© Copyright 2020 - The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1314 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. TEL (215) 546-3181 FAX (215) 546-5167
For inquiries, please contact our IT Department
- Title
- Academy of Natural Science postcards
- Description
- Contains views of the Academy of Natural Sciences built 1868 after designs by James Hamilton Windrim. Images depict the exterior of the museum before major renovations and additions, and an interior view of the Audubon bird hall., Contains 2 postcards printed in color and 2 printed in black and white., Sheet numbers: 27A01A and 27B01A., Digitized with funding from a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
- Creator
- Brightbill, George M., collector
- Date
- 1905-1911
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Brightbill postcards [Buildings - Miscellaneous - 27]
- Title
- The Wagner Free Institute of Science of Philadelphia. [membership certificate] Incorporated March 9th 1855
- Description
- Life membership certificate containing a montage of plants, animals, minerals and fossils to represent different fields of the natural sciences, i.e., natural history, taught at the institute. Iconography encircles an oval containing the certificate text. Includes a bat for "Mammalia"; a human skull for "Anatomy"; an eagle for "Ornithology" perched on a slab with rocks and minerals for "Mineralogy"; a butterfly for "Entomology"; stems of flowers and plants for "Botany"; a thorny fish for "Ichtheology"; pre-historic crustaceans for "Palaeonotolgy"; the skeleton of an elephant for "Comparative Anatomy"; a shell for "Conchology"; a rattlesnake for "Herpetology"; a horseshoe crab for "Crustacea"; and Fossils - "Botany," Entomology," "Crustacea," and "Zoology" showing a fossilized plant, fish, dragon fly and lobster. Filigree adorns the corners. Wagner Free Institute was founded in 1855 by philanthropist and professor William Wagner to provide free public education in the sciences. Wagner donated his large collection of specimens and his science library in addition to monetary support to establish the institution., Not in Wainwright., Philadelphia on Stone, POSP 266, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Certificates - Wagner Free, P. S. Duval & Co. operated as a firm 1851-1857., Inscription lower left corner torn: Est. C. J. [ ?].
- Date
- [ca. 1855]
- Location
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania | Print Department | HSP at LCP HSP Certificates - Wagner Free
- Title
- [Martha Maxwell and her exhibit of "Woman's Work", Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition]
- Description
- Shows Mrs. Martha Maxwell surrounded by her habitat display, with stuffed animals and birds, arranged in a rocky landscape in the Kansas-Colorado Building at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia., Title supplied by cataloguer, from a description of a duplicate in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's collections, reproduced in Maxine Benson's Martha Maxwell: Rocky Mountain naturalist (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, c1986)., Martha Maxwell opened her Rocky Mountain Museum in 1874 in Boulder, Colorado, and moved it to Denver in 1876. She hoped her museum would advance scientific education, but also display curiosities and other amusements to attract the general public., See Maxine Benson's Martha Maxwell: Rocky Mountain Naturalist (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, c1986)., For a similar view of Martha Maxwell's displays, see stereo - unidentified - Exhibitions [P.2007.12]., Digitization funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
- Creator
- Centennial Photographic Co.
- Date
- c1876
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - Centennial Photo. Co. - Maxwell's Rocky Mountain Museum [P.2007.15.1]
- Title
- [Martha Maxwell's exhibit of "Woman's Work", Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition]
- Description
- Shows Mrs. Martha Maxwell's habitat display, with stuffed animals and birds, arranged in a rocky landscape in the Kansas-Colorado Building at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia., Title supplied by cataloguer., Martha Maxwell opened her Rocky Mountain Museum in 1874 in Boulder, Colorado, and moved it to Denver in 1876. She hoped her museum would advance scientific education, but also display curiosities and other amusements to attract the general public., For a similar view of Martha Maxwell's displays, see stereo - unidentified - Exhibitions [P.2007.12]., Digitization funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
- Creator
- Centennial Photographic Co.
- Date
- c1876
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - Centennial Photo. Co. - Maxwell's Rocky Mountain Museum [P.2007.15.3]
- Title
- [Martha Maxwell posing with habitat grouping, Mrs. M.A. Maxwell's Rocky Mountain Museum, Boulder, Colorado]
- Description
- Shows Mrs. Martha Maxwell standing with stuffed animals and birds arranged in a life-like, wild landscape display at the Colorado museum., Title supplied by cataloguer., Photographer from duplicate series in the collections of the Denver Public Library., Name of publisher inferred from descriptive text on verso of stereograph., Martha Maxwell opened her Rocky Mountain Museum in 1874 in Boulder, Colorado, and moved it to Denver in 1876. She hoped her museum would advance scientific education, but also display curiosities and other amusements to attract the general public., For similar views of Martha Maxwell's displays, see Centennial Photographic Co. stereographs., Digitization funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
- Creator
- Chamberlain, W. G. (William Gunnison)
- Date
- c1875
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - unidentified - Exhibitions [P.2007.12]
- Title
- U.S. Govt. B'ld'g transept looking s[outh]
- Description
- View of displays in the U.S. Government Building looking south from the transept showing large lighthouse lanterns in the left foreground and stuffed mammals including dolphins, whales, seals, otters, walruses and deer in the right background divided by a wide aisle where patrons rest on benches. American flags and patriotic bunting cover the interior walls below the windows. The fair celebrated the centennial of the United States through an international exhibition of industry, agriculture, and art., Title on negative., Photographer's imprint printed on mount and on verso. Imprint on verso contains initials "CPC" in decorative border surmounted by date range 1776-1876., Distributor's stamp on verso: S.B. Moyer, finest line of stereoscopic views of all parts of the world. Pottstown, Pa. Best views of the Johnstown Disaster., White curved mount with rounded corners., Gift of Charles Isaacs., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
- Creator
- Centennial Photographic Co.
- Date
- c1876
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - Centennial Photographic Co. [P.8975.4]
- Title
- Academy of Natural Sciences
- Description
- Book illustration depicting an exterior of the museum building at Broad and George (i.e., Sansom) Streets built from 1839 to 1840 after designs by Philadelphia architect, John Notman. In the foreground, pedestrian traffic includes an African American man peddler carrying a rack of ducks. The Academy, incorporated in 1815 as a scientific association to disseminate and promote the knowledge of natural history, opened as a public museum in 1828., Title from item., Published in R.A. Smith's Philadelphia as it is in 1852 (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1852), p. 203. (LCP Am 1852 Smith)., Originally part of a Poulson scrapbook of illustrations of Philadelphia., Poulson inscription: 1852., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
- Creator
- Louderbach & Hoffmann, engraver
- Date
- [1852]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department PhPr - 8x10 - Museums [(1)1525.F.36e]
- Title
- Pierre Eugène du Simitière collection
- Description
- The Library Company of Philadelphia purchased this collection of Pierre Eugene Du Simitière's manuscripts at the auction of Du Simitière's American Museum after his death on March 10, 1785. The books and pamphlets bought at the same auction have been dispersed through the Library Company's collections. Du Simitière gathered or copied these manuscripts during his travels in the West Indies, Boston, New York, and while he lived in Philadelphia, where he was a member of and one of the curators of the American Philosophical Society. After the Library Company of Philadelphia purchased the manuscripts, they were bound together. The Historical Records Survey of the Works Progress Administration described the manuscripts in "Descriptive Catalogue of the Du Simitière Papers in the Library Company of Philadelphia" (1940), from which many of the following series and records descriptions have been abstracted. Since the Historical Records survey, many of the bound volumes have been unbound and foldered by the Library Company of Philadelphia. The unbound volumes in the series descriptions contain folder level description; however, the bound volumes are described only as an overall work. For more detail on the bound volumes, see the "Descriptive Catalogue of the Du Simitière Papers in the Library Company of Philadelphia" (1940). Researchers should be aware that the series titles are drawn from the title of the bound volume. It is important to read the entire scope note for each series, because the volumes often contained additional topics than are listed in the title.
- Creator
- Du Simitière, Pierre Eugène, ca. 1736-1784
- Date
- 1492
- Title
- [John Serz scrapbook]
- Description
- Scrapbook of print specimens, proofs, and original drawings primarily delineated and compiled by German-born Philadelphia engraver John Serz. Contents include book and periodical illustrations; separately-issued views; portrait prints; certificates; and job printing specimens. Majority of graphics depict religious, landscape, historical, genre, and fashion views, including plates from "Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints" (New York, 1864); Auerbach’s "Tales of the Black Forest"; Sartain’s Magazine; Graham’s Illustrated Magazine; W. Alvin Lloyd’s Railroad Guide; and Demorest’s Monthly Magazine. Religious and historical themes include the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and other Biblical scenes, Mary and Jesus, scenes of prayer, William Penn's Treaty, the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, and the Civil War. Other well-represented material is separately-issued city, bird's eye, landscape, and collegiate views showing European and American sites, including Albany; Baltimore; Boston; Dresden; Hildburghausen; Humboldt (Ca.), New York; Washington, D.C.; Fort Putnam; Philadelphia; Georgetown College; Notre Dame University; Lake of Four Cantons (i.e., Lake Lucerne) and Rutli, Switzerland; West Point; Suspension Bridge over Niagara; and Tivoli. Scrapbook also contains numerous portrait prints (often frontispieces); advertisements; European prints, as well as watercolors and drawings, which show the Centennial Exhibition (1876); landscapes, village scenes, and tree and flower arrangement studies., Portrait print sitters include John Stainbach Wilson, M.D.; Mary A. Niemeyer; Daniel Webster; Hannah Rose Hoffman; and E. R. Beadle. Advertisements depict primarily Philadelphia storefronts and factories and often also show street and pedestrian traffic. Businesses include X. Bazin Perfumery Laboratory (917 Cherry St); Joseph J. Canavan Morocco Factory (1225 N. Fifth St.); Allen’s Furniture Warehouse (1209 Chestnut Street); Joseph Beckhaus Carriage Factory (1204 Frankford Ave.); Gumpert Bros. cigars (1341 Chestnut St.); Oxford Carpets Mills (Wm. Hogg, Jr.)(140 Oxford St.); Baugh & Sons, Manufacturers of Raw Bone Super Phosphate Lime (120 S. Delaware Ave.); Theo. Wilson & Co., Steam Ship, Bread, Cracker & Cake Bakery (212 & 214 N. Front St.); White, Hentz & Co., Rectifiers of Spirits & Importers of Wines & Liquors (222 N. Second St.). European prints include plates from Bernard-Romain Julien "Cours Elementaire" and from Wilhem Hermes's figure drawing books "Berliner Zeichenleher," i.e. United States Systematic Drawing Schools (New York edition); engravings by Serz, several published by German publishers Schneider U Wegel, and primarily showing views of German villages Unterberg (Bavaria) and Nuremberg, and bridges, castles, and churches; and chromolithographs, including the title page, from the Korn'schen series of views of Nuremberg "Ansichten von Nurnberg". Other content includes job printing specimen vignettes and labels depicting allegorical, patriotic and industrial imagery; proofs of the "Rose of Philadelphia, "Rose of Washington, D.C.," and labels for patent medicine manufacturer David Jayne illustrated with Jayne's Building, Chinese characters, and a dramatic scene; and images of wild and domestic animals, including a condor, lemming, sheep, dogs, horses, hippo, boar, camel, and elephant., Contents also include certificate specimens for a temperance society, Sunday School, and the fraternal organization Alpha Omega; the relgious-themed prints "A Curious Piece of Antiquity on the Crucifixion of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," "Jesus Healing the Sick," and "The Two Thieves: The Holy Land Exhibiting the Places & Cities Mentioned in the Old & New Testament"; the Serz color engraving Kriegs =Neurigkeiten (i.e. War News) showing men gathered at a table in a village tavern; an advertisement for Philadelphia calico printer Wm. Simpson & Sons depicting a sepulchral monument; and a post mortem portrait engraved by Serz showing Napoelon II, i.e., Duke of Reichstadt., Various American and European artists, engravers, lithographers, and printers, including W. H. Bartlett; J.C. Garrigues & Co.; H. B. Hall & Sons; Heliographic Co. of NY; Langlumé; G. Lury; A. H. Payne; J. C. MacRae; J. Poppel; John Sartain; F. Silber; Joshua Shaw; and F. W. Topham., Various American and European publishers, including D. & J. Sadlier & Co.; John Dainty; Francois Delarue; Friedrich Kornschen; F. W. Thomas & Sons; Parmelee & Co.; Henry Tuessli & Co.; and Max Jacoby & Zeller., Some prints annotated with lines of perspective., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Loose items retained in album., Gift of Madelyn Wolke, Lucianne Reichert, and Clifford A. Mohwinkel Jr., John Serz (1808-1881), born in Nuremberg, Bavaria, worked as an engraver in Germany before immigrating to Philadelphia circa 1851. Naturalized in 1856, Serz earned enough income from his trade to be taxed by the I.R.S. during the Civil War. During the 1870s, his bird's-eye print "Philadelphia and Environs" was advertised in the "Public Ledger" and he served as professor of drawing at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. Serz was also a president and secretary of the old Artists Club and member of several German societies, including the German Society of Pennsylvania. He died of a skull fracture in 1881.
- Creator
- Serz, John, ca. 1810-ca. 1878
- Date
- [ca. 1842-ca. 1893]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *albums (flat) [P.9773]
- Title
- [Specimens album]
- Description
- Scrapbook of print specimens and proofs probably compiled by a printer associated with the Philadelphia lithographic firm Stein & Jones. Contains book and periodical plates and illustrations; sheet music covers; proof prints; collecting cards; trade cards (several glossed); bank notes, checks, billheads, and receipts; certificates; advertising calendars; and chromolithographed labels and scraps. Majority of contents include several plates from Thomas Allom's "China: In a Series of Views,..." (London, 1860), Albert Barnes's "Scenes and Incidents in the Life of the Apostle Paul" (Philadelphia, 1869), John Fleetwood's "The life of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (Philadelphia, 1871) and Daniel March's "Our Father's House , or The Unwritten Word" (Philadelphia, 1871); illustrations and plates depicting genre, religious, sentimental, historical, natural history, scientific, and scenic views from children and gift books, and periodicals, including "Leila in England" and "Leila at Home" (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1875-1880), "Peterson's Magazine" (plates engraved by Illman Brothers), "Ladies Companion," "Graham's Magazine," "Odd Fellow's Casket," "Transactions and Proceedings of American Entomological Society" and "Annals Lyceum of Natural History"; and several works printed by Stein & Jones and Cincinnati lithographers Klauprech & Menzel and Ehrgott & Fobriger, including trade cards, labels, tickets, invitations, certificates, receipts, checks, bank notes, sheet music covers, advertisements, and book illustrations., Bank notes, receipts, checks, and certificates document primarily Philadelphia and New York bank, coal, oil, steel, and real estate businesses, including Bank of Fashion, Belmont Petroleum Refinery, and Union College Bank. Trade cards, tickets, invitations, and labels represent primarily Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York, Cincinnati and Chicago businesses and organizations, including printers and art supply dealers; perfume, patent medicine, wine, dry goods, and clothing dealers; doctors and dentists; bankers and brokers; and manufacturers. The materials contain patriotic, agricultural, and transportation vignettes, views of buildings, anaglyptography (i.e., medal engraving), allegorical figures, and Centennial Exhibition (1876) imagery. Sheet music covers, predominantly printed by Ehrgott & Fobriger, depict mainly genre and Civil War scenes, portraiture, including images of entertainers, and advertisements such as "Sewing Machine Polka." Work by the Cincinnati lithographers also include several book illustrations depicting Ohio and Cincinnati asylums, institutes, seminaries, and landmarks, as well as uncut sheets of views of cemetery monuments for "The Cincinnati Cemetery of Spring Grove..." (Cincinnati, 1862). Several of the ephemera also printed by Grattan & Co., Theodore Leonhardt, and Wm. F. Murphy & Sons., Scrapbook also contains 1860s Berlin wool work patterns ("Peterson’s Ladies National Magazine"); ornate border print specimens, some with cut-out overlays; proofs and final states of textile, fruit, liquor, druggist labels, and tobacco labels printed predominantly by Stern, Jonas & Co. and Steng & Paxson and depicting romantic, patriotic, and mystical themes, including "I Am Free" logo illustrated with an African American man ; European prints, including plates from Bernard-Romain Julien "Cours Elementaire," and issued by German publisher A.H. Payne (some hand-colored); ca. 1855 Bowen & Co. plates of birds from "United States Pacific Rail Road Expedition and Survey"; color printed and numbered proof lithographs depicting Mo-Hon-Go; Shar- I-Tar-Ish; Se-Quo-Yah after plates in McKenney & Hall's "History of the Indian Tribes of North America"; Philadelphia Sketch Club signage; portraits of Catholic bishops, celebrity and political figures, and lithographers Rudolph Stein and Alfred Jones; mechanical views printed by William Boell; job printing specimen vignettes depicting masonic, military, allegorical, and patriotic imagery, transportation views, women, entertainers, agriculture, buildings, animals, and machinery; collecting cards showing George and Martha Washington, Civil War generals, celebrities, including Lydia Thompson and Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosasea, wild life, Biblical animals, fashion, and satiric scenes; and chromolithographic scrap portraits of women., Stamped on spine: Specimens., Various artists, engravers, lithographers, and printers including Ackerman; John Alexander; Thomas Allom; William Boell; John T. Bowen,; Bowen & Co.; Byram & Slack; C. E. Wemple & Co.; Donaldson Brothers ; G. Dow; Ehrgott & Fobriger; Dominque Fabronius; Grattan & Co.; The Hatch Lith. Co.; Otto Knirsch; L. H. Bradford & Co.; Klauprech & Menzel; Theodore Leonhardt; London Printing and Publishing Company; McLaughlin Bros.; Antoine [Maurin?]; A.H. Payne; Prang & Co.; Rawdon, Wright & Hatch; William H. Rease; Sarony & Major; John Sartain; Samuel Sartain; R. Trembley; J. Shobe; Steng & Paxson; Stern, Jonas & Co.; A. B. Walter; and Wm. F. Murphy & Sons., Index of general subjects illustrated available at repository., Several items found loose in album removed and housed separately., Gift of Margaret Robinson, 1991., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
- Date
- [ca. 1852-ca. 1876]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *albums (flat) [P.9349], https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/digitool%3A120747?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=a3bf36a0044447b21c5b&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=0&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=0#page/3/mode/1up
- Title
- Samuel George Morton papers
- Description
- This collection contains the papers of Samuel George Morton of Philadelphia, a physician, ethnologist, and professor of anatomy at Pennsylvania Medical College. The papers date from 1832 to 1851, when Morton devoted his research efforts almost exclusively to ethnology and to the collecting of human skulls for comparative studies. The bulk of the papers consist of incoming correspondence, relating to ethnology and other related interests such as anthropology, craniology, paleontology and Egyptology. His collecting efforts in the field of crania resulted in extensive correspondence on the subject, which is also included here. The collection is particularly valuable in illustrating the publication process of Morton's technical publications, as it includes extensive notes, annotations, sketches, research and reviews of his published work. There is also a small grouping of documents related to Morton's son, James St. Clair Morton. The collection is arranged into six series: “Correspondence,” “Notes,” “Pennsylvania Medical College,” “Writings,” and “James St. Clair Morton.”
- Creator
- Morton, Samuel George, 1799-1851
- Date
- 1832