[T. Sharpless & Sons, wholesale ware room, clothes, cassimeres, merinoes, silks and vestings and Pekin Tea Company, South Second Street and Trotter's Alley, Philadelphia]
Title
[T. Sharpless & Sons, wholesale ware room, clothes, cassimeres, merinoes, silks and vestings and Pekin Tea Company, South Second Street and Trotter's Alley, Philadelphia]
Description
Advertisement showing the four-story double storefronts adorned with signage at 30-32 South Second Street, below Market Street. Massive merchandise displays adorn the windows and front facades of the businesses. At the wareroom, reams of different cloths hang within open windows from rods behind tables covered in swatches and bolts of cloth. A number of patrons, including women and a couple, admire the displays, and enter the open entry through which shadowy figures of female clerks are visible. More merchandise, including bolts of cloth and cloth-covered hat boxes, are visible in showcase spaces on the second floor. At the tea store, couples exit and enter the business in which several boxes of tea are piled between Chinese figurines displayed in the window. A clerk stands within the store. Potted plants adorn the third floor windows between which a large model of a box of tea hangs. In front of the store, boxes of tea are piled under a frame for an awning that displays a sign advertising "Fresh Teas." Manhole covers and a fire hydrant adorn the sidewalk as well. Around the corner of the building, a woman and girl walk past a horse-drawn dray travelling down a side alley to Strawberry Street partially visible in the background. Also shows partial views of adjacent buildings. Pekin Tea Company relocated to Sixth and Callowhill streets in 1847. The textile firm established by Townsend Sharpless in 1815 located to the address in 1841 under the name T. Sharpless & Son. Firm was renamed T. Sharpless & Sons in 1842., Title supplied by cataloger., Date from Poulson inscriptions on recto: Strawberry. So. Second St. & Trotter's Alley. Sept. 1846. "Strawberry" written in image to identify street., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 736, Wainwright retrospective conversion project, edited., See related advertisement print, *W278 [P.2168]
Creator
Reynolds, Robert F., artist
Date
[September 1846]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *W358 [P.2198]
[Scrapbook of ephemera]
Title
[Scrapbook of ephemera]
Description
Scrapbook containing tickets, invitations, textile and perfume labels, tokens, and trade cards, primarily issued in Philadelphia. Contents include images of buildings, genre scenes, and allegorical figures. Many of the items also include ornate borders. Materials document University of Pennsylvania medical department courses; a picnic at Mr. John F. Parke’s Grove (1853); Pennsylvania Horticultural Society events, including admittance for a "Lady to the Stated Meetings", bazaars, and Christmas Eve party; the Baltimore Assemblies; admittance to the Great Central Fair (1864) and Hillebrand & Lewis Gymnastic Institute; Mr. & Mrs. John A. McAllister Wooden Wedding (1861-1866); and a shooting match at glass balls at Union Hotel (1881). Scrapbook also contains advertising souvenirs from the Centennial Exhibition (1876); trade cards for Pennsylvania and Atlantic coast businesses; a calling card for Joseph E. Francis annotated with ink sketched figures; landscape views with a fishing scene, and a locomotive; receipts issued for pew rent to St. Paul’s Church, membership to the Athenaeum, and fines owed to the Library Company (1848); and an illustrated check for the Hibernian Society, billhead for T. Sharpless & Sons, and advertisement for [Edwin S.] Johnston’s New Self Locking Clock Spring Shade Roller., Other Philadelphia businesses represented include S.A. Hagner, saddle harness and trunk manufactory; John Dorff, silver plater and gilder; Sheble, Smith & Co., successors to R.L. Barnes, map publishers and mounters; Godey’s Lady’s Book Publishing Company; Geo. J. Burns, printer; Smith & Co. Globe Bazaar auction house; Johnson & Smith, type founders (formerly Binney & Ronaldson); and John H. Brown & Co., dry goods. Non-Philadelphia businesses include Cataract House (Niagara Falls); Globe Hotel (New York); Wilmington Boarding School for Girls (Samuel Hilles); Ash’s Patent Five Slit United States Government Pen; E. Kenny, architect (Brooklyn); Works of P. & F. Corbin (New Britain, Ct.); T. H. Pollock, organ builder and David B. Prosser, saddles and harness (Richmond); M'Neal & Siegert, jeweler; and Gray & Bail, furniture., Red cloth binding, stamped in gilt on cover: Photographs., Some tickets signed by Joseph Leidy, University of Pennsylvania., Some contents inscribed with name of recipient or holder. Recipients and holders include W. J. (John) Holmes; James J. Magee, possibly James Magee, President of Westmoreland Coal Co. who previously worked at Binney & Ronaldson; John Matthews; T. J. Nichols & lady; [H.?]J. Sharpless; and J. C. Stewart., Engravers and printers include Brown (Ledger Building), J. H. Camp, Illman & Sons, Geddes, M. & V. Harrison, J. Lea, W. Eaves, Major & Knapp, and Van Slyck & Co., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Housed in phase box.
Date
[ca. 1821-ca. 1894]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums - Scrapbook [8608.F]