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- Title
- [Specimens album]
- Description
- Scrapbook of print specimens and proofs probably compiled 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. Majority of contents include several plates from Thomas Allom's "China: In a Series of Views,..." (London, 1860), Albert Barnes's "Scenes and Incidents in the Life of the Apostle Paul" (Philadelphia, 1869), John Fleetwood's "The life of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (Philadelphia, 1871) and Daniel March's "Our Father's House , or The Unwritten Word" (Philadelphia, 1871); illustrations and plates depicting genre, religious, sentimental, historical, natural history, scientific, and scenic views from children and gift books, and periodicals, including "Leila in England" and "Leila at Home" (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1875-1880), "Peterson's Magazine" (plates engraved by Illman Brothers), "Ladies Companion," "Graham's Magazine," "Odd Fellow's Casket," "Transactions and Proceedings of American Entomological Society" and "Annals Lyceum of Natural History"; and several works printed by Stein & Jones and Cincinnati lithographers Klauprech & Menzel and Ehrgott & Fobriger, including trade cards, labels, tickets, invitations, certificates, receipts, checks, bank notes, sheet music covers, advertisements, and book illustrations., Bank notes, receipts, checks, and certificates document primarily Philadelphia and New York bank, coal, oil, steel, and real estate businesses, including Bank of Fashion, Belmont Petroleum Refinery, and Union College Bank. Trade cards, tickets, invitations, and labels represent primarily Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York, Cincinnati and Chicago businesses and organizations, including printers and art supply dealers; perfume, patent medicine, wine, dry goods, and clothing dealers; doctors and dentists; bankers and brokers; and manufacturers. The materials contain patriotic, agricultural, and transportation vignettes, views of buildings, anaglyptography (i.e., medal engraving), allegorical figures, and Centennial Exhibition (1876) imagery. Sheet music covers, predominantly printed by Ehrgott & Fobriger, depict mainly genre and Civil War scenes, portraiture, including images of entertainers, and advertisements such as "Sewing Machine Polka." Work by the Cincinnati lithographers also include several book illustrations depicting Ohio and Cincinnati asylums, institutes, seminaries, and landmarks, as well as uncut sheets of views of cemetery monuments for "The Cincinnati Cemetery of Spring Grove..." (Cincinnati, 1862). Several of the ephemera also printed by Grattan & Co., Theodore Leonhardt, and Wm. F. Murphy & Sons., Scrapbook also contains 1860s Berlin wool work patterns ("Peterson’s Ladies National Magazine"); ornate border print specimens, some with cut-out overlays; proofs and final states of textile, fruit, liquor, druggist labels, and tobacco labels printed predominantly by Stern, Jonas & Co. and Steng & Paxson and depicting romantic, patriotic, and mystical themes, including "I Am Free" logo illustrated with an African American man ; European prints, including plates from Bernard-Romain Julien "Cours Elementaire," and issued by German publisher A.H. Payne (some hand-colored); ca. 1855 Bowen & Co. plates of birds from "United States Pacific Rail Road Expedition and Survey"; color printed and numbered proof lithographs depicting Mo-Hon-Go; Shar- I-Tar-Ish; Se-Quo-Yah after plates in McKenney & Hall's "History of the Indian Tribes of North America"; Philadelphia Sketch Club signage; portraits of Catholic bishops, celebrity and political figures, and lithographers Rudolph Stein and Alfred Jones; mechanical views printed by William Boell; job printing specimen vignettes depicting masonic, military, allegorical, and patriotic imagery, transportation views, women, entertainers, agriculture, buildings, animals, and machinery; collecting cards showing George and Martha Washington, Civil War generals, celebrities, including Lydia Thompson and Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosasea, wild life, Biblical animals, fashion, and satiric scenes; and chromolithographic scrap portraits of women., Stamped on spine: Specimens., Various artists, engravers, lithographers, and printers including Ackerman; John Alexander; Thomas Allom; William Boell; John T. Bowen,; Bowen & Co.; Byram & Slack; C. E. Wemple & Co.; Donaldson Brothers ; G. Dow; Ehrgott & Fobriger; Dominque Fabronius; Grattan & Co.; The Hatch Lith. Co.; Otto Knirsch; L. H. Bradford & Co.; Klauprech & Menzel; Theodore Leonhardt; London Printing and Publishing Company; McLaughlin Bros.; Antoine [Maurin?]; A.H. Payne; Prang & Co.; Rawdon, Wright & Hatch; William H. Rease; Sarony & Major; John Sartain; Samuel Sartain; R. Trembley; J. Shobe; Steng & Paxson; Stern, Jonas & Co.; A. B. Walter; and Wm. F. Murphy & Sons., Index of general subjects illustrated available at repository., Several items found loose in album removed and housed separately., Gift of Margaret Robinson, 1991., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
- Date
- [ca. 1852-ca. 1876]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *albums (flat) [P.9349], https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/digitool%3A120747?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=a3bf36a0044447b21c5b&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=0&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=0#page/3/mode/1up
- Title
- Memories of the home of Grandma Lewis
- Description
- Memory album compiled by Lewis containing written narratives, photographs, watercolors, textiles, drawings, prints and ephemera documenting her marriage, early married life, households and residences, and family events and excursions between 1851 and the 1890s. Specific narrative topics include the Lewis's honeymoon to Niagara; the death of their parents the Larcombes and John F. and Eliza Lewis; the birth of grandchildren; the method and style of interior decoration of their residences at Sixteenth and Walnut streets (1851-1855), 325 South Eighteenth Street (1855-1874), and 1834 DeLancey Place (1874-1915); the Civil War, Sanitary Fair, and Centennial Exhibition (1876); their religious life in the First Baptist Church; club meetings of the Lewis children when older and parlor "teas"; recreational activities, including sailing and skating on the Schuylkill River, carriage and horse back rides, excursions to Broad Top Mountain House (Pa.), and visits to their summer residences in Wallingford and the Bryn Mawr Hotel; boarding near Bryn Mawr ("Eachus Place") and the Delaware Water Gap ("Mr. Croasdale"); Anne and G. Albert's European trip (1891); and family pets., Album also contains several captioned and dated graphic and ephemeral materials, including family portraiture, views of residences and summer lodgings, clothing and upholstery scraps, tickets, invitations, calling cards, and watercolors and drawings by G. Albert Lewis. Lewis's works depict sailing trips; interiors and exteriors of their residences, including during the Civil War; home furnishings, including a pier table (Eliza Lewis's); lodgings, sites, and flora from family excursions; family souvenirs, memorabilia, and crests, including a Chinese pipe, John F. Lewis's "Little Chair" as a child, Anne's life membership badge in the Philadelphia Skating club, a family clock (Mrs. John F. Lewis estate), and "Indoor amusements of G.A.L." Other imagery includes photographs of Broad Top Mountain House, Bryn Mawr Hotel, Devon Inn, Eastwick Park, St. Johns Evangelical Lutheran Church, First Baptist Church, views of European churches, including St. Michael Church of Schwabisch., and the interior (parlor, dining room, library, front rooms) and exterior of the Delancey Street residence. Portraits, predominantly photographs and photographic reproductions, depict G. Albert and Anne C. Lewis (including in the second story front room on Delancey); Alberta and Hermann Lewis and their spouses Frederick B. Allen and Sally Draper Lewis; grandchildren Hidegard, Frederick ("Fritz"), Barbara, George, and Margaret; John F. and Eliza Lewis; Thomas and Anna Larcombe; and family pets. Also contains pictorial details by Lewis incorporated at the end of narratives and as frames around portraits, as well as a memento "To our dear Papa, July 3, 1863" adorned with two, small circular works of handcrafted art, possibly with flower petals (p.80a)., Ephemera includes mementoes from trips, including pressed flowers; tickets to the Sanitary Fair (1864) and Eastwick Park; scraps of ribbons, collars, and clothing worn by Anne as a child, at her wedding, and during her honeymoon; upholstery and fabrics from the China trade and home furnishings; newspaper clippings of marriage announcements, obituaries, and poetry; wedding invitations and after cards; and a University of Pennsylvania graduation program for Hermann Lewis. Manuscript material contained in the scrapbook includes a letter by Anne to her mother during her honeymoon captioned "First 'Lewis' signature of A.C.L" and a letter of introduction from the Department of State for the Lewises., Vignette photograph after a daguerreotype portrait of Anne Lewis as a young woman pasted and set within a watercolor frame on title page, Wm. F. Murphy's Sons, Co. Makers stamped on spine., Red leather binding with gold lettering., Inscribed on front free end paper: Tender regards, old memories, blossom in pages such as these, Voices that speak from heart to heart, When hands and lives lie far apart. The thought of our past years, in me, Doth breed perpetual benediction., Dedication: "These memories I dedicate to my dear husband G. Albert Lewis whose thought inspired the writing of this simple story. Indeed, it would be of little interest without his numerous and varied illustrations, many of which are his own design and handiwork. A number of the photographs are copied of absolutely correct watercolor sketches, made by him; the whole being a mutual work of love, for our dear grand-children.", Photographers include the Langenheims and William H. Rau., Gift of Oliver Allen., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Transcription and inventory available at repository., One of six Lewis Family albums held in the Print Department., See Sarah Weatherwax, "The Lewis Albums," The Magazine Antiques (August 2006), 116-121., See Oliver H. Allen, "The Lewis Albums," American Heritage 14 (December 1962), 65-80., Housed in clamshell box., Anne Cornelia Larcombe Lewis, born in Connecticut, was daughter of Rev. Thomas Larcombe (1791-1861) and Anna S. Larcombe (1794-1872), president of the board of the Baptist Home. She relocated with her family to Philadelphia in 1835 and married George Albert Lewis, a Philadelphia banker, artist, and genealogist descended from a family involved with the China trade on July 1, 1851. During her married life, Lewis resided in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood, was active in genealogy, and a member of the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society. She and Lewis had two children Alberta (1854-1934) and Hermann (b. 1863) and grandchildren Hildegarde Allen (b. 1885), editor and publisher Frederick Lewis Allen (1890-1954), Barbara Lewis [Shepperd] (b. 1885), Margaret Lewis [Browne] (b. 1886), and George Draper Lewis (b. 1888).
- Creator
- Lewis, Anne C., 1831-1898
- Date
- 1896
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums [P.9829.1]