Search results

Title: [Thomas Richardson and American Bank Note Company scrapbook]
Description: Scrapbook compiled by Philadelphia banknote printer Thomas Richardson containing proofs of illustrations after the work of F. O. C. Darley from Susan Fenimore Cooper's "Pages and Pictures from the Writings of James Fenimore Cooper" (New York, 1861); portrait illustrations, some from J. B. Longacre's "National Portrait Gallery" (probably 1854 edition); and vignette specimens of the American Bank Note Company and their predecessor companies. Cooper illustrations depict scenes on the frontier and ship decks, with Native Americans, and of battles; deathbeds; and of informal meeting from his works The Oak Openings, The Redskins, The Chainbearer, The Pathfinder, The Red Rover, The Monikins, Deerslayer, Homeward Bound, Lionel Lincoln, The Pilot, Last of the Mohicans, The Wept Wish-ton Wish, The Spy, and Wing and Wing. Several also contain animals. Sitters in portrait illustrations include Lewis Cass, Giuseppe Garibaldi, David Ramsay, James Kent, Thomas C. Pope, John McLean, Stephen Decatur, Samuel Rogers, Rev. William Capers, John Binns, Washington Irving, and Noah Webster., Specimen subjects include portraits of prominent government officials, Civil War figures, businessmen, clergymen, royalty, and "fancy heads" of named and unnamed women and children; allegorical figures and scenes, including Bounty, Liberty, Arts, Agriculture, and Commerce; state and symbolic seals and insignia; naval and maritime imagery, including sailors, sailing vessels, and wharf and dock views; modes and venues of transportation, including steamboats, trains, streetcars, and rail stations; white and Black men artisans, laborers, and tradesmen, including drivers, farmers, sheep shearers, and furriers; industrial views of factory workers, mineworkers, and female loom workers, as well as mills and factories along canals and riverfronts; women at work feeding livestock, milking cows, and at a sewing machine; municipal buildings and storefronts; southern imagery, including enslaved people at work, palmetto trees, plantations, and ports; patriotic, historical, military, and scenic imagery; frontier views and scenes with Native Americans; and animals. Specimens with titles include Star of Empire (Princess Eugenie of Sweden) River Source, The Guardian, Locomotive, Autumn Fruit, Sheep Feeding, The Yarn, Trusty, Picking Grapes, The Sickle, The Death Blow, and Propeller Loading. Some specimens used as the backs of national currency., Title supplied by cataloger., Date based on publication date of specimens., Manuscript notes on front free end paper: Aunt Tillie Richardson (cousin Florence's aunt) in pencil; Scrapbook No. 3 in ink., Lincoln Monument Association of Philadelphia certificate pasted on inside front cover and issued to Thos. Richardson on July 4, 1865, signed C. J. Stille, Secy; Alex. Henry, Prest.; and James L. Claghorn, Cashr. Certificate number 6004 and illustrated with bust-length portrait of Lincoln. Charles J. Stillé, was a Philadelphia lawyer who served on the United States Sanitary Commission, and was later Provost of the University of Pennsylvania. Alexander Henry was the mayor of Philadelphia. James L. Claghorn was president of the Commercial National Bank in Philadelphia and an art collector., Stationer's label pasted on back cover: John Alexander, Stationer and Printer, 52 South Fourth St., Various artists, engravers, and printers including F.O.C. Darley, G. H. Cushman, J. Hamilton, Asher B. Durand, C. Schussele, John Sartain, Samuel Sartain, Jas. D. Smillie, E. Prudhomme, H. B. Hall, T. Phillibrown, R. Whitechurch, J. M. Butler, James Bannister, Charles Kennedy Burt, Louis Delnoce, W. W. Rice, American Bank Note Company, Toppan, Carpenter & Co, Baldwin, Bald & Cousland, and Bald, Cousland & Co., Several of the specimens contain a specimen number and/or title., Few of the specimens contain a copyright statement., Specimen #312 (p. 81) and specimen #280 (p. 71) after the work of Emanuel Leutze., Inventory of portrait sitters housed at repository., Identity of several of the artists and engravers supplied by Gene Hessler, The engraver's line: an encyclopedia of paper money & postage stamp art (Port Clinton, OH: BNR Press, 1993)., RVCDC, Accessioned 2012., 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., 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., Thomas Richardson (b. ca. 1802) was a Philadelphia plate printer who served as the foreman of printing at the Philadelphia branch of the American Bank Note Company formed in 1858. He retired from the trade by 1880.
Creator: Richardson, Thomas, 1802-approximately 1881
Date: [ca. 1854-ca. 1861]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *albums (flat) [P.2012.6]

Title: The United States Centennial International Exhibition
Description: Share certificate issued by the Centennial Board of Finance containing a series of historical and allegorical vignettes, scenes, and figures. Vignettes depict a view on a coastline showing a white man, attired in colonial dress, reaping with a sickle beside a white man driving a plow in front of a steer-drawn conestoga wagon, a moving train, and sailing ships; the signing of the Declaration of Independence; and a scene depicting a Native American man, attired in pants and moccasins with a feather in his hair and a quiver of arrows on his back, covering his face from the sight of a dilapidated windmill near rows of industrial buildings spewing smoke. Along the sides figures include: tradesmen; laborers; soldiers; frontiersmen; inventors, including Benjamin Franklin; Native Americans; and an African American man reading. In the top center, allegorical figures of Liberty, Art, and Peace, portrayed as white women, accept offerings from representations of people from across the world, including African women; a woman attired in a turban, a person with a parrot on their shoulder, and an Asian man with a queue. Also contains: busts of George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant; an eagle holding an American flag; views of the State House and Capitol; and the printed seal of the Centennial Board of Finance. The Centennial Exhibition of 1876 celebrated the centennial of the United States through an international exhibition of industry, agriculture, and art., Title from item., P.2002.67.77 issued to Margaret R. Bringhurst for one share on October 20, 1875. Signed by Fred. Fraley, Treasurer; and John Welsh, President., 5788.F.10 issued to Mary Norris Logan for one share on November 10, 1876. Signed by Fred. Fraley, Treasurer; and John Welsh, President., Printed on recto: Shares $10. Each. Capital $10,000,000., P.2002.67.66 poor condition., Gift of Helen Beitler, 2002 [P.2002.67.66]., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of Centennial and Columbian Exposition views [5758.F.10. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator: United States, Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Date: [ca. 1872]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Philadelphia certificates - Centennial [P.2002.67.77], Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **Philadelphia certificates - Centennial [5758.F.10]

Title: The Hottentots butcher ; The Hottentot mat-maker, potter & c
Description: Engravings accompany Chapter XIX, "Of certain Handy-Crafts the Hottentots exercise among themselves." In the foreground of the top image, two pairs of Hottentot [i.e. Khoikhoin] men work separately to butcher two oxen. In the left background, two other men butcher a sheep. A fourth pair boils water in cauldrons; and two others (right) hold the entrails of another animal. The bottom image shows several Hottentot mat-makers and a potter, all of whom appear to be women. (As Kolb wrote, the mat-makers "are, for the most Part, women: And they are very expert in their Business." [p. 236]) In the engraving, the mat-makers are involved in various stages of production: one background figure cuts the reeds out of which the mats will be woven; another woman carries the reeds, and yet another (slightly left of center) lays them on the ground to dry. The woman sitting on the partially finished mat is most likely weaving. In the foreground, a mat-maker strips reeds, while a potter makes a bowl. Several small pots are shown on the ground., Page from Peter Kolb's The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope (London: Printed for W. Innys and R. Manby, at the west end of St. Paul's, MDCCXXXVIII [1738]), vol. 1, p. 226., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date: [1738]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri Kolb 532.O v 1 p 226, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2920

Title: Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society. [life membership certificate]
Description: Membership certificate containing a border of vignettes and scenes related to agriculture, horticulture, and industrial arts. Floral pictorial elements, a beehive, and watering can surround the scenes and vignettes. Shows farmers loading hay on a wagon; the coat of arms of Pennsylvania; a Victorian-style farm house; cows and horses at pasture; and figures representing agriculture, a blacksmith, and a sailor. The female agricultural figure sits and holds a sickle and a bale of wheat near an arrangement of farm produce. The artisan, holds a hammer, and stands over an anvil. The sailor, holds a spy glass, and sits next to a crate, barrels, and an anchor. Land and marinescapes are visible behind the figures. The Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society was founded in 1851 by representatives from 50 counties with the object to "foster and improve agriculture, horticulture, and the domestic and household arts." The first annual exhibition of the society was held the same year., Not in Wainwright., Issued to C. F. Peters, ca. 1863. Signed A. B[rower] Longaker, Secretary and Thomas B. Knox, President., Seal of the society blindstamped on recto., Philadelphia on Stone, POSP 169, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Certificates - Pennsylvania State Life Membership, Inscribed on verso: Estate of Anna M. Peters Sept. 8, 1938., Knox served as president of the PSAS 1862-1864.
Date: [ca. 1855]
Location: Historical Society of Pennsylvania HSP Certificates - Pennsylvania State Life Membership

Title: One flag, one country. [graphic] : Constitution & laws.
Description: Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of Civil War miscellanies., Trimmed., Patriotic print, possibly a poster illustration, containing a central allegorical scene flanked by views of Civil War battlefields. Central scene shows men of all eras and trades, including a sailor with an American flag, raising their arms in salute to the Temple of Liberty elevated upon a rock in the background. Other figures include a farmer with a sickle, a veteran of the American Revolution, and a wagon driver. Also shows boughs of wheat and artisans tools. Battle views show soldiers, including Zouaves, charging, traveling on horseback, and firing a cannon. Variant of print often used as a Civil War envelope design.
Date: [ca. 1861]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia Print Dept. *GC - Civil War [5786.F.137a]

Main menu