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- Title
- Agriculture and domestic manufactures Be it known that [blank] of the [blank] of [blank] was on the [blank] day of [blank] 18 [blank] admitted a member of the [blank] Society for promoting Agriculture and Domestic Manufactures and is entitled to all the rights and privileges appertaining thereunto. Witness our hands and the seat of the institution
- Description
- Blank membership certificate containing an allegorical scene bordered by graphic elements representing agriculture and industry. Scene depicts two women allegorical figures, with upswept hair, and in Roman garb, as well as a nude, cherubic figure attired in a cape covering his shoulders and swept over his waist in a a bucolic setting. The central female figure, stands, her right arm bent and with her right hand above her head. She holds a long staff with a flame in in her left hand. To her right is the cherubic figure who holds up a sheaf of wheat in her direction with his left hand. A bundle of wheat lies near his feet. To her left is the other allegorical female figure who is seated in a gazebo. She holds up a swath of cloth in her extended left hand. She holds the other end of it with her right hand as it drapes across her lap. A spindle sits to her left. The top of the gazebo is covered in vinery. In the background are groves of bushes, a bee hive, the peering head of a horned cow, trees, and a small building. Pictorial elements to the right symbolize industry and depict an eagle, crates, a barrel, anchor, and ships sailing on the ocean. Pictorial elements to the left symbolize agriculture and depict a sickle, parts of a plow, a cornucopia, a tree, and bushes. In 1819 the New York legislature appropriated $20,000 over two years for the promotion of agriculture and family domestic manufactures to the county agricultural societies of the state., Signed [E. Gillet], Secrety. and [M. Vling?] Presidt., Title from item., Date inferred from New York 1819 funding initiatives for state agricultural societies., Gift of David Doret., Ralph Rawdon, an engraver, located to Albany, N.Y. in 1816. In 1817 his partnership with engraver Asaph Willard dissolved. He later partnered in the bank note companies Balch, Rawdon & Co. in the 1820s and Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Co. in 1832.
- Creator
- Rawdon, Ralph, 1793-
- Date
- [ca. 1820]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - Certificates - Agriculture [P.2009.24.7]
- Title
- Sharples homestead
- Description
- Historical view showing the over 200-acre West Chester homestead, including a residence, barn, and outbuilding at 22 Dean Street. In the foreground, cows graze near a boy whittling while seated on a log. Lombardy poplars surround the residence in the background. The original log residence built before 1750 was removed and replaced about 1802, and the depicted barn was destroyed by lightning before the Civil War., Title from manuscript written on recto., Date inferred from content., Possibly printed by West Chester printer and younger brother to Martha Sharples Robert P. Sharples., Gift of David Doret., Library Company of Philadelphia Annual Report 2010, p. 73-74., Martha Sharples (b. 1852), daughter of coal and lumber dealer S. Emlen Sharples, worked as a teacher in 1870 and studied at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women 1877-1878. She also was a member of the Chester County Historical Society.
- Creator
- Sharples, Martha, b. 1852, artist
- Date
- [1876]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Residences - Sharples [P.2010.21.1]
- Title
- A View of Reading Taken from the west side of Schuylkill and most respectfully dedicated to the citizens of Berks County Pa
- Description
- View depicting Reading, Pa. from the west side of the Schuylkill River. In the foreground, foot and vehicular traffic travels on the dirt roads alongside the river’s edge, including a woman carrying a pail, a barefooted white boy with a bag and a dog at his feet, and a horse-drawn carriage carrying a white man and a woman. The women’s faces are obscured by the bonnets they wear. Also near the river, three cows lie down and one stands beside a wooden fence. Boats travel down the river. In the background, the cityscape of Reading is visible including buildings, houses, churches with steeples, and roads., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Gift of David Doret.
- Creator
- Holtzwart, Frederick A., artist
- Date
- [ca. 1837]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Doret and Mitchell Collection – Prints [P.2019.64.40]

