[Label specimens]
Title
[Label specimens]
Description
Series of labels, primarily textile (wool, silk, mohair), containing allegorical, patriotic, and nationalistic vignettes and pictorial details. Vignettes and details depict Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, coats of arms, the female allegorical figure of Columbia, and a view of a flock of sheep among a grove of trees. Brands represented include Bradford Make, Collingwood Brand, Favorite Ottoman Reversible, Lady Washington, and Royal Shawl., Title supplied by cataloger., Print P.9399.285 stamped on recto: Wm. S. Skinner. David M. Test., Originally part of Specimens Album [P.9349]., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
Date
[ca. 1860-ca. 1870]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Specimens Album Loose Prints Collection - Label Specimens [P.9349.275, 285-286, 289, 322, 337, 355, 420 & 435]
Scrapbook
Title
Scrapbook
Description
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. Contents also include die-cuts of fans, horse shoes, a spoon, a flamingo, one-quarter moon, a woman’s leg, and a bird as a cover for a H. O. Neill & Co. illustrated hat catalog. Cards often depict sentimental and genre imagery including cupids, butterflies, flowers, vases and baskets; religious, historical and Asian-themed scenes, figures and/or decor; seasonal landscape views; women, children, and costumed figures; animals, including birds, chicks, dogs, and cats; and fruit. Other imagery includes two witches flying on brooms holding a "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" banner; London printer William Dickes series of women in native costume from Switzerland, Russia, and Norway; a holiday card that opens to a sledding scene of children holding letters spelling "Merry Christmas"; and a Valentine Day card showing a letter slot filled with valentines. Scrapbook also contains watercolors and drawings, trade cards, programs, menus, invitations, ribbons, photographs, etchings, newspaper clippings, including an announcement of the wedding of Adelaide Watson, and a post card from "cousin Will." Trade cards advertise businesses, including J. E. Caldwell & Co., Stephen F. Whitman & Son, P. Fleischner & Co., Sharpless & Sons, F. T. Howell & Co., A. Ripka & Bro., J. H. Way & Bro., and Automatic Signal Telegraph Co. containing four scenes showing a robbery and fire and police and fire department., Scrapbook contains a number of items depicting Asian people or decorative themes, including a greeting card that reads, "A Happy New Year to You," and showing a Japanese woman, attired in a kimono, sitting and watering a potted plant [p. 9]; a card that reads, "Miss Harris," and depicting a Japanese woman, attired in a kimono made of fabric, standing and facing left [p. 18]; a card titled, "Bric a brac," and showing a blue and white porcelain bowl, vase, and pitcher bordered by hand fans and three flying cranes [p. 29]; and Asian men attired in kimonos having their noses pulled or pulling noses [p. 47]., Watercolors and drawings depict a woman attired in early 19th-century garb in a pumpkin patch, marinescapes, and an anthropomorphic frog. Photographs include a half stereograph showing a croquet match in front of a resort hotel and a photograph of Fifth and Walnut streets (Philadelphia) “taken by Chris in "88." Etchings include a portrait of an elderly man and one signed F. A. Stokes showing a man at a table. Other ephemera includes a hand-made tablet with a cover containing a watercolor depicting birds; a cloth padded bird figurine; a metamorphic playbill for the play "French Flats" at Union Square Theatre; a typewritten engagement announcement composed as a poem; a Christmas Hymnal booklet; handwritten word games, including 'Progressive Conversation"; a Pennsylvania Railroad "Old Point Comfort" tour schedule; and a train schedule scrap annotated with a doodle and inscribed text., Black binding, stamped on cover: Scrapbook., Label pasted on verso of cover: Patent Back Scrap Book. Pat. March 28, 1876., Inscribed on front free end paper: Minnie Campbell Harris Philadelphia. January 12, 1887., Provenance and date of majority of contents identified by brief inscriptions. Provenances include Nannie (i.e., Mary Jaudon) Harris, Lucy and Susan Jaudon, Mai Philler, Carrie (i.e., Caroline) Biddle, and Helen Morton., Printers include Philadelphia firms Craig, Finley & Co., Dreka, Rowley & Chew, and Sunshine Pub. Co.; Boston firm L. Prang & Co.; and British and Irish firms William Dickes, Marcus Ward & Co., and Eyre & Spottiswoode., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Housed in phase box., Gift of Elizabeth McLean., Inventory available at repository., Mary Campbell Harris (known as Minnie), daughter of U.S. Naval Commander Thomas Cadwalder Harris (1826-1875) and Mary Louisa Bainbridge Jaudon (1835-1914), was born in New York on December 27, 1862. Descended from Commodore William Bainbridge and Thomas Harris, the first surgeon-general of the United States Navy, Harris and her family resided in Philadelphia by 1866. In 1893, she married John L. Wilson (b. 1850), later treasurer of Coal Land Corporation and the couple resided in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. Harris was active in the Sedgely Club and often attended and held card parties, teas, and luncheons noted in the local press. Harris spent her later years residing in Bryn Mawr where she died circa 1948.
Creator
Wilson, Mary Campbell Harris, 1862-approximately 1948
Date
[ca. 1877-ca. 1890]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums - Harris [P.9682.1]
Library Company of Philadelphia scrapbook
Title
Library Company of Philadelphia scrapbook
Description
Scrapbook containing newspaper clippings, photographs, ephemera and prints predominantly issued between the 1930s and 1970s documenting exhibitions, loans, collections, events and the history of the Library Company. Clippings include newspaper articles about a loan of American political cartoons to the Toledo Museum (1936); exhibitions commemorating the centenary of librettist W.S. Gilbert (1936); the tercentenary of Swedish Settlement (1938); and the library's African American history collection (1971). Columns also describe the presentation of the Christopher Sower library (1909); the return in 1876 of a book 99 years overdue since the American Revolution (1938); the demolition of the Library's Juniper and Locust streets building for a parking lot (1939); and the vandalism of the former Ridgway Building at 901-933 Broad Street (1969). Photographs predominantly depict the exteriors and reading rooms of the library buildings at Fifth and Library Streets, Juniper and Locust Streets, and Broad Street (Ridgway Building). Other photographs include a series of views from the 1939 unveiling ceremony of the James Logan memorial (to be erected in Fairmount Park) on the steps of the Ridgway Branch. Ephemera includes invitations (several from The Women's Committee), brochures, catalogs, announcements and placards related to library events; bulletins and pamphlets describing collections; dues notices and book plates; the variant 1884 and 1906 "Rules of the Library Company"; an off-print of the 1882 Louise Stockton entry in "A Sylvan City..." about "The Old Philadelphia Library"; and a 1961 citation from the city recognizing the library as a "Philadelphia first.", Title supplied by cataloger., Cut outs of the seal and motto of Library Company from bookplate pasted on title page., Some contents annotated with dates and typewritten descriptions., Several loose photographs removed and rehoused as "Library Company of Philadelphia Scrapbook Photographs Collection" [P.2010.17]. Contains a ca. 1865 portrait of library donor John A. McAllister misidentified as librarian Lloyd P. Smith, a ca. 1935 portrait of librarian George Abbot, and interior and exterior views of the library buildings, including artifacts, at Fifth and Library Streets, Juniper and Locust Streets, and Broad Street (Ridgway Building)., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Typewritten index inserted in volume., The Library Company of Philadelphia, America’s first successful lending library and oldest cultural institution, was founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin as a subscription library supported by its shareholders. Until the 1850s it was the largest public library in America. It was transformed into a research library in the 1950s.
Creator
Library Company of Philadelphia
Date
[ca. 1865-ca. 1971, bulk ca. 1936-ca. 1945]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *albums (flat) [P.2010.17], Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Library Company of Philadelphia Scrapbook Photographs Collection [P.2010.17]

Pages