[Specimens album]
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
[Geo. S. Harris & Sons print specimens]
Title
[Geo. S. Harris & Sons print specimens]
Description
Series of specimens, primarily for trade cards and labels, printed by the prominent Philadelphia lithographic firm. Subjects include fanciful, allegorical, and sentimental scenes and portraiture with women, children, and flowers; hunting and recreational scenes; international iconography; animals (dogs, horses, and an alligator clutching a Black baby in its jaws); political and military imagery, including President James Garfield; land and marinescapes; and mythological and fairy tale views. Collection also includes specimen without an imprint and probably printed by Harris showing a plantation scene with a white man, attired in a straw hat, a white collared shirt, white pants, and a sword on his waistband, placing his right hand on the shoulder of a barefooted Black man, attired in a straw hat, a white collared shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, and white pants that are torn at the bottom, who carries a hoe. They stand before a body of water surrounded by flowers and trees with the plantation in the background. Racist scene shows a white female angel with wings pouring packages of tobacco from a cornucopia to a group of men and women from various ethnic groups and nationalities, including Native Americans, Chinese, Spanish, and Middle Eastern people, many of which smoke cigars, hookahs, and pipes. Specimen depicting a man, attired in a turban with a dagger in his waistband, kneeling with a rifle beside him. Surrounding him are palms and desert plants. In the right background, a lions stands and looks on., Title supplied by cataloger., Publication date inferred from content of one print depicting President James Garfield., Originally part of Specimens Album [P.9349]., 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. 1881]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Specimen Album Loose Prints Collection - Geo. S. Harris [P.9349.279, 283-284, 292, 298-307, 309, 317-318, 321, 328-329, 332, 436-437, 439, 441-442, 447, 451-453 & 455-456]