[William H. Helfand graphic popular medicine stationery collection]
Title
[William H. Helfand graphic popular medicine stationery collection]
Description
Collection of stationery, primarily illustrated and typographical letterheads, billheads, and form letters, of pharmaceutical firms and related businesses and institutions in the United States (predominantly New York City, New York, Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania) issued between circa 1840 and 1935. Subjects include invoices and receipts, shipping arrangements and fees, product orders, payments and payment disputes. Firms, businesses, and institutions well represented include James S. Aspinwall; William P. Blanding; L. N. Brunswig; Caswell, Massey & Co.; C.J. Lincoln Co.; College of Pharmacy of the City of New York; Geo. C. Goodwin & Co.; Hall & Ruckel; Dr. William A. Hammond's Sanitarium; Hopkins-Weller Drug Co.; James Baily & Son; J. D. Marshall & Bros. (D. Marshall & Bro.); J. L. Lyons & Co.; A. M. Knowlson; Lanman & Kemp; McKesson & Robbins; Nichols & Harris; P. D. Orvis; S. R. Van Duzer; Wells, Richardson & Co. (Wells & Richardson Co.); Wilson Drug Co.; and W. J. Gilmore & Co. Philadelphia firms represented include A.W. Wright & Co.; Barker, Moore, Mein; Bean & Stevenson; Browning & Brothers; C.H. Butterworth & Co.; Robert Shoemaker & Co.; W.H. Schieffelin & Co.; and Strother Drug Co. Collection also contains several pieces of stationery of firms in New England, including Massachussetts (particularly Boston), Maine, Connecticut, Vermont, and Rhode Island; the Mid-West, including Ohio, Michigan, and Minnesota; and the South, including Louisiana (particularly New Orleans), Virginia, and Tennessee. A small number of items also represent businesses in the Western United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. A song sheet, envelope, and stereograph also form the collection., Illustrations depict various subjects. The most numerous are views of pharmaceutical factories and storefronts, often including street and pedestrian traffic. Imagery also depicts pharmaceutical apparatus and trademarks, including mortars and pestles; medical supplies, including trusses; allegorical scenes; heraldry; and art nouveau pictorial details and designs. Other illustrations show medieval apothecaries; the interiors of a pharmacy and dental office; and the mythical creature phoenix., Title supplied by cataloger., Various engravers, printers, and publishers, including Smith Bros.; Gast; A. Hoen & Co.; Collier & Cleveland; Craig, Butt, & Finley; Calvert Lithographing Co.; Snyder & Black; Detroit Litho. Co.; American Bank Note Company; Gies & Co.; Strobridge & Co.; E. Weber; Craig, Finley & Co.; G. H. Dunston; and Wm. H. Brett & Co., Majority of the billheads, letterheads, and form letters completed in manuscript or type and contain manuscript and typewritten notes on recto and verso., 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. 1840-1935, bulk 1870-1890]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Helfand Graphic Popular Medicine Stationery Collection [P.2011.46]
[John Serz scrapbook]
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]