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Title: Interior of Phila; Library, Fifth and Library Streets, 1878
Description: Depicts the reading room in the Library and Surgeon's Hall on Fifth Street south of Chestnut Street, the first building constructed by William Thornton from 1789 to 1790 to house the Library Company of Philadelphia. The building was demolished in 1887 and the American Philosophical Society erected a building on the same site. Includes a view of the main check-out desk (right) and visitors browsing the book shelves on the balcony and the main floor., Location: Fifth and Library Streets., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, with corrections., LCP AR (Annual Report) 1975, p. 6-11.
Creator: Evans, B. R. (Benjamin Ridgway), 1834-1891, artist
Date: 1878
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Evans watercolors [P.2298.151], http://www.brynmawr.edu/iconog/evans/files/plc151.html

Title: Old Phila[delphia] Library, 5th & Library Sts from Independence Sq[uare] being torn down for Drexel's new building
Description: Glass negative showing exterior view looking east from State House Square at the red-brick building constructed on South Fifth Street for the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1789 after designs by Dr. William Thornton. After the construction of two new buildings - the Ridgway Building in South Philadelphia and the Furness building at Juniper and Locust Streets - the Fifth Street library was sold in 1880. A signboard for The Central News Company is visible across the front facade of the building, which in this image, is being demolished to make way for the Drexel Building. Men wearing suits and bowler hats sit in the grass nearby. The Forrest Building (119-127 South Fourth Street) is visible in the distance. Central News Company operated from the building from 1883 until 1886., Title from entry in photographer's diary., Inscribed in negative: No. 13., Photographer remarks: Overtimed., Time: 2:10, Light: Faint sun., Reproduced in The Print and Photograph Department of the Library Company of Philadelphia's Center City Philadelphia in the 19th century (Portsmouth, N.H.: Arcadia Publishing, 2006), p. 10., Arcadia caption text: In 1887, the old Library Company building was demolished to make way for the Drexel Building. Ironically, this office building was demolished in the late 1950s when the American Philosophical Society (founded 1743) built its state-of-the-art library on the site, featuring a reproduction of the Library Company’s original façade as designed by William Thornton., Digitization and cataloging edits have been made possible through the generosity of David Marriott Morris, Eleanor Rhoads Morris Cox, and William Perot Morris in memory of Marriott Canby Morris and his children: Elliston Perot Morris, Marriott Canby Morris Jr., and Janet Morris and in acknowledgment of his grandchildren: William Perot Morris, Eleanor Rhoads Morris Cox, Jonathan White Morris, and David Marriott Morris., Edited.
Creator: Morris, Marriott Canby, 1863-1948, photographer
Date: April 22, 1887
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Marriott C. Morris [P.9895.1105]

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