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Title: The Magnetic Observatory at the Girard College [graphic] / S. Rufus Mason.
Description: Location: Girard and Corinthian Avenues., Frontispiece to Plates to Magnetic and Meteorological Observations. Companion volume to three volume set Observations at the Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory at the Girard College, Philadelphia (Washington: Gales and Seaton, printers., 1847)., Wainwright retrospective conversion project., Select link below to view a digital image., Library Company of Philadelphia: in *Am 1847 Obser 12240.O.1.
Date: [1847]
Location: http://www.librarycompany.org/wainwright/W383.htm, Library Company of Philadelphia Print Dept. W383 [*Am 1847 Obser 12240.O.1]

Title: Grumblethorpe, observatory
Description: View of a wooden round edifice with a conical roof atop a square smokehouse in an overgrown garden area behind Grumblethorpe. Erected on top of the smokehouse in 1834 by Charles Jones Wister, an amateur scientist and clockmaker who built the observatory to obtain the correct time. He furnished the observatory with a transit instrument and an astronomical clock made with the help of Isaiah Lukens., Inscribed in negative: 3839., Title from negative sleeve., Grumblethorpe was built in 1744 by Philadelphia wine merchant John Wister. His house was the first in Germantown built solely for summer residency and greatly exceeded the dimensions of the homes around it, giving it the nickname "Wister's Big House.", Original negative housed in freezer.
Creator: Hand, Alfred, photographer
Date: 1921
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department 4x5 Film Negatives - Hand [P.9259.151]

Title: Transit instrument in the observatory, [Haverford College]
Description: Glass negative showing the transit instrument at the Strawbridge Memorial Observatory, a mechanical device comprised of a wheel, lever and a clock. There is a shuttered window behind the device. The Strawbridge Memorial Observatory was built at Haverford College (founded 1833) in 1854. Thomas Kimber Jr. provided funds for the first telescope, and the building was doubled in 1883 for a new ten-inch refracting telescope., Time: 2:40, Light: good light from above, Digitization and cataloging has been made possible through the generosity of David Marriott Morris, Eleanor Rhoads Morris Cox, and William Perot Morris in memory of Marriott Canby Morris and his children: Elliston Perot Morris, Marriott Canby Morris Jr., and Janet Morris and in acknowledgment of his grandchildren: William Perot Morris, Eleanor Rhoads Morris Cox, Jonathan White Morris, and David Marriott Morris., Edited.
Creator: Morris, Marriott Canby, 1863-1948, photographer
Date: April 14, 1885
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Marriott C. Morris Collection [P.9895.533]

Title: Franklin and Marshall Institute, Lancaster
Description: Aerial views of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Originally established as Franklin College in 1787, the institution merged with Marshall College (chartered 1836) in 1850. Views show Hartman Hall, completed 1908 for use by Franklin and Marshall Academy and razed 1975. Scholl Observatory (built 1886; demolished 1966) is also visible. Nearby row homes can be seen in the foreground, while plots of farm land are visible in the distance., Negative numbers: 1668, 1769.
Creator: Aero Service Corporation, photographer
Date: ca. 1915
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Aero Service [P.8990.1668; P.8990.1769]

Title: Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
Description: Aerial view of the Swarthmore College campus. Buildings depicted include Parrish Hall, which was rebuilt in 1890 after a fire destroyed the original in 1881, and the Sproul Observatory. The co-educational college was founded in 1864 by the Society of Friends. Railroad tracks and a road with automobiles run along the edges of the campus. A water tower and residences are visible in the distance., Negative number: 2869.
Creator: Aero Service Corporation, photographer
Date: ca. 1915
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Aero Service [P.8990.2869]

Title: Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
Description: Aerial views of the Swarthmore College campus. Buildings depicted include Parrish Hall, which was rebuilt in 1890 after a fire destroyed the original in 1881, and the Sproul Observatory. The co-educational college was founded in 1864 by the Society of Friends. Residences are visible in the distance., Negative numbers: 7102, 7103, 7104.
Creator: Aero Service Corporation, photographer
Date: ca. 1927
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Aero Service [P.8990.7102; P.8990.7103; P.8990.7104]

Title: Observatory, Haverford [College]
Description: Glass negative showing a view of the Strawbridge Memorial Observatory's dome and the surrounding trees from across a field. The Strawbridge Memorial Observatory was built at Haverford College (founded 1833) in 1854. Thomas Kimber Jr. provided funds for the first telescope, and the building was doubled in 1883 for a new ten-inch refracting telescope., Photographer remarks: Printed only one picture which was very good. Crystals formed as above. Not Varnished., Time: 4:35, Light: Very good., The emulsion has cracked and formed crystals throughout., Digitization and cataloging has been made possible through the generosity of David Marriott Morris, Eleanor Rhoads Morris Cox, and William Perot Morris in memory of Marriott Canby Morris and his children: Elliston Perot Morris, Marriott Canby Morris Jr., and Janet Morris and in acknowledgment of his grandchildren: William Perot Morris, Eleanor Rhoads Morris Cox, Jonathan White Morris, and David Marriott Morris., Edited.
Creator: Morris, Marriott Canby, 1863-1948, photographer
Date: June 22, 1882
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Marriott C. Morris Collection [P.9895.8]

Title: The Magnetic Observatory at the Girard College
Description: Plate illustrating an oblique elevation and floor plan of the Magnetic Observatory building, the first magnetic observatory in the United States, constructed on the west grounds of the college in 1839 after designs by Thomas Ustick Walter. Labels for instruments are included in the floor plan and include a transit; clock; dew point instrument; telescope declinometer; anemometer and rain gauge; barometer; telescope & horizontal force magnetometer; telescope & vertical force megnetometer; and thermometers. The brainchild of Alexander D. Bache, the observatory was moved by master carpenter James O. Sawyer sometime after 1845 to the western ends of the college grounds and later used as a carpentry shop., Title page to Plates to magnetic and meteorological observations. Companion volume to three volume set Observations at the magnetic and meteorological observatory at the Girard College, Philadelphia (Washington: Gales and Seaton, printers, 1847)., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 448, Wainwright retrospective conversion project, edited., Library Company of Philadelphia: in *Am 1847 Obser 12240.Q., Girard College:
Creator: Mason, S. Rufus, artist
Date: [1847]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare W383 [*Am 1847 Obser 12240.Q.titlepage], http://www.librarycompany.org/wainwright/W383.htm

Title: Views of Chatham Island, South Pacific during United States Transit of Venus expedition
Description: Series of expedition views from photographer William H. Rau's Transit of Venus expedition to Chatham Island in December 1874 depict crude wooden structures in a rural landscape., Title supplied by cataloger., Photographer's imprint on mounts., Orange mounts with rounded corners., Manuscript note on verso of item P.9517.1: "Rear view of one observatory", Manuscript note on verso of item P.9517.2: "Cabin built by the wrecked crew of the American whaler "Alabama" 1868"., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Philadelphia photographer William H. Rau was included in one of eight observation parties sponsored by the United States government to gather information about the December 8, 1874 Transit of Venus. His party travelled to the Chatham Islands, an archipelago off the coast of New Zealand, to view the astronomical phenomenon, but inclement weather there prevented Rau from collecting decent images of the event.
Creator: Rau, William Herman, 1855-1920
Date: [ca. 1875]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - Rau - Views [P.9517.1-2]

Title: Views in Fairmount Park Philadelphia, 1884
Description: Album containing eight pencil sketched, titled views of prominent sites at Fairmount Park. Includes Belmont Mansion from the East; Mount Pleasant; Tom Moore's Cottage above Columbia Bridge; Belmont Mansion from the West; Gen. Grant's Headquarters; the Elevator, (i.e. observatory) at Lemon Hill; Penna. R.R. Bridge (i.e., Connecting Railway Bridge); and Rockland Landing from Columbia Bridge., Drawing of Mount Pleasant depicts an exterior view of the Mount Pleasant Mansion built 1761-1765 for Captain John Macpherson after the designs of Thomas Nevil in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pa. View shows the front entrance with a large tree in the left. Macpherson, a privateer during the Seven Years’ War, purchased the estate with profits from these operations. Free white and Black laborers, indentured servants, and at least four enslaved people of African descent, whose names are unknown, worked on the plantation. In 1779, General Benedict Arnold purchased Mount Pleasant for his wife Peggy Shippen, but they never occupied the house. In 1792, General Jonathan Williams purchased the mansion. The City of Philadelphia purchased the property from the Williams family in 1869. On behalf of the city, the Philadelphia Museum of Art restored the house in 1926., Red leather binding stamped S. Lewis Jones., Purchase 2004., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date: [1884]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums [P.2004.32]

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