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- Title
- William Russell Birch Collection
- Description
- Collection containing primarily engravings, watercolors, and drawings executed by English-born artist and engraver William Birch and his descendants between the 18th and later 19th century. Several of the graphic materials are by William Birch and represent engraved work he completed in Britain before 1794 and following his immigration to the United States that same year. His British work includes plates from his unpublished satiric volume “The Busy World, or London Dissected ...” (ca. 1792-ca. 1793) showing a charlatan at work, a fight between Richard Humphreys and Daniel Mendoza, a May Day procession, and rag dealers (P.2016.50.28-33); loose plates from his book of British landscapes “Les Delices de la Grande Bretagne” (1791) (P.2016.50.34, 36, 42); the rural and scenic “The Porcupine Inn Yard Rushmore Hill” (p.2016.50.38); the disaster print “The Great Fire of London in the Year 1666” (P.2016.50.55); and portraits of the poetical character Secander (P.2016.50.40) and his mentor “Sir Joshua Reynolds” (P.2016.50.22). His American work includes variant editions of plates from his “Views of Philadelphia” originally published as a series 1798-1800 (P.2016.62.21-37); variant editions of plates from his “Country Seats” originally published in 1808 (P.2016.62.38-45a); and the 1800 commemorative portrait “George Washington. Late President of the United States of America” (hand-colored and black and white [P.2016.50.59 & P.2016.62.55])., British and American work of Birch is also included in the collection in the form of watercolors, drawings, paintings, a sketchbook, and as photographic reproductions. These graphics depict portraits of family members (some photographed ca. 1910s by Charles W. Parker), including his children Priscilla, Thomas, George, and Albina while young as well as his purportedly his mother Anne (P.2016.50); ca. 1800s plan and views of his Bucks County country seat Springland (purchased in 1798) (P.2016.50.48-50); views of the Philadelphia country seat China Retreat, Gunpowder Falls near Hampton, MD, and the George Read estate in New Castle, DE (P.2016.50.43, 45-46); an annotated sketch of Westminster Bridge from the Adelphi Terrace (P.2016.50.51); a drawing of a group of boys (P.2016.62.2); and pencil sketches of male and female figures within an undated sketchbook (P.2016.62.59). Additionally, Birch’s work is represented by a preparatory sketch of an A. Sheffer portrait of Lafayette (P.2016.50.21); portrait drawings of unidentified sitters (P.2015.25 & 26); a ca. 1795 miniature enamel painting of his daughter Deborah (P.2016.50.67); a palette of his paint colors (P.2016.50.66); and an 1830s oil painting of an older Thomas Birch (1779-1851) attributed to William (P.2016.62.1)., Other original and reproduced material is attributed to William Birch or by Birch family members or by other artists and engravers. This includes a 1742 Thomas Worlidge pencil portrait of William’s father Thomas (P.2016.50.14), a Birch portrait of William King (father-in-law of son Thomas), and portraits and a "Museum" (i.e., Peale Museum) blind-stamped silhouette of Birch (P.2016.50.16); ca. 1785 Robert Freebairn watercolor of Hampstead Heath (Birch’s British county of residence); engravings by M. Marigot of “Mount Vernon ...” and “View of the City and Port of Philadelphia ...” from Janson's "Stranger in America" (London, 1807); Franklin Birch 1860s pencil sketches of a printing press and plows (P.2016.62.5-6)); Louise S. Birch's oil renderings of flowers (P.2016.62.12-13); sketches of a title page to the 1852 edition of Thomas Day’s “The History of Sanford and Merton” and of rural and landscape scenes and animal studies (Thomas Birch?; P.2016.62.3, 8-11); John McAllister, Jr. 1860 restrikes (some signed by Agnes McAllister) of Philadelphia views by Charles Willson Peale, Thomas Birch and William Strickland and the 1798 “Congressional Pugilists cartoon (P.2016.62.46-52; and engraved portraits of Major Genl. Brown (P.2016.62.53) and Edward Shippen (P.2016.62.54)., Collection also contains a unique ca. 1810 mockup by Birch for a revised and enlarged edition of his “Country Seats” (P.2016.62.59).The album includes plates from the first edition as well as a proof plate of the Devon view, three watercolors showing “Analostun, or Masons Island with one wing of the house at Georgetown and two of Mr. Custus’s in the distance”; “Point Breeze. The Residence of Joseph Bonapart – at Burdentown on the Delaware”;“The Mill & House of Mr. E. Esirel late sheriff of Phila., Near Christeen,” and a pencil sketch “Mr. Bells Buildings at Richmond.” Other unique items in the Birch Collection include his two variant volumes of manuscript copies of “The Life and Anecdotes of William Russell Birch ...”(bulk written after War of 1812 and into the 1820s), including accounts of his work and travels (P.2016.50.61 & 62); “Birch’s American Cottage. Volm. 2nd” of personal anecdotes, including discussion of Springland (P.2016.50.63); Birch’s “Book of Profitts” with entries dated 1813-1830 (P.2016.50.64); and probably his personal copy of “Les Delices de la Grande Bretagne” (P.2016.50.65). An imperfect copy of “Les Delices” formerly owned by original subscriber Francis Longe (and including his book plate) and a copy of “Transactions of the Society Instituted at London” (1785) referencing a Birch award (p.183) are also included with the materials (P.2016.50.65 & 60)., A small number of manuscripts written by William Birch comprise the collection as well. These materials include a ca. 1800-ca.1805 calligraphic and manuscript title page to "Views of and from The Country References of William Birch. Drawn by Himself wih a sett of Drawings of Springland"; a ca. 1818 letter to an unidentified granddaughter (P.2015.50.1); an undated letter addressed to the Duke of Grafton and Duke of Richmond about “forgetting their subscriptions” (possibly about subscription to Delices... [1791]) (P.2015.50.2); scraps with names of subscribers to “Busy World” (P.2015.50.3) as well as titles completed and to be completed (P.2015.50.4&5); ca. 1805 list of views of “Beautys of Springland not Pictured” (P.2015.50.6); and an 1811 receipt for 5 dollars issued to Ben Wilson for “Views.” (P.2015.50.7). Ephemera also forms the Birch Collection and includes Birch’s certificate of United States citizenship issued in 1808 (P.2016.50.52); a broadside advertising the 1789 titles to be issued by “J. Bell of the British Library” and addressed to Wm. Birch, Hampstead Heath (P.2016.50.53); the bookplate of historian and writer Thomas Birch (1705-1766) (P.2016.50.35 &P.2016.62.15); completed tags for William Birch miniatures on display at the 1911 The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and The Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters Tenth Annual Exhibition (P.2016.62.17-20); early twentieth-century receipts and labels for works by Thomas and William Birch (P.2016.62.62-66); and an unused enamel plate (P.2016.50.27)., Various artists, engravers, printers, and photographers including William Russell Birch, Thomas Birch, Franklin Birch, Louise Birch, J. N. Gimbrede, Jan Griffier, Augustus Kollner, M. Marigot, Charles W. Parker, Charles Willson Peale, P. Roberts, J. Rogers, Julius F. Sacshe, Ary Sheffer, Samuel Shelley, Thomas T. Stiles, Gilbert Stuart, Benedictus Antonio Van Assen, E. Wellmore, J. Wood, and Thomas Worlidge., Various publishers and distributors including J. Bell, William Birch, R. Campbell & Co., James Cundee, E. Jeffrey, Edward J. Parker, R. Pollard, C. Taylor, and T. Thornton., Research files, genealogical reference files, and modern photographic reproductions of the artists' work that accompanied the collection when acquired are available at the repository., See Emily T. Cooperman and Lea Carson Sherk, Picturing the American Scene (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011)., See Emily T. Cooperman, ed., The Country Seats of the United States. William Russell Birch (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009)., See S. Robert Teitelman, Birch's Views of Philadelphia. (Philadelphia: The Free Library of Philadelphia, 1982, rev. 2000)., See Martin P. Snyder, "William Birch: His Philadelphia Views," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 73 (July 1949), 271-315., See Martin Snyder, "Birch's Philadelphia Views: New Discoveries," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 88 (April 1964), 164-173., See Martin P. Snyder, "William Birch: his ’Country seats of the United States,’" Pennsylvania magazine of History and Biography 81 (1957), 225-254., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 2017, p. 49 - 51., P.2018.55 photographic reproduction of Mrs. Robinson engraved by William Birch after Sir Joshua Reynolds housed with collection., William Russell Birch (1755-1834), trained in England under Sir Joshua Reynolds, was a respected Philadelphia engraver, miniaturist, and enamel painter. Birch was also one of the most important landscape artists in America’s Federal period. He engraved and published the first viewbook of an American city, "The City of Philadelphia in the Year… 1800" and the respected "The Country Seats of the United States of North America" in 1804. His son Thomas Birch (1779-1851) assisted him in the drawing and engraving of his viewbooks. He became a respected artist in his own right and specialized in marine paintings.
- Date
- [ca. 1742 - ca. 1913]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Birch Collection [P.2016.50 & 62 and P.2017.54 and P.2018.55]
- Title
- Scrapbook
- Description
- Scrapbook compiled by Philadelphia socialite Minnie Campbell Wilson (neé Harris) containing primarily place, greeting, holiday and calling cards predominantly issued in the United Kingdom and the Northeast United States. Majority of the cards are printed and or chromolithographs, with a small number illustrated with drawings by hand. Many cards also contain ornate border details, embossing, and adornments, including ribbons, fringe, lace, a wishbone, and overlays. Contents also include die-cuts of fans, horse shoes, a spoon, a flamingo, one-quarter moon, a woman’s leg, and a bird as a cover for a H. O. Neill & Co. illustrated hat catalog. Cards often depict sentimental and genre imagery including cupids, butterflies, flowers, vases and baskets; religious, historical and Asian-themed scenes, figures and/or decor; seasonal landscape views; women, children, and costumed figures; animals, including birds, chicks, dogs, and cats; and fruit. Other imagery includes two witches flying on brooms holding a "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" banner; London printer William Dickes series of women in native costume from Switzerland, Russia, and Norway; a holiday card that opens to a sledding scene of children holding letters spelling "Merry Christmas"; and a Valentine Day card showing a letter slot filled with valentines. Scrapbook also contains watercolors and drawings, trade cards, programs, menus, invitations, ribbons, photographs, etchings, newspaper clippings, including an announcement of the wedding of Adelaide Watson, and a post card from "cousin Will." Trade cards advertise businesses, including J. E. Caldwell & Co., Stephen F. Whitman & Son, P. Fleischner & Co., Sharpless & Sons, F. T. Howell & Co., A. Ripka & Bro., J. H. Way & Bro., and Automatic Signal Telegraph Co. containing four scenes showing a robbery and fire and police and fire department., Scrapbook contains a number of items depicting Asian people or decorative themes, including a greeting card that reads, "A Happy New Year to You," and showing a Japanese woman, attired in a kimono, sitting and watering a potted plant [p. 9]; a card that reads, "Miss Harris," and depicting a Japanese woman, attired in a kimono made of fabric, standing and facing left [p. 18]; a card titled, "Bric a brac," and showing a blue and white porcelain bowl, vase, and pitcher bordered by hand fans and three flying cranes [p. 29]; and Asian men attired in kimonos having their noses pulled or pulling noses [p. 47]., Watercolors and drawings depict a woman attired in early 19th-century garb in a pumpkin patch, marinescapes, and an anthropomorphic frog. Photographs include a half stereograph showing a croquet match in front of a resort hotel and a photograph of Fifth and Walnut streets (Philadelphia) “taken by Chris in "88." Etchings include a portrait of an elderly man and one signed F. A. Stokes showing a man at a table. Other ephemera includes a hand-made tablet with a cover containing a watercolor depicting birds; a cloth padded bird figurine; a metamorphic playbill for the play "French Flats" at Union Square Theatre; a typewritten engagement announcement composed as a poem; a Christmas Hymnal booklet; handwritten word games, including 'Progressive Conversation"; a Pennsylvania Railroad "Old Point Comfort" tour schedule; and a train schedule scrap annotated with a doodle and inscribed text., Black binding, stamped on cover: Scrapbook., Label pasted on verso of cover: Patent Back Scrap Book. Pat. March 28, 1876., Inscribed on front free end paper: Minnie Campbell Harris Philadelphia. January 12, 1887., Provenance and date of majority of contents identified by brief inscriptions. Provenances include Nannie (i.e., Mary Jaudon) Harris, Lucy and Susan Jaudon, Mai Philler, Carrie (i.e., Caroline) Biddle, and Helen Morton., Printers include Philadelphia firms Craig, Finley & Co., Dreka, Rowley & Chew, and Sunshine Pub. Co.; Boston firm L. Prang & Co.; and British and Irish firms William Dickes, Marcus Ward & Co., and Eyre & Spottiswoode., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Housed in phase box., Gift of Elizabeth McLean., Inventory available at repository., Mary Campbell Harris (known as Minnie), daughter of U.S. Naval Commander Thomas Cadwalder Harris (1826-1875) and Mary Louisa Bainbridge Jaudon (1835-1914), was born in New York on December 27, 1862. Descended from Commodore William Bainbridge and Thomas Harris, the first surgeon-general of the United States Navy, Harris and her family resided in Philadelphia by 1866. In 1893, she married John L. Wilson (b. 1850), later treasurer of Coal Land Corporation and the couple resided in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. Harris was active in the Sedgely Club and often attended and held card parties, teas, and luncheons noted in the local press. Harris spent her later years residing in Bryn Mawr where she died circa 1948.
- Creator
- Wilson, Mary Campbell Harris, 1862-approximately 1948
- Date
- [ca. 1877-ca. 1890]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums - Harris [P.9682.1]
- Title
- [John Serz scrapbook]
- Description
- Scrapbook of print specimens, proofs, and original drawings primarily delineated and compiled by German-born Philadelphia engraver John Serz. Contents include book and periodical illustrations; separately-issued views; portrait prints; certificates; and job printing specimens. Majority of graphics depict religious, landscape, historical, genre, and fashion views, including plates from "Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints" (New York, 1864); Auerbach’s "Tales of the Black Forest"; Sartain’s Magazine; Graham’s Illustrated Magazine; W. Alvin Lloyd’s Railroad Guide; and Demorest’s Monthly Magazine. Religious and historical themes include the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and other Biblical scenes, Mary and Jesus, scenes of prayer, William Penn's Treaty, the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, and the Civil War. Other well-represented material is separately-issued city, bird's eye, landscape, and collegiate views showing European and American sites, including Albany; Baltimore; Boston; Dresden; Hildburghausen; Humboldt (Ca.), New York; Washington, D.C.; Fort Putnam; Philadelphia; Georgetown College; Notre Dame University; Lake of Four Cantons (i.e., Lake Lucerne) and Rutli, Switzerland; West Point; Suspension Bridge over Niagara; and Tivoli. Scrapbook also contains numerous portrait prints (often frontispieces); advertisements; European prints, as well as watercolors and drawings, which show the Centennial Exhibition (1876); landscapes, village scenes, and tree and flower arrangement studies., Portrait print sitters include John Stainbach Wilson, M.D.; Mary A. Niemeyer; Daniel Webster; Hannah Rose Hoffman; and E. R. Beadle. Advertisements depict primarily Philadelphia storefronts and factories and often also show street and pedestrian traffic. Businesses include X. Bazin Perfumery Laboratory (917 Cherry St); Joseph J. Canavan Morocco Factory (1225 N. Fifth St.); Allen’s Furniture Warehouse (1209 Chestnut Street); Joseph Beckhaus Carriage Factory (1204 Frankford Ave.); Gumpert Bros. cigars (1341 Chestnut St.); Oxford Carpets Mills (Wm. Hogg, Jr.)(140 Oxford St.); Baugh & Sons, Manufacturers of Raw Bone Super Phosphate Lime (120 S. Delaware Ave.); Theo. Wilson & Co., Steam Ship, Bread, Cracker & Cake Bakery (212 & 214 N. Front St.); White, Hentz & Co., Rectifiers of Spirits & Importers of Wines & Liquors (222 N. Second St.). European prints include plates from Bernard-Romain Julien "Cours Elementaire" and from Wilhem Hermes's figure drawing books "Berliner Zeichenleher," i.e. United States Systematic Drawing Schools (New York edition); engravings by Serz, several published by German publishers Schneider U Wegel, and primarily showing views of German villages Unterberg (Bavaria) and Nuremberg, and bridges, castles, and churches; and chromolithographs, including the title page, from the Korn'schen series of views of Nuremberg "Ansichten von Nurnberg". Other content includes job printing specimen vignettes and labels depicting allegorical, patriotic and industrial imagery; proofs of the "Rose of Philadelphia, "Rose of Washington, D.C.," and labels for patent medicine manufacturer David Jayne illustrated with Jayne's Building, Chinese characters, and a dramatic scene; and images of wild and domestic animals, including a condor, lemming, sheep, dogs, horses, hippo, boar, camel, and elephant., Contents also include certificate specimens for a temperance society, Sunday School, and the fraternal organization Alpha Omega; the relgious-themed prints "A Curious Piece of Antiquity on the Crucifixion of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," "Jesus Healing the Sick," and "The Two Thieves: The Holy Land Exhibiting the Places & Cities Mentioned in the Old & New Testament"; the Serz color engraving Kriegs =Neurigkeiten (i.e. War News) showing men gathered at a table in a village tavern; an advertisement for Philadelphia calico printer Wm. Simpson & Sons depicting a sepulchral monument; and a post mortem portrait engraved by Serz showing Napoelon II, i.e., Duke of Reichstadt., Various American and European artists, engravers, lithographers, and printers, including W. H. Bartlett; J.C. Garrigues & Co.; H. B. Hall & Sons; Heliographic Co. of NY; Langlumé; G. Lury; A. H. Payne; J. C. MacRae; J. Poppel; John Sartain; F. Silber; Joshua Shaw; and F. W. Topham., Various American and European publishers, including D. & J. Sadlier & Co.; John Dainty; Francois Delarue; Friedrich Kornschen; F. W. Thomas & Sons; Parmelee & Co.; Henry Tuessli & Co.; and Max Jacoby & Zeller., Some prints annotated with lines of perspective., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Loose items retained in album., Gift of Madelyn Wolke, Lucianne Reichert, and Clifford A. Mohwinkel Jr., John Serz (1808-1881), born in Nuremberg, Bavaria, worked as an engraver in Germany before immigrating to Philadelphia circa 1851. Naturalized in 1856, Serz earned enough income from his trade to be taxed by the I.R.S. during the Civil War. During the 1870s, his bird's-eye print "Philadelphia and Environs" was advertised in the "Public Ledger" and he served as professor of drawing at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. Serz was also a president and secretary of the old Artists Club and member of several German societies, including the German Society of Pennsylvania. He died of a skull fracture in 1881.
- Creator
- Serz, John, ca. 1810-ca. 1878
- Date
- [ca. 1842-ca. 1893]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *albums (flat) [P.9773]
- Title
- David Doret collection of Centennial ephemera
- Description
- Collection consists of approximately one hundred items, primarily advertising ephemera, relating to the Centennial Exhibition, held in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park in 1876 to celebrate America’s one-hundredth anniversary of independence and to showcase the strengths of the country’s industry, manufactures, agriculture, and art. Materials include circulars, price lists, advertising cards, stationery, and pamphlets for goods and services, including washboards, ironing tables, saws, springs, sewing machines, mills, mowers, reapers, horse shoes, and hotel accommodations. Other documents include souvenir view books and guidebooks for visitors, maps, a Centennial Board of Finance letterhead, a Centennial award seal, programs, and admission tickets. Several of the items contain illustrations, such as views of the Centennial buildings, and depictions of products. Some advertisements promote foreign businesses from countries, including Belgium, Russia, Great Britain, Holland, Austria, France, Germany, and Spain., Approximately seventeen of the items include manuscript annotations of dates (e.g. "11.2.76" and "Nov 9/76"), possibly made by Centennial visitors to record dates of attendance at the fair. A concert program for Seibert Hall [11423.F.21] contains a lengthy manuscript annotation on the verso., Various printers include Allen, Lane & Scott; Craig, Finley & Co.; Thomas S. Dando; Duross Brothers; G. S. Harris & Son; Heppenheimer & Maurer; Thomas Hunter; Ketterlinus; Lehman & Bolton; Loag; William Mann; Phillip Frey & Co.; Potsdamer & Co.; Theodore Leonhardt & Son; and Times Printing House., Select link above for on-line finding aid and exhibition., Gift of David Doret., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Books and oversize material housed separately in stacks., 11423.F.14 is probably the separated cover of a handbill, and not an advertising card.
- Date
- 1855-1882, bulk 1876
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Doret Collection Centennial Ephemera [11423.F; P.2010.21.6-14], Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Doret Collection Centennial Ephemera - 4th Floor [11423.F], Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1875 Visitors 11423.F.10 (Doret), Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1876 Chick 11423.F.35 (Doret), Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1876 Chick 11423.F.36 (Doret), Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1876 Pocket 11423.F.11 (Doret), http://www.lcpimages.org/centennial/
- Title
- [William H. Helfand graphic popular medicine ephemera collection]
- Description
- Collection of illustrated ephemera, primarily letterheads, billheads, receipts, and fliers, for pharmaceutical firms in the United States (predominantly New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Mid-West), and London issued between 1800 and 1940. Firms well represented include Frederick Stearns & Co.; Maltine Manufacturing Company; and Wm. R. Warner & Co. Materials also document The Altenheim Dispensary; C.A. Bartlett & Co.; Dr. Shoop Family Medicine Co.; Henry K. Wampole & Co; J. N. Harris & Co.; J. H. Schenck & Son; John C. Baker Co.; Johnson & Johnson; National Remedy Company; R. H. Steward Company, Inc.; and Upjohn Pill & Granule Co. Also contains advertisements, bags, calendars, envelopes, illustrations, label proofs, and show cards. Prominent firms represented include Antikamnia Chemical Company; A. Vogeler & Co. (later Charles A. Vogeler Co.); Charles E. Hires Company; Lehn & Fink; Lydia Pinkham; and Morse Yellow Dock Root Syrup Company. Other firms, businesses, and products include Arctic Soda Apparatus; Barker's Cheveux Tonique; Chamberlain's remedies; Dr. Peiro Oxygen treatment; George T. Brown & Co.; A. Gsell; Merchant's Gargling Ointment; Mrs. S. A. Allen's Improved Hair Restorer; T. Jacob's Oil; Tilden & Company; and Wright's Indian Vegetable Pills., Illustrations depict various subjects. The most numerous are views of pharmaceutical factories and storefronts, often including street and pedestrian traffic. Imagery also depicts pharmaceutical and soda apparatus; genre and satiric scenes; children and animals; portraiture; the devil and death; and figures in traditional Japanese costume. Collection also includes ca. 1800 trade card "The Front of Swinton’s Original [Anthony] Daffy’s Elixir Warehouse, Salisbury Square, Fleet Street London"(Advertisements); "The Grand Stand Baseball Game" advertising the laxative "Pluto Water" (Advertisements); a placard for Fowler & Wells Co. containing an image of a phrenological head and corresponding explanatory key (Miscellaneous); and a sheet of stamps advertising Daggett & Ramsdell's Ha-Kol headache remedy (Miscellaneous)., Title supplied by cataloger., Various engravers and printers, including J. Bonsor; Detroit Lith. Co.; Donaldson Brothers; Doty & Bergen; R. Gair; Major & Knapp Eng. Mfg. & Lith. Co.; The Meisenbach Co.; The Richmond Lith. Co.; A. W. Robinson; and Strobridge Lithographing Co., Majority of the letterheads, billheads, and receipts contain manuscript and typewritten notes. Subjects include solicitations, giveaways with purchases, receipt of testimonials, corrections of mailing lists from postmasters, price lists, and the potential cost to consumers of the stamping of proprietary medicines (1898)., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Gift of William H. Helfand., Digitized for AMD: Popular Medicine. Series I.
- Date
- [ca. 1800-1931, bulk 1870-1900]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Helfand Graphic Popular Medicine Ephemera Collection [P.2010.37]
- Title
- [Specimens album]
- Description
- Scrapbook of print specimens and proofs probably compiled by a printer associated with the Philadelphia lithographic firm Stein & Jones. Contains book and periodical plates and illustrations; sheet music covers; proof prints; collecting cards; trade cards (several glossed); bank notes, checks, billheads, and receipts; certificates; advertising calendars; and chromolithographed labels and scraps. Majority of contents include several plates from Thomas Allom's "China: In a Series of Views,..." (London, 1860), Albert Barnes's "Scenes and Incidents in the Life of the Apostle Paul" (Philadelphia, 1869), John Fleetwood's "The life of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (Philadelphia, 1871) and Daniel March's "Our Father's House , or The Unwritten Word" (Philadelphia, 1871); illustrations and plates depicting genre, religious, sentimental, historical, natural history, scientific, and scenic views from children and gift books, and periodicals, including "Leila in England" and "Leila at Home" (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1875-1880), "Peterson's Magazine" (plates engraved by Illman Brothers), "Ladies Companion," "Graham's Magazine," "Odd Fellow's Casket," "Transactions and Proceedings of American Entomological Society" and "Annals Lyceum of Natural History"; and several works printed by Stein & Jones and Cincinnati lithographers Klauprech & Menzel and Ehrgott & Fobriger, including trade cards, labels, tickets, invitations, certificates, receipts, checks, bank notes, sheet music covers, advertisements, and book illustrations., Bank notes, receipts, checks, and certificates document primarily Philadelphia and New York bank, coal, oil, steel, and real estate businesses, including Bank of Fashion, Belmont Petroleum Refinery, and Union College Bank. Trade cards, tickets, invitations, and labels represent primarily Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York, Cincinnati and Chicago businesses and organizations, including printers and art supply dealers; perfume, patent medicine, wine, dry goods, and clothing dealers; doctors and dentists; bankers and brokers; and manufacturers. The materials contain patriotic, agricultural, and transportation vignettes, views of buildings, anaglyptography (i.e., medal engraving), allegorical figures, and Centennial Exhibition (1876) imagery. Sheet music covers, predominantly printed by Ehrgott & Fobriger, depict mainly genre and Civil War scenes, portraiture, including images of entertainers, and advertisements such as "Sewing Machine Polka." Work by the Cincinnati lithographers also include several book illustrations depicting Ohio and Cincinnati asylums, institutes, seminaries, and landmarks, as well as uncut sheets of views of cemetery monuments for "The Cincinnati Cemetery of Spring Grove..." (Cincinnati, 1862). Several of the ephemera also printed by Grattan & Co., Theodore Leonhardt, and Wm. F. Murphy & Sons., Scrapbook also contains 1860s Berlin wool work patterns ("Peterson’s Ladies National Magazine"); ornate border print specimens, some with cut-out overlays; proofs and final states of textile, fruit, liquor, druggist labels, and tobacco labels printed predominantly by Stern, Jonas & Co. and Steng & Paxson and depicting romantic, patriotic, and mystical themes, including "I Am Free" logo illustrated with an African American man ; European prints, including plates from Bernard-Romain Julien "Cours Elementaire," and issued by German publisher A.H. Payne (some hand-colored); ca. 1855 Bowen & Co. plates of birds from "United States Pacific Rail Road Expedition and Survey"; color printed and numbered proof lithographs depicting Mo-Hon-Go; Shar- I-Tar-Ish; Se-Quo-Yah after plates in McKenney & Hall's "History of the Indian Tribes of North America"; Philadelphia Sketch Club signage; portraits of Catholic bishops, celebrity and political figures, and lithographers Rudolph Stein and Alfred Jones; mechanical views printed by William Boell; job printing specimen vignettes depicting masonic, military, allegorical, and patriotic imagery, transportation views, women, entertainers, agriculture, buildings, animals, and machinery; collecting cards showing George and Martha Washington, Civil War generals, celebrities, including Lydia Thompson and Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosasea, wild life, Biblical animals, fashion, and satiric scenes; and chromolithographic scrap portraits of women., Stamped on spine: Specimens., Various artists, engravers, lithographers, and printers including Ackerman; John Alexander; Thomas Allom; William Boell; John T. Bowen,; Bowen & Co.; Byram & Slack; C. E. Wemple & Co.; Donaldson Brothers ; G. Dow; Ehrgott & Fobriger; Dominque Fabronius; Grattan & Co.; The Hatch Lith. Co.; Otto Knirsch; L. H. Bradford & Co.; Klauprech & Menzel; Theodore Leonhardt; London Printing and Publishing Company; McLaughlin Bros.; Antoine [Maurin?]; A.H. Payne; Prang & Co.; Rawdon, Wright & Hatch; William H. Rease; Sarony & Major; John Sartain; Samuel Sartain; R. Trembley; J. Shobe; Steng & Paxson; Stern, Jonas & Co.; A. B. Walter; and Wm. F. Murphy & Sons., Index of general subjects illustrated available at repository., Several items found loose in album removed and housed separately., Gift of Margaret Robinson, 1991., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
- Date
- [ca. 1852-ca. 1876]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *albums (flat) [P.9349], https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/digitool%3A120747?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=a3bf36a0044447b21c5b&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=0&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=0#page/3/mode/1up
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