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- Title
- Collections from fugitive sources only, illustrative of the antiquities, progress & c. of the city Philadelphia
- Description
- Scrapbook containing newspaper clippings and prints, predominantly dated between 1850 and 1855, pertaining to the history and built environment, and social, cultural, and economic climate of Philadelphia. Subject matter mainly relates to improvements to the cityscape, transportation, businesses and industry; historical articles (some illustrated) about the evolution of the city, including notices of destruction of former landmarks; daily, yearly, and seasonal accounts about the weather; and reports (and prices lists) for mortality, election returns, real estate sales, city permits, taxables, debt, stock, trade, exports, and cattle, domestic, and produce markets. Articles about city improvements (some illustrated) describe new construction of churches, storefronts and factories, residences, and places of amusement, on major Center City streets and outerlying neighborhoods, including Arch Street, North Second Street, Market Street, Chestnut Street, Belmont district, Bush Hill, Germantown, Moyamensing, North Philadelphia, Penn District, the Seventh Ward, Southwark, West Philadelphia, and the “vicinity of the Navy Yard.”, Properties referenced include the American Sunday School Union (1100 block Chestnut); Bulletin Building (Third Street below Chestnut); New Presbyterian and Tabernacle Baptist churches; Major Eastwick’s estate at Bartram’s Gardens, Newlin’s Brewery (100 block N. Second), the Farquhar Building (opp. Merchant’s Exchange); Girard Buildings (Chestnut and Third); Matthew T. Miller & Co. (Third and Chestnut); New Masonic Temple (713-721 Chestnut); Stoddart & Co. (278-282 N. Second); M. Thomas & Sons (100 block S. Fourth); Cornelius, Baker & Co. (800 block Cherry Street); Caleb, Cope & Co. (429 Market); the Concert Hall; City Museum; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Philadelphia Gas Works; Farmer & Mechanics Bank; Howell Evans, printing establishment (130 S. Fourth); New Iron Building (600 Arch); Xavier Bazin, perfumer (Seventh and Chestnut); T.W. Evans & Co., mantle and silk store (214-216 Chestnut); and the New Assembly Building (Tenth and Chestnut)., Also contains columns from the series “Benevolent Institutions of Philadelphia” (1849); “Churches and their Pastors” (1849); “Philadelphia in Olden times” (1853); “Reminiscences” (Sunday Dispatch, 1853); “The Progress of Philadelphia”; local historian Thompson Westcott’s “Street Scenes: Philadelphia in 1798, 1799 and 1800” (Sunday Dispatch, 1853); and "Revolutionary Relics" (1854). Topics of historical pieces include Cathedral Cemetery; several churches, including Assumption, Swedes, Tabernacle Baptist and Associate Presbyterian; Videll’s Alley; Market and Chestnut streets; Centre Square; the Pennsylvania Hospitals, including for the Insane in West Philadelphia; Naval Asylum; Commissioner’s Hall, Spring Garden; Robert Morris Mansion; the "libraries of Philadelphia," including the Library Company; and the city police, Quakers and Odd Fellows., Other articles report about the consolidation of the city (including a satiric piece criticizing the grand consolidation ball); Girard College; Philadelphia medical schools, including the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania; auctions conducted by M. Thomas & Sons and James A. Freeman; meteorological reviews, reports and bizarre weather lore, including the 1850 freshet on the Schuylkill; the gas industry in the city; various city water works, including Fairmount and Schuylkill; the number and improvements to omnibuses and their lines and other modes of transportation, including steam boats, ferries, and railroads; improvements to Camden; islands in the Delaware, including Windmill Island. Additional subject matter includes temporary housing of the Post Office in the Jayne Building on Dock Street; “haunts of vice and misery,” including raffling , i.e., gambling, and dance houses; the cleaning of streets through ordinances and sweeping machines; daguerreotypist M. A. Root as the first bidder of the auction of Jenny Lind Tickets in 1850; critical and satirical articles about the newest style of men’s striped pants, the 1855 city directory, the implementation of police hats, and artificial stone fronts on houses; an 1853 benefit at the Parisian Hippodrome; and a black book at the mayor’s office for the reception of “complaints of citizens.”, Scrapbook also contains wood engravings (several from newspaper and periodicals), engravings, cameo stamps, and lithographs. Graphics include predominantly advertisements and cameo stamps. Images show the various locations of the Charles Oakford hat manufactory, including his first shop on Lombard and the mulit-tenanted building on the 700 block of Chestnut; F.C. Kropff, chemical warehouse and laboratory (380 N. Sixth); Keen & Co., manufacturers of ranges and furnaces (Broad & Sansom); J. Smith Harris, merchant tailors (61 S. Fourth); Samuel Hart & Co., manufacturers of playing cards, mother o' pearl goods, and traveling bottles (236 S. Thirteenth); Thomas J. Dickson, brush manufacturer (66 S. Second); W.H. Maurice, blank book and stationery establishment (123 Chestnut); M. Thomas & Sons, auctioneers (67-69 S. Fourth); storefront and factory for Howell & Brothers, paper hangings; the storefront and Callowhill Street manufactory of Daniel Bohler & Co., essence of coffee; Horstmann’s Manufactory (Fifth and Cherry); James Moore’s Porter & Ale brewery (700 block S. Thirteenth); Inquirer Office Building (Third and Carter); interior view of George J. Henkels City Cabinet Warerooms (173 Chestnut); the New Hat Company’s Store (201 Chestnut); John H. Weaver & Co., grocers and tea dealers (Second and Pine); Homeopathic Medical College; J.W. McCurdy & Son, ladies boots and shoes (111 Chestnut); Pratt & Reath, watches & Jewelry (80 Market;) and "View of N.A. College of Health" (Fifth and Race)., Also includes views of benevolent and educational institutions and historical buildings; clipped vignettes showing “Parlors Stoves 1854,” "Newly invented chimney top ventilator," “Fashionable bonnet,” “Melodeons” (with descriptions and prices), spectacles, shoes dated 1832, a “Prize pianoforte,” and a “Washing Machine 1854”; and clipped images of street laborers, including a boy selling lozenges, a “pandy woman” holding a baby to her chest, a female “rag picker,” a girl selling fruit, an organ grinder, “itinerant news boy,” wood collector, and a street advertiser holding a picketed sign promoting "designer and engraver [David] "Scattergood." Latter annotated “a common method of advertising through the streets.”, Several of the clippings annotated by Poulson with dates and manuscript notes., Cut out designed as a monument-like edifice with ornamental pictorial details pasted on title page. Cut out frames title written in ink. Also includes vignette pen and ink sketch showing a beaver., Note by Poulson on verso of front free endpaper: "The dates affixed to the articles in this book, all generally, those of the newspapers from which they have been cut. CAP", Artists, engravers, and lithographers include J. H. Brightly, J. Cone, George T. Devereux, [ ] Farmelee, Alfred Hoffy, Francis Kearny, David Scattergood, R. Telfer, Wagner & McGuigan, and J. L. White., "Index to set in back part of vol. XI.", Volume 7 includes separate index to volume. Index detached and housed with original of volume., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
- Creator
- Poulson, Charles A. (Charles Augustus), 1789-1866, compiler
- Date
- 1828-1855, bulk 1850-1855
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Poulson scrapbooks - vol. 7 [(7)2526.F]
- Title
- Scraps illustrative of the History of Philadelphia. Vol. VI
- Description
- Scrapbook containing predominantly newspaper clippings dated 1845-1849 that pertain to the built environment, history, and political, social, and cultural climate of Philadelphia. Contents include editorials; anecdotal, current event, and sensational news articles; and columns reporting about local interest stories, government and politics, and city development and entertainments. Several pages of the scrapbook are dedicated to newspaper coverage of the 1848 court cases of the "Trial of Pratt, Pence, and McGowan for conspiracy to pass Stolen Money" and the Pierce Butler and Fanny Kemble divorce. Daily, monthly, and yearly weather reports for the months and years 1840, 1845, 1847, 1848, 1849 also form several pages of content. Several articles also describe local disasters, including the destruction of the Schuylkill Water Works reservoir (1848); the ice accident on the Schuylkill (January 1849); and major fires near Water Street Wharf (1839), at the Presbyterian Board of Education on the 800 block of Chestnut (1849), at the public school on Catherine Street (1849), and at the City Gas Works (1848)., Several articles report about city improvements, including the enlargement of Fairmount; the growth of the city as a whole and development of neighborhoods (Bridesburg, Spring Garden district, and Germantown, including the residence of artist C.G. Childs); new establishments on Chestnut and Market streets, including confectioner J. W. Parkinson (900 block Chestnut) as well as shops on the 700 block and 400 blocks, respectively; and the dedication and completion of new churches (Church of the Assumption, Logan Square Presbyterian, and St. Mark’s Church)., Anecdotal and local affairs pieces report about the city's municipal services and policies, social mores, and entertainments. Subjects include the city's purchase of Penn’s Treaty Ground for public use; the extension of gas lines to Moyamensing; the 1846 Triennial Parade of Firemen in commemoration of the First Volunteer Company of the City; a relief mission to famine-stricken Scotland (1846); omnibus etiquette, the demographics of Third and Chestnut streets; the gang Moyamensing "Killers"; the men’s fashion trend of winter shawls (1853); the Christmas holiday season; the Chinese collection at the Chinese Museum; performances at Walnut Street Theater; and the Tom Hyer and Yankee Sullivan Prize Fight of 1849., Other articles discuss politics and government, particularly the activities of the local Whig party, including elections and party meetings; the Mexican American War, including casualties and the "Illumination of April 16, 1847" in honor of General Taylor and Scott’s achievements; education, including Girard College and the semi-annual examination of Central High School; and local trades, including iron, lithography (P.S Duval, p. 34), dry goods; bankers and the 1846 and 1848 reports of the Philadelphia Board of Trade; and the management of the city's dog population in 1848 (p.52-3). Editorials discuss the 1848 cholera epidemic, including brandy as "cholera medicine"; a sociological "View of Chestnut Street" (1845); Philadelphia architecture; and the city's commercial superiority over New York, including the book trade. Scrapbook also contains price lists; "'poetry' cut from obituary notices in the 'Public Ledger' "; columns from the series “Philadelphia Sights from a Steeple. Written for the North American”; “Benevolent Institutions” (1849); and “Letters from Philadelphia. From the Boston Atlas (1838) and a small number of graphics. Series topics include Philadelphia Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, the Orphan’s Asylum the public squares and schools, Chestnut Street Stores, the book trade, and museums and galleries. Graphics include the illustrated article "Philadelphia As It Is" depicting a caricature of an omnibus driver and vignettes showing the Fairmount Water Works, the Farquhar Building, Blue Anchor Tavern, and "Kriss Kingle's [sic] Head Quarters" (advertisement for Parksinson's confectionary)., Several of the contents annotated with a date., Wood engraved periodical illustration "The Hall of Independence, as Arranged for the Reception of the Remains of the Late Hon. John Quincy Adams." pasted on front free end paper. Print includes amateur hand-colored details. Cut out printed “Philadelphia” pasted below the print., "Index to set in back part of vol. XI.", Photographic reproduction of Faden’s "Plan of the City and Environs" (1747) removed., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
- Creator
- Poulson, Charles A. (Charles Augustus), 1789-1866, compiler
- Date
- 1822-1862, bulk 1855-1856
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Poulson scrapbooks - vol. 6 [(6)2526.F]