Search results

Title: Comic Valentine Collection
Description: In both the United States and England, the market for comic valentines rivaled that for sentimental valentines, with their sales numbers about equal in the 1840s and 1850s. Sentimental valentines were more expensive, ranging in price from twenty-five cents to thirty dollars. A single comic valentine cost about a penny, hence their other nickname "penny dreadfuls." "Dreadful" is an appropriate term, but "crude," both in content and printing, is perhaps more accurate. Many were printed from wood blocks, with the color added by hand (often with stencils). The later examples were reproduced lithographically, but imitated the look of woodcuts. Sometimes the same image was used more than once with different doggerel verse. The recipients typically threw them away, so few survive. Bibliographically, they are challenging because they rarely list the artists' or publishers' names or the date of publication. The illustration technique is not always obvious, even with magnification. Working under the NEH-funded McAllister Project, Linda Wisniewski scanned the valentines. During a 2006 internship funded by the Fels Foundation, Elizabeth Donaldson created the records for the collection. Thanks to Linda and Betsy, digital versions of these remarkable pieces of ephemera are available here for further study.

Title: McAllister Comic Valentines
Description: Comic valentines, very popular in the United States beginning in the early 1840s, are quite different from the lacy, heart-shaped cards that one associates with the holiday today. The cartoons and verses poke fun at various occupations (lawyers, doctors, preachers, butchers, etc.), ethnicities (Black, Irish, German, etc.), human frailties (fat, thin, ugly, nosy, two-faced, etc.), romantic aspirations, habits and pastimes, political activities, and participation in the American Civil War. The Philadelphia collector John A. McAllister assembled the collection and donated it to the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1884., In both the United States and England, the market for comic valentines rivaled that for sentimental valentines, with their sales numbers about equal in the 1840s and 1850s. Sentimental valentines were more expensive, ranging in price from twenty-five cents to thirty dollars. A single comic valentine cost about a penny, hence their other nickname "penny dreadfuls." "Dreadful" is an appropriate term, but "crude," both in content and printing, is perhaps more accurate. Many were printed from wood blocks, with the color added by hand (often with stencils). The later examples were reproduced lithographically, but imitated the look of woodcuts. Sometimes the same image was used more than once with different doggerel verse. The recipients typically threw them away, so few survive. Bibliographically, they are challenging because they rarely list the artists' or publishers' names or the date of publication. The illustration technique is not always obvious, even with magnification. Working under the NEH-funded McAllister Project, Linda Wisniewski scanned the valentines. During a 2006 internship funded by the Fels Foundation, Elizabeth Donaldson created the records for the collection. Thanks to Linda and Betsy, digital versions of these remarkable pieces of ephemera are available here for further study., Provenance: The Comic Valentine collection was donated to The Library Company of Philadelphia in 1884 by John Allister McAllister.
Creator: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, creator
Date: 1840-1880?

Title: John A. McAllister Papers, 1820-1885 (bulk 1860-1866)
Description: The collection holds correspondence and documents which are primarily the papers of the Philadelphia antiquarian collector John A. McAllister, but it includes some additional material relating to his family and their optical business. As McAllister was an active collector of autograph letters, there are items from many of the important names in nineteenth-century politics, culture, religion, and the military, including members of the Peale family and other Philadelphians. A large component of the collection relates to McAllister's acquisition methods, so there are letters from private and institutional collectors of Americana in other parts of the country as well as with working historians such as Benson J. Lossing. Much of the collection focuses on the American Civil War (1861-1865); the single literary item is a manuscript by Edgar Allan Poe., John A. McAllister's collection is now in the Library Company of Philadelphia; parts of the collection are either described as individual items in the library's online catalog, or in a series of archival finding aids., Some of the items in this collection were formerly assigned accession numbers 5786.F and 5787.F., On deposit at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. For service, please contact the Historical Society at 215-732-6200 or http://www.hsp.org., John A. McAllister was an antiquarian collector living in Philadelphia.
Creator: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector
Date: 1820
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | MSS McA MSS 001

Title: [Eiichi Hirose collection of bookplates]
Description: Collection of seventeen Japanese bookplates owned by Eiichi Hirose. Sixteen bookplates were designed and created by Yumimaro Ohmori, and one was created by Koson Nakayama. The bookplates depict scenes of Japanese landscapes, flowers, insects and animals, and people, including a person on a bridge over water and looking at a mountain; a man leading a horse; two people at a camp fire; a Japanese woman attired in a kimono; a young man farmer riding backwards on an ox; a potted plant; cherry blossoms; dragonflies; and a bird flying over bamboo. Two type-written letters are included describing some of the bookplate designs and gifting the bookplates to the Library Company of Philadelphia., Title supplied by cataloger., Date from letter of gift., Partial transcript of letter accompanying the gift: I enclosed my ex-libris in use, designed and engraved by Yumimaro Ohmori, a graduate of the Tokyo College of Fine Arts, and would be glad to make an exchange of ex-libris with you. Because of my great interest in which I have been collecting ex-libris for three years, I shall appreciate very much if you can favor me with some of your specimens. I desire to extend this collection all over the world, and any information in this connection will be deeply appreciated. With best wishes, I am yours very truly, Eiichi Hirose. Oct. 8th, 1935., Text of accompanying letter: The design of this ex-libris represents a tombstone characteristic of 12th century Japan. This plate is designed and used by Koson Nakayama of Tokyo. The design of this plate is symbolical of dramatic art, the three colors, perhaps of curtains, representing the three largest theatres that existed in Yedo (present Tokyo). This plate is used by Shuzan E. Hirose. The design show a youthful farmer rising an ox. From this one may infer that the owner (Hirose) is a collector of books on agriculture and rural problems.
Creator: Ohmori, Yumimaro, artist
Date: [ca. 1935]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare LCP Records MSS 00270 Series 4B Bookplates Box 23, Folder 10 [12126.Q.10]

Main menu