[Scrapbook of prints and clippings]
Title
[Scrapbook of prints and clippings]
Description
Scrapbook containing primarily clipped book and periodical illustrations, as well as newspaper clippings from the 1820s to circa 1840. Illustrations predominantly depict portraits of prominent figures, including Capt. Nicholas Biddle and Gen. Anthony Wayne; landscapes, including Fairmount Water Works, Paris, and Italy; European dwellings; and genre, sentimental, and allegorical scenes, including depictions of children with animals, scenes of courtship, amusement, and solemnity; literary allusions; and a "Hen Humming Bird with her Nest of Eggs." Clippings, a number from the National Gazette, contain poems, parables, obituaries, biographical sketches, and literary references. Other topics include advice to save costs from the hardship of winter in Philadelphia, including lessening wages for servants and purchasing less butter at market; the importance of medical testimony; and a positive review of the recitation of a George A. Boker poem of war by Smith. Scrapbook also contains a silhouette of a soldier on horseback and tipped-in printed works, including the program for the wedding of Queen Victoria in 1840; ca. 1887 trade cards for the Au Bon Marche Paris department store; the 1857 illustrated songsheet "Come Whoam To thi Childer An Me"; and an 1845 newspaper clipping of an excerpt of "The Diary of a Young Mother" by Lady Willoughby, Title supplied by cataloger., Pasted on first page: Illustrated title page of edition of "Ladies Album. Published by R. De Silver, No. 110 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. Illustration shows a young man playing a trumpet near a young woman reading, with her dog, along a riverbank., Manuscript notes in blue ink on first page: Rebecca D. Smith; The Injured and Persecuted One., Few pages contain paste marks from removed items., Various artists, including T. Birch, John Trumbull, F. Nash, C. Fielding, W. Brockedon, Strickland, J. C., T. Doughty; B. K. Fox, W. G. Wall, W. D. Fellows, and Richd. R. Smith., Various engravers, including P. Kearny, J. Warr, Jr., Edwin, C. G. Childs, Leney, Fairman & Childs, Tiebout, Porlier, G.B. Ellis, W. Woodruff, J. Lybrand, Peter Maverick, J. Hill, and Langton., Various printers and publishers, including Edwd. Parker, William Allen, F. Kearny, and Testu & Massin., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Binding in poor condition.
Creator
Smith, Mary Rebecca Darby
Date
[ca. 1784-ca. 1887]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare 4-Alcove 2 [Is 6 1536.Q, vol. 2]
Memories of the home of Grandma Lewis
Title
Memories of the home of Grandma Lewis
Description
Memory album compiled by Lewis containing written narratives, photographs, watercolors, textiles, drawings, prints and ephemera documenting her marriage, early married life, households and residences, and family events and excursions between 1851 and the 1890s. Specific narrative topics include the Lewis's honeymoon to Niagara; the death of their parents the Larcombes and John F. and Eliza Lewis; the birth of grandchildren; the method and style of interior decoration of their residences at Sixteenth and Walnut streets (1851-1855), 325 South Eighteenth Street (1855-1874), and 1834 DeLancey Place (1874-1915); the Civil War, Sanitary Fair, and Centennial Exhibition (1876); their religious life in the First Baptist Church; club meetings of the Lewis children when older and parlor "teas"; recreational activities, including sailing and skating on the Schuylkill River, carriage and horse back rides, excursions to Broad Top Mountain House (Pa.), and visits to their summer residences in Wallingford and the Bryn Mawr Hotel; boarding near Bryn Mawr ("Eachus Place") and the Delaware Water Gap ("Mr. Croasdale"); Anne and G. Albert's European trip (1891); and family pets., Album also contains several captioned and dated graphic and ephemeral materials, including family portraiture, views of residences and summer lodgings, clothing and upholstery scraps, tickets, invitations, calling cards, and watercolors and drawings by G. Albert Lewis. Lewis's works depict sailing trips; interiors and exteriors of their residences, including during the Civil War; home furnishings, including a pier table (Eliza Lewis's); lodgings, sites, and flora from family excursions; family souvenirs, memorabilia, and crests, including a Chinese pipe, John F. Lewis's "Little Chair" as a child, Anne's life membership badge in the Philadelphia Skating club, a family clock (Mrs. John F. Lewis estate), and "Indoor amusements of G.A.L." Other imagery includes photographs of Broad Top Mountain House, Bryn Mawr Hotel, Devon Inn, Eastwick Park, St. Johns Evangelical Lutheran Church, First Baptist Church, views of European churches, including St. Michael Church of Schwabisch., and the interior (parlor, dining room, library, front rooms) and exterior of the Delancey Street residence. Portraits, predominantly photographs and photographic reproductions, depict G. Albert and Anne C. Lewis (including in the second story front room on Delancey); Alberta and Hermann Lewis and their spouses Frederick B. Allen and Sally Draper Lewis; grandchildren Hidegard, Frederick ("Fritz"), Barbara, George, and Margaret; John F. and Eliza Lewis; Thomas and Anna Larcombe; and family pets. Also contains pictorial details by Lewis incorporated at the end of narratives and as frames around portraits, as well as a memento "To our dear Papa, July 3, 1863" adorned with two, small circular works of handcrafted art, possibly with flower petals (p.80a)., Ephemera includes mementoes from trips, including pressed flowers; tickets to the Sanitary Fair (1864) and Eastwick Park; scraps of ribbons, collars, and clothing worn by Anne as a child, at her wedding, and during her honeymoon; upholstery and fabrics from the China trade and home furnishings; newspaper clippings of marriage announcements, obituaries, and poetry; wedding invitations and after cards; and a University of Pennsylvania graduation program for Hermann Lewis. Manuscript material contained in the scrapbook includes a letter by Anne to her mother during her honeymoon captioned "First 'Lewis' signature of A.C.L" and a letter of introduction from the Department of State for the Lewises., Vignette photograph after a daguerreotype portrait of Anne Lewis as a young woman pasted and set within a watercolor frame on title page, Wm. F. Murphy's Sons, Co. Makers stamped on spine., Red leather binding with gold lettering., Inscribed on front free end paper: Tender regards, old memories, blossom in pages such as these, Voices that speak from heart to heart, When hands and lives lie far apart. The thought of our past years, in me, Doth breed perpetual benediction., Dedication: "These memories I dedicate to my dear husband G. Albert Lewis whose thought inspired the writing of this simple story. Indeed, it would be of little interest without his numerous and varied illustrations, many of which are his own design and handiwork. A number of the photographs are copied of absolutely correct watercolor sketches, made by him; the whole being a mutual work of love, for our dear grand-children.", Photographers include the Langenheims and William H. Rau., Gift of Oliver Allen., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Transcription and inventory available at repository., One of six Lewis Family albums held in the Print Department., See Sarah Weatherwax, "The Lewis Albums," The Magazine Antiques (August 2006), 116-121., See Oliver H. Allen, "The Lewis Albums," American Heritage 14 (December 1962), 65-80., Housed in clamshell box., Anne Cornelia Larcombe Lewis, born in Connecticut, was daughter of Rev. Thomas Larcombe (1791-1861) and Anna S. Larcombe (1794-1872), president of the board of the Baptist Home. She relocated with her family to Philadelphia in 1835 and married George Albert Lewis, a Philadelphia banker, artist, and genealogist descended from a family involved with the China trade on July 1, 1851. During her married life, Lewis resided in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood, was active in genealogy, and a member of the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society. She and Lewis had two children Alberta (1854-1934) and Hermann (b. 1863) and grandchildren Hildegarde Allen (b. 1885), editor and publisher Frederick Lewis Allen (1890-1954), Barbara Lewis [Shepperd] (b. 1885), Margaret Lewis [Browne] (b. 1886), and George Draper Lewis (b. 1888).
Creator
Lewis, Anne C., 1831-1898
Date
1896
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums [P.9829.1]