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Title: [Nature prints of leaves]
Description: Albums of predominantly nature prints of leaves produced by inking both sides of the specimen, placing it between a folded sheet of paper, and pulling the sheet through a printing press. Sheets contain one to several specimens (a few numbered) and several are annotated with the date of printing, inscriptions, and identifications of specimens. Some sheets contain manuscript notes about the provenance of and how the specimens were dried or inked, the condition of the leaves, their medicinal uses, and descriptions of the plants from which they came. Inscriptions of note include "Engraven by the Greatest and Best engraver in the Universe"(v. 1, p. 2); "... leaves dried and press'd in my Heap of News-Papers for 7 or 8 years" (v. 1, p. 43); "Done July 18th 1742, when I impress'd 6 or 8 sheets more for my Frd's Kent, Bard, Pratt, Browne, Shoemaker, &" (v. 1, p. 74); "These were done in my new Press which Joseph Watkins made & now brought Home 2nd of May 1734" (v. 1, p. 94); "Done July 1st 1744 with L' & Vel't B'll"(v. 1, p. 95); Nov. 23rd 1738 A Leaf of Rhubarb and withered. Somewhat hurt by the Frost (v. 1, p.128) and "From Jno. Bartram 18th Augst. 1734. The most excellent remedy for the bite of a Rattlesnake - Sysimachia Quadrafolia - 1st 7br 1734 - "An Indian specific for fevers and aguas [sic] and a substitute for tea [I think Green]" - "From Peter Sonmans (who brought it from Albany). Done 31st Augst. 1734. A famous Snake weed" - "Mem the other Side I sent to Peter Collinson, June 1735" (v.2, p. 58)., Botanical specimens represented in album include wormwood, hollyhock, althea, marsh mallow, lavender, moss, creeper, quince, plantain, service, sage, tansey, mulberry, a sarabacca, rattlesnake weed, gooseberries, hemp, laurel, pawpaw, mustard, bind weed, wild grape, water plantain, wild betony, teasel, pineapple, Indian Fluxwort, "parsimon," arrowhead, oak of Cappadocia, squash, cattail grass, Goat's-Rue, sanicle, yam, maidenhair, tobacco, cat mint, saffron, caterpillar, marygold, horse radish, sun flower, gelder rose, may heart, St. John's-Wort, wild Angelica, marjoram, silk cotton, buck wheat, potato, burdock, rattle snake golden rod, mulleins, and Carolina Bean. Album also contains printed images of feathers, pieces of fabric, and a twenty-four line poem written in pencil and signed by "A Botanist" and dated 1855 (v. 1, p. 106). Provenances of the specimens include John Bartam, Stephen Benezet, "Spring Garden," John Holland, E. Woolley, G. Gray, "R.R.'s Ginseng Hill," Peter Sonmans, and Esther Banks., Title supplied by cataloger., Some sheets contain watermark: Pro Patria., Gift of Mrs. Joseph Breintnall in 1746., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Volume 1 (P.2011.7.1) reformatted and arranged in two cases of folders numbered (1-10) and (21-34)., Index to inscriptions held at repository., Described in Edwin Wolf and Marie Elena Korey, eds., Quarter of a Millennium (Philadelphia: The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1981), entry 11., Described in Philadelphia: Three Centuries of American Art (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1976) #29., Joseph Breintnall (d. 1746), scrivener, public servant, author, poet, and colleague of Benjamin Franklin, was also an amateur scientist who experimented with solar heat and botany. A founder and secretary of the Library Company of Philadelphia, he engaged in the study of botany through Peter Collinson, the library's London book agent. Between circa 1731 and circa 1744, he created hundreds of leaf prints as records of botanical specimens he gathered himself and from networks. Breintnall also most likely used his experience with leaf printing to assist Franklin in the creation of a metal cast of a leaf impression used to print currency incapable to be counterfeited.
Creator: Breintnall, Joseph, d. 1746
Date: [ca. 1731-ca. 1744]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *albums (flat) [P.2011.7.1 & 2]

Title: [Floral watercolor]
Description: Album page containing a drawing of a rose bud. The rose bud is depicted on a stem with a number of leaves and thorns., Probably by educator and anti-slavery activist Ada Howell Hinton, daughter of Frederick Augustus Hinton, barber, perfumer, abolitionist, and prominent member of the Philadelphia African American elite community., RVCDC, Description revised in 2022., Access points revised in 2022.
Date: [ca. 1840]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Mary Anne Dickerson album [13860.Q.69]

Title: Fuchsia
Description: Album page containing a drawing of a stem of fuchsia with four flowers copied after a figure in a plate from James Andrews' Lessons in Flower Painting. A Series...(London: Charles Tilt, Fleet Street; John Menzies, Edinburgh; Thomas Wardle, Philadelphia [1836]), pl. 11. (LCP Am 1836 And, 13878.Q). The fuchsia is depicted with the blue petals, red sepals, and pink stamens of the flowers facing down. Image is also composed with the bud of a flower at the end of the stem that has multiple green leaves., Title and date from item., LCP exhibit catalogue: African American Miscellany p.45., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Douglass, was an artist, educator, community activist, and prominent Quaker member of the Philadelphia African American elite community. Mary Anne Dickerson was her pupil.
Creator: Douglass, S. M. (Sarah Mapps), 1806-1882, artist
Date: [July 15, 1846]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Mary Anne Dickerson album [13860.Q.75]

Title: "A token of love from me, to thee"
Description: Album page containing a drawing of a black butterfly on a twig with pink flowers. Shows the butterfly with a black head, thorax, and abdomen and black wings with specks of green and red. The twig also contains several green leaves that fold up, fold down, and/or droop. The stem and branches of the twig are outlined with pink lines., Title from manuscript note., Date inferred from complementary entries in album., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Douglass, was an artist, prominent Quaker member of the Philadelphia African American elite community, educator, and anti-slavery activist.
Creator: Douglass, S. M. (Sarah Mapps), 1806-1882, artist
Date: [ca. 1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Amy Matilda Cassey album [P.9764.2]

Title: "I love a flower!"
Description: Album page containing a drawing of a wild pink rose above eight lines of allegorical verse about the beauty of flowers. Shows the rose with a stem, five green leaves surrounding the petals, and two buds., Title from manuscript verse., Date inferred from complementary entries in album., Contains eight lines of verse: I love a flower! it ever brings/ A warmth of feeling to my heart,/ Unlike those gay and gilded things/ That flatter coldly, coldly part./ But flowers! – Oh they are eloquent/ They speak when lips would still be dumb/ When by the hand of friendship sent,/ Her price interpreters they come., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Douglass, was an artist, prominent Quaker member of the Philadelphia African American elite community, educator, and anti-slavery activist.
Creator: Douglass, S. M. (Sarah Mapps), 1806-1882, artist
Date: [ca. 1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Amy Matilda Cassey album [P.9764.9]

Title: [Vase of flowers]
Description: Album page containing a drawing of a white, urn-shaped vase of flowers. A variety of flowers are depicted including a pink rose and white lilies. Leaves also comprise the depicted floral display., Title supplied by cataloguer., Possibly by Amy Matilda Cassey., Date estimated from span of dates of dated entries within album., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Date: [ca. 1845]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Amy Matilda Cassey album [P.9764.21]

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