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Title: The terrible conflagration at Ninth and Washington Streets, Philadelphia On the morning of Wednesday February 8th 1865
Description: Disaster print showing the scene at the "disastrous conflagration commenced in the storage yard [of Blackburn & Co.] at Ninth & Washington Street" in the early morning hours of February 8, 1865. In the foreground, displaced and panicked residents of all ages attired in their night clothes, many holding their few possessions, run down and gather on the snowy streets. Amongst the commotion, police officers assist residents with their possessions (trunks, bedding, and cookware) and direct firefighters toward the blaze and burnt ruins of and surrounding the coal yard. The firefighters transport a ladder, hoses, and hose carriage toward the burning buildings as other volunteers rush to smother a man on fire and comfort a fleeing girl. Others depicted at the scene include two men laying an unconscious man attired in a nightshirt on the ground; a man and woman clutching their children to their chests; and a woman falling and dropping her baby in her flight as a dog runs past them. In the background, a small number of survivors and firefighters carrying victims, run down the 1100 block of Ninth Street that is lined with burning and destroyed buildings. Across from the coal yard, presumably the proprietor, James McManus, holds a bundle, and prepares to exit the doorway of the "Lager Beer Saloon" on the northeast corner of Washington Avenue and Ninth Street. Furniture covers the sidewalk in front of his establishment, the upper floors visibly on fire., Also contains several lines of text explicating the economic and human cost of the fire, including "loss of property" at "$400, 000," the "property destroyed" at about "one hundred structures," and the "List of Dead and Missing - Mrs. Barbara Ware, aged 43 years. Miss Annie Ware, 23 years._Emma Ware, 20 year._Helen Ware, 13 years._Isabella Ware, 4 years._Rebecca Ware._Albert Ware, 17 years._Clayton Ware, 10 years._The Scott Family is missing._Samuel McMenamin Fleetwood". A barrel of coal oil ignited through arson stored at Blackburn & Co. started the blaze shortly after 2 A.M. The fire destroyed the coal yard, which then caused a stream of burning oil to flow down Washington Avenue and Ninth Street that spread the fire to neighboring blocks of Federal and Ellsworth streets., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 746, Wainwright retrospective conversion project, edited., Reaccessioned as P.2215., Historical Society of Pennsylvania:, Fire described in the Philadelphia Inquirer, February 9, 1865, p. 8.
Date: 1865
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *W397 [6549.F]

Title: Souvenir of the coldest winter on record. Scene on the Delaware River at Philada. during the severe winter of 1856
Description: Frolicking genre scene showing hundreds of persons skating and sledding on the frozen river in front of the old Navy Yard at Southwark. Skaters and sledders include men pushing women in chairs with blades, men pushing a sleigh of women passengers, a man pulling a boy on a sled, and a man being pulled by a dog running through a crowd of skaters. In the foreground, a couple stands and watches the activity; a woman peddler, seated on a stool, sells an apple to a boy; and a man has fallen on the ice, near a boy leaning on another boy. In the background, a sleigh ride has been fabricated with several men pushing a large pivoted pole lever to propel a toboggan of women passengers in a circle on an area free from congestion. Watch houses stand near by, with throngs of people surrounding the sheds. Moored ships, steamboats, and sailing vessels line the shore. Also shows distant cityscape., Wainwright retrospective conversion project, edited., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 704, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Bb72 Q3
Creator: Queen, James Fuller, 1820 or 21-1886, artist
Date: 1856
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *W342 [P.2190]

Title: Commissioners Hall, Northern Liberties, Phila
Description: Exterior winter view of the hall as it looked on February 22, 1852, with adjoining fenced property, adorned with an American flag, and containing the district's police station and Mayor's office, on the busy, snow covered Third Street between Buttonwood and Green streets. Several warmly dressed white pedestrians, hall officials, and a policeman mill about and converse on the sidewalk; white children throw snowballs and play with a sled; horse-drawn sleighs pass by; white men shovel snow off the street and hall steps; and an African American man carrying a basket of celery and a dead goose stops in the street and looks behind him and toward the passing sled. A broadside inscribed, "Washington, 22nd Feb. 1852" adorns a nearby building. Prior to the city's consolidation with bordering townships in 1854, neighborhoods maintained and housed their own police stations, mayors, and other government officials in Commissioners Halls, including Northern Liberties. Built in 1814, the Northern Liberties' hall served as the quarters of the Northern Liberty Barracks until the American Revolution, and was torn down circa 1869 for the erection of Northern Liberties Grammar School., Title from item., Date of publication supplied by Wainwright., Reproduced in Edwin Wolf's Philadelphia: Portrait of an American city (Philadelphia: Camino Books in cooperation with the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1990), p. 199. Incorrectly identified as Commissioners Hall, Spring Garden., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 151, Print described in Public Ledger, July 1, 1853., Accessioned 1982., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Kuchel, Charles Conrad, 1820-, artist
Date: [1853]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **W79 [P.2034]

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