Trade card issued during the Centennial Exhibition advertising Philadelphia glass manufacturer and dealer Benjamin H. Shoemaker. Depicts the Art Gallery or Memorial Hall designed by Herman Schwartzmann. Pedestrians and a couple on horseback travel the grounds. The centennial of the United States was celebrated through an international exhibition of industry, agriculture, and art in West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. Shoemaker established his glass manufactory in 1855 following his partnering with his brother Robert in a drug concern., Advertising text printed on verso: Compagnies Des Manufactures des Glaces. De St. Gobain, Chauny & Cirey. France. Manufacturers of plate glass and looking glass plates. General Depot of French & Belgian Plate Glass, Nos. 22, 24, & 26 Howard St., New York. Benjamin H. Shoemaker, Nos. 205 & 207 North Fourth St., Philadelphia., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Gift of Michael Zinman.
Date
[1876]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Michael Zinman World's Fairs Collection - Trade cards [P.2008.36.99]
Frontispiece showing the five-story storefront of the window and plate glass dealer at 205-211 North Front Street. Signage adorns the building and reads "French Plate Glass Depot"; "French, English and American Window Glass"; "Plate Glass"; and "Window Glass." A patron enters one of the entryways near a couple with their child walking on the sidewalk. Two men, possibly the proprietor and a clerk, stand in adjacent entries and watch drayman unload large boxed sheets of glass from a horse-drawn cart in the street. Shoemaker established his glass depot in 1855 when he left the druggist business of his brother Robert Shoemaker. Shoemaker served as president of the Pennsylvania Hospital for several years., Date inferred from publication date of catalog in which print is included., Frontispiece to Benjamin H. Shoemaker, importer, dealer, and sole agent in Philadelphia for the sale of French thick white plate glass (Philadelphia, 1875). [Am 1875 Benja, 117681.D]., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 879
Date
[1875]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Am 1875 Benja 117681.D. frontspiece
