Album containing 24 photographs showing landscape views of Delaware County and portraiture of family and acquaintances. Images include exterior and interior views of the Leaming family estate Ashwood near Villanova and views of Conshohocken, Darby Creek near Lewis Mill, Valley Forge, Gulph and Morris mills and dams, Hammer Hollow, and farmland in Cream and Pleasant valleys. Also contains an image of Radnor Meeting House and a photographic reproduction of a cloud filled sky captioned "Sic Itur ad Astra" (i.e., thus you shall go the stars). Many of the views include Leaming's wife and children and others posed in parlors; with animals; on bridges and dirt paths; at brooks, creeks, spring houses, and barns; and in modes of transportion, including canoes and horse-drawn vehicles. Other portrait sitters include Alice Bourda and children Ernie Law, Tommy Gaffney, Henny Lewis, and Og Hoffman., Wooden binding., Title supplied by cataloger., Captions by Robert Waln Leaming on the recto and verso of the album pages., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., See LCP AR [Annual Report] 1999, p. 45-46., Gift of Mrs. Clifford Lewis III., Housed in phase box., Robert Waln Leaming, grandson of China Trade merchant Robert Waln (1765-1836), was a merchant by trade who also painted and practiced photography. He was married to Julia Scott, descended from the royal Scotts of Ancrum, with whom he had four children Rebecca, i.e., Reb (1850-1911); Mary, i.e., Mame (1851-1911); Julia, i.e., Duly (1854-1913), and Thomas (1856-1911). Leaming was also an active member of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia. His residence Ashwood, not to be confused with the Penn-Gaskell/DeCosta property of the same name (208 Ashwood Road, Villanova), was razed in the late 19th century.
Creator
Leaming, Robert Waln, 1824-1884, photographer
Date
ca. 1873
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums [P.9759.2]
