Collections from fugitive sources only, illustrative of the antiquities, progress & c. of the city Philadelphia [graphic] / Vincit qui se vincit. Collected by Chas. A. Poulson.
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]