turner; and expatriate, African American pugilists Bill Richmond and Tom Molyneux (portraits on the same page)., Portraits of Bill Richmond and Tom Molyneux show the men in bust-length. Richmond looks slight to the right. He has curly hair and is attired in a patterned shirt with a ruffled collar and a jacket. Molyneux is shown in right profile. He has curly hair and is attired in a shirt with a ruffled collar and a jacket., Title from stamp on spine., Inscribed on front free end paper: R. B. bind as arranged., Pages numbered in ink in upper left corner., Inscribed on verso of portrait of ‘His Most Gracious Majesty, George Augustus-Frederick The Fourth” (p. 110): On Celebrated Englishmen, Various artists and engravers, including George Cruikshank; Isaac Robert Cruikshank; Fenner, Sears & Co.; W. T. Fry; W. Hollins; Thomas Lawrence; R. Page; W. T. Page; George Parker; Sherwood, Jones & Co.; J. R. Wildman; and J. W. Wright., Publishers include Knight & Lacey; George Smeeton; F. Westley; Westley & Davis; T. Williams; and Williams & Smith., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Accessioned 1882., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date
[ca. 1804-ca. 1831]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums [Uz 3 51278.O]
Photograph album containing identified portrait photographs, bust-length, half-length, and full-length, of twenty-one prominent Philadelphia African American men. Named sitters in order of inclusion in album include veteran Harmon Richardson attired in a military uniform; educator and activist Octavius Catto; civil rights activist Edwin Chew (son of John and Charlotte Henson Chew); janitor and later undertaker Guy M. Burton with musician Ed[ward] H. Johnson and Terry V. Hall; musician Joseph G. Anderson; Civil War veteran and waiter Taylor Aldridge; Johnson al-Jube holding a basket; laborer Parker T. Smith; Jeremiah V. Hall; George Hall; waiter William I. Lancaster; barber James Keith; caterer Henry Tobias; Cheslea Bass, barber and partner to James Keith, with caterer Andrew F. Stevens; Edwin Lewis; Jas. H. Williams ae.[sic] Rush; Thomas Proctor; and restauranteur/caterer Ja[me]s B. Page. Musicians Edward Johnson and Joseph G. Anderson were members of Francis Johnson's band in the 1830s and 40s., Title supplied by cataloger from label on spine., Date from content and medium of photographs., Cardboard binding with torn spine label inscribed: Portraits of Well Know[n]. Insides of binding covers include scribbles and a pasted partial scrap of a flower., Photographs are loose or attached to album pages within binding., Sitters, and occasionally their profession, identified by manuscript notes on verso of photograph or album page. Some notes include statement "deceased," including for sitters Harmon Richardson, Edwin Chew, Octavius Catto, Edward H. Johnson, Terry V. Hall, Joseph G. Anderson, Johnson al-Jube, George Hall, James H. Williams, and James Page., Mostly unidentified photographers with identified Philadelphia photographers John L. Gihon and Parlor Gallery., Portrait photograph of Octavius Catto reproduced after a circa 1871 portrait photograph taken by African American Philadelphia photographer Gallo W. Cheston and/or Philadelphia photographers Broadbent & Phillips. See "Amy Cohen's Catto the Forgotten Hero" at catto.ushistory.org/. See also Harper's Weekly 15 (October 28, 1871), p. 1005 and a copy of the original portrait at https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2006.8. Photograph stamped on verso: Kean Archives, Phila., Portrait photograph of Taylor Aldridge inscribed on verso: Nov. 27 '83., Verso of album page with portrait photograph of Edwin Lewis inscribed: July '83., Verso of album page with portrait photograph of James Page printed: Sharpless Bros. Dry Goods, Chestnut and Eighth Sts. Philadelphia., Purchase 1990., Description revised 2023., Access points revised 2023., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date
[ca. 1865-ca. 1885]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums [P.9304]
