© Copyright 2020 - The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1314 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. TEL (215) 546-3181 FAX (215) 546-5167
For inquiries, please contact our IT Department
- Title
- Gray Reserves Company D, First Regiment, Reserve Brigade, P.M. [certificate]
- Description
- Membership certificate containing an allegorical vignette depicting the seal of Pennsylvania as a scenic view. View includes horses, the American eagle, and cityscape and a steam boat in the background. Certificate also contains corner details and a decorative border. The Gray Company was established in 1861 and active into the 20th century., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
- Date
- [ca. 1865]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums - Specimens Album [P.9349.235b]
- Title
- Freiheit Edelmuth & Bruderliebe, Unabhangiger Orden der Rothmaenner [membership certificate]
- Description
- Membership certificate for the Pocahantas Chapter of the Independent Order of Redmen at Philadelphia. Print contains seven small vignettes depicting scenes from the life of Pocahontas, the treaty between William Penn and the American Indians, and other scenes of Native American life. A larger scene showing a Native American chief addressing a group gathered around a fire surmounts the text. Vignettes of Native Americans hunting (left) and a Native American man providing a white man with a drink (right) flank the scene. At the bottom, an American Indian and a white man sit on a globe showing the Western Hemishere, clasping hands and holding a peace pipe. The vignettes are surrounded by intertwined icanthus leaves. Includes a red embossed seal in the lower left corner., Not in Wainwright., Issued to Otto Gratz on February 10, 1863. Signed by John Rumig and Heinrich Bissout., Includes a red embossed seal in the lower left corner., Philadelphia on Stone, Smithsonian Institution, NMAH, Home and Community Life Collection: *60.2396
- Creator
- Feusier, A.
- Date
- [ca. 1863]
- Location
- Smithsonian Institution | NMAH Home and Community Life Collection SI NMAH H&CL - Harry T. Peters America on Stone Collection [DL *60.2396]
- Title
- Good Will Fire Company of Philadelphia
- Description
- Fire company certificate containing vignettes depicting fire fighters extinguishing a blaze at the Union League of Philadelphia (burned September 7, 1866); the Good Will fire station; and a horse-drawn fire engine. Fire fighting equipment including a fire hat, a ladder, an axe, and other tools are drawn bundled together to form decorative elements on both sides. Pictorial elements are divided by a twisting fire hose. A company ambulance resting upon two intertwining American flags appears above the text., Not in Wainwright., Issued to William H. Urian on October 12, 1868. Signed by Lewis B. Heins, president, and John M'Cullough, secretary., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 319, Gift of Maxwell Whiteman., Free Library of Philadelphia: Philadelphiana - Fire Companies. FLP copy tinted with two stones.
- Creator
- Queen, James Fuller, 1820 or 21-1886, artist
- Date
- ca. 1867
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Philadelphia certificates - Fires and fire fighting [6526.F]
- Title
- Columbia Hose Co. of Philadelphia [membership certificate]
- Description
- Fire company honorary membership certificate containing vignettes depicting fire fighters racing a steam engine and hose carriage past Independence Hall; an exterior view of the Columbia Hose Co. station at Cherry Street above Seventh Street; and volunteers fighting a blaze with hoses, a steam engine, and ladder at the French & Richards drugstore at the N.W. corner of 10th and Market streets (October 3, 1865). Station view also shows the station dog, hose carriage, and pedestrian traffic, including a couple looking at a storefront display window of a neighboring building. Fire fighting equipment including a trumpet, ax, ladder, hose and belt are drawn bundled together to form side borders and decorative elements above the vignettes. Also contains, above the images, the company institution date "1806," American eagle and shield, the Roman numeral for 8, i.e., VIII; and the company motto "The Public Benefit Is Our Desire.", Issued to Charles Flowers "admitted to membership" March 4th, 1850 and "honor conferred" December 5th, 1866. Signed G.W. Taylor, President; William R. Fraley, Secretary., Company seal pasted on recto., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 146, Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Free Library of Philadelphia: Philadelphiana - Fire Companies
- Creator
- Queen, James Fuller, 1820 or 21-1886, artist
- Date
- [ca. 1865]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *W46 [6531.F]
- Title
- Citizens Volunteer Hospital Association of Philadelphia. Instituted, September 5th 1862. [graphic] / From nature by Jas. Queen.
- Description
- Location: Broad St. and Washington Ave., northeast corner., Wainwright retrospective conversion project., Select link below to view a digital image., Historical Society of Pennsylvania:
- Creator
- Queen, James Fuller, 1820 or 21-1886 lithographer., creator
- Date
- ca. 1865.
- Location
- http://www.lcpgraphics.org/wainwright/W067.htm, Library Company of Philadelphia Print Dept. **W67 [P.8650]
- Title
- Citizens Volunteer Hospital Association of Philadelphia. Instituted, September 5th 1862. [graphic] / From nature by Jas. Queen.
- Description
- Location: Broad St. and Washington Ave., northeast corner., Wainwright retrospective conversion project., Select link below to view a digital image., Historical Society of Pennsylvania:
- Creator
- Queen, James Fuller, 1820 or 21-1886 lithographer., creator
- Date
- ca. 1865.
- Location
- http://www.lcpgraphics.org/wainwright/W067.htm, Library Company of Philadelphia Print Dept. **W67 [P.8650]
- Title
- America Fire Engine Co. of the city of Philadelphia
- Description
- Fire company membership certificate containing two side panel views, vignettes, and firefighting iconography. The left panel shows firefighters running from the fire house on Buttonwood Street, below Third Street. Two men stand lookout on the tower above the house, as others pull the fire engine from the garage. The right panel shows the fire company attempting to extinguish the January 14, 1869 fire caused by an explosion of a steam boiler at the southeast corner of Ninth and Chestnut Streets. Flames shoot from the top of three adjacent businesses on land formerly occupied by the Burd Mansion including, Howell & Brothers, paper hanging (900 Chestnut Street); J.M. Hafleigh, dry goods (902 Chestnut Street); and J.F. & E.B. Orne, carpets & oil cloths (904 Chestnut Street). The center vignette, below the membership text, depicts a man standing in front of the two horses that are hitched to a carriage pulling the fire company's engine. At the top of the certificate, American and Pennsylvania flags flank the image of lady liberty sitting on the wing of an eagle. With a lightning bolt in her left hand, she floats above a banner that reads "Allways [sic] ready and willing to assist". Fire fighting equipment, including a helmet, engine, and bugles, are drawn as decorative elements interspersed with the side panel views. Also contains the company's number "No. 9" and institution date, April 10th 1790. Incorporated on April 13, 1844., Not in Wainwright., Signed by Thomas F. Moore, president, and Frank Jacoby, secretary., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 16, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Certificates - Fire Companies - American Fire Engine
- Date
- [ca. 1870]
- Location
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania HSP Certificates - Fire Companies - American Fire Engine
- Title
- Citizens Volunteer Hospital Association of Philadelphia. Instituted, September 5th 1862 Erected September 5th 1862 for temporary relief of sick and wounded soldiers, arriving in and passing through Philadelphia. Closed August 9th 1865
- Description
- Certificate containing a view showing a bustling street scene around the hospital situated opposite the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad depot at the corner of Broad Street and Washington Avenue. On the sidewalk, soldiers converse, men and women pedestrians stroll, and a female peddler and vendor sell their goods and wares, the latter patronized by Zouaves. In the street, medical personnel and doctors accompany injured soldiers, by stretcher, foot, and on crutches toward the hospital. Men, women, and children walk, converse, and greet each other, and horse-drawn carriages, including possibly an ambulance, travel past and stop near the hospital. Children include a boy carrying a basket and two attempting to help a man with his valise. Also shows surrounding buildings in the background. The hospital provided care to the most seriously injured before their reassignment to other hospitals. The hospital closed on August 11, 1865., Signed Thomas T. Tasker Junr President and F. Bayle Secretary pro tem., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 129, Wainwright retrospective conversion project, edited., Historical Society of Pennsylvania:, Variant of image used as central scene in Wainwright 69.
- Creator
- Queen, James Fuller, 1820 or 21-1886, artist
- Date
- [ca. 1865]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **W67 [P.8650]
- Title
- Soldiers Home in the city of Philadelphia. This certifies that [Charles Macalester] having contributed the sum of [fifty] dollars is constituted a [life] member of the Soldiers Home. Philada
- Description
- Certificate containing an allegorical scene depicting a central, winged female figure, seated, and surrounded by wounded soldiers and other female figures. The central figure has long, dark hair, adorned with a headband, and is attired in a toga with a drape-like shawl. Her arms are outstretched to her sides. Celestial light frames her head. In her left hand, she holds an olive branch. Broken shackles adorn her right wrist. In her lap, a loose scales of justice rests atop a sword. At her feet, a pair of white and African American soldiers and sailors sits and lies. In the left, the white soldier, a bandage on his arm, sits on a bound volume, near a canteen, and in front of the seated African American soldier. The latter wears a bandage on his head and rests the right side of his head on his right hand. The white soldier holds up a sheet of paper inscribed "Honorable Discharge" to the winged figure. The white sailor sits across from the white soldier. His head and left arm are bandaged and crutches rest by his side. He extends his right hand and holds his cap out to the winged figure. The African American sailor, prone, and partially visible behind him, does the same. American flags, on their sides and their upper poles adorned with wreaths of garland, rest among the soldiers and sailors. Four allegorical female figures, two and two, flank the central figure. To her left, one holds a basket of bounty as the other (behind her) tosses wreathes of garland. To her right, one holds a pocket watch as the other (behind her) shoots lightning from her hand. In the left background, wreathes rain upon soldiers, some in bandages, who march and carry American flags. In the right background, lightning bolts strike an ironclad ship on open waters., The soldiers home chartered in 1862, opened in December 1863, and incorporated in 1864 was an outgrowth of the relief organization, the Cooper Shop Volunteer Refreshment Saloon. The founding relief organization provided hospital care, washing, sleeping, and writing facilities to military personnel, sailors, refugees, and free people during the war. The Soldiers Home was chartered with the mission of "the providing of a temporary or permanent Home for all persons who, while in the military service of the United States of America, either upon land or sea, shall become disable from wounds, or from sickness, so that they are unable to perform the ordinary avocations of life." The Soldiers Home operated until 1889 when the Board of Managers dissolved itself and turned the home over to the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States., Title from item, Date inferred from year organization was chartered., Completed in manuscript on January 1, 1866 and signed by E. S. Hall, Secretary; Ellerslie Wallace, President; and Wm. Struthers, Treasurer., Charles Macalester was a Philadelphia financier and philanthropist. Macalester College is named for him., Gift of David Doret, 2002., For a history of the Home, including the process to transfer administration of the home to the Loyal Legion, see Ferdinand Sermiento, ed., Historical Sketch of the Soldiers' Home ... (1886) [Am 1886 Phi Sol Hom 24755.O]., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
- Creator
- Sartain, John, 1808-1897, engraver
- Date
- [ca. 1862]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Philadelphia certificates - Organizations - Soldiers [P.2002.40.1]
- Title
- Order of the United American Mechanics. Founded July 8th, 1845. Honesty, industry & sobriety. [membership certificate]
- Description
- Membership certificate for the fraternal, nativist organization containing patriotic vignettes and pictorial details adorning and bordering an ornamented arch. Includes portraits of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in addition to state seals, the figures of Liberty and Justice, American flags, and the American eagle and shield. OUAM, founded in Philadelphia in 1845 as the Union of Workers, was an anti-immigration, anti-Catholic benevolent society that provided its white, native-born members with sick and funeral funds., Not in Wainwright., Issued to Brother A. H. Alexander on January 23, 1872. Signed by Geo. H. Kidder, Councillor and Wm. B. [Pierez?], Secretary., Philadelphia on Stone, POSP 159, Patton worked as a lithographer in Philadelphia ca. 1852-ca. 1897., American Antiquarian Society: Graphic Arts Lithf Patt Hone, See "Order of the United Daughters of America." HSP Bc 052 U58.
- Date
- [ca. 1870]
- Location
- American Antiquarian Society AAS Graphic Arts Lithf Patt Hone
- Title
- Franklin Fire Co. of the city of Philadelphia [membership certificate]
- Description
- Fire company certificate containing vignettes depicting fire fighters racing down a street on a horse-drawn steam fire engine during the day; firefighters, two with trumpets, drawing a hand-pump fire engine out of the station during the night; and an exterior view of the Franklin Fire station. Fire fighting equipment including a trumpet, ax, and belt are drawn bundled together to form a decorative element below the vignettes. Images are bordered by hoses, including two squirting water into the air, and two entwined around the company number "12." Also contains a vignette showing a firefighter shielding a family from flames as a fellow volunteer is at the ready with an ax. Vignette captioned with the company motto "Assist the Needy.", Name of artist supplied by Wainwright., Signed by Thomas H. Clarke, president., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 275, Atwater Kent Museum: 44.91.2
- Creator
- Queen, James Fuller, 1820 or 21-1886, artist
- Date
- [ca. 1865]
- Location
- Atwater Kent Museum | Print Department AKM AKM 44.91.2
- Title
- Good Will Hose and Steam Fire Engine Company of Philadelphia [membership certificate]
- Description
- Fire company certificate containing five vignettes bordered by patriotic and firefighting iconography. Vignettes depict the Fairmount Waterworks, including boys fishing on the canal lock; a circular industrial building, possibly the Spring Garden Water Works; company volunteers rushing hand pumps through Fairmount past Reservoir Hill; the station dog sleeping near the company steam engine in front of the firehouse on the 2200 block of Wood Street; and volunteers, surrounded by a crowd of spectators, fighting the fire at a large city building. Iconography includes helmets with the company number "25," fire hoses, trumpets, and belts as well as the American eagle holding the U.S. shield and flanked by flags over the company motto "Our Motto is Our Name, Always Ready for Public Good." Also contains the company institution and incorporation dates (1834 and 1851, respectively)., Signed Quintin Todd, Secy., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 320, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Certificates - Fire Companies - Good Will Hose and Steam, P.S. Duval & Son was a core partnership between Peter S. Duval and his son Stephen that operated under various names and incarnations between 1857-1869. The firm name P.S. Duval, Son & Co. was cited in city directories 1868-1869.
- Creator
- Bosch, A. H., artist
- Date
- [ca. 1868]
- Location
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania HSP Certificates - Fire Companies - Good Will Hose and Steam
- Title
- Decatur Fire Company of Frankford
- Description
- Fire company certificate containing vignettes depicting fire fighters rushing a steam engine marked with the company motto down a city street past the Odd Fellows Hall, Frankford; a steam engine parked at the company fire station on Church Street; and fire fighters surrounded by spectators battling a fire of the Frogmore Mills cotton factory, Frankford. Fire fighting equipment including a fire hose, a ladder, an axe, a trumpet and other tools are drawn bundled together to form decorative elements on both sides. A small oval portrait of Commodore Stephen Decatur in a laurel wreath frame above intertwined American flags and the company motto "Ever Prompt to a Call" adorns the top. Also contains eagles, the company number "21," and the institution and incorporation dates (1803 and 1842, respectively). Company named after the Naval hero Decatur whose father purportedly resided in Frankford., Not in Wainwright., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 177, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Certificates - Fire Companies - Decatur, Duval and Hunter was a partnership between Stephen Orr Duval (P.S. Duval’s son) and Thomas Hunter that lasted from P.S. Duval’s retirement in 1869 until 1874.
- Creator
- Bosch, A. H., artist
- Date
- [ca. 1870]
- Location
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania HSP Certificates - Fire Companies - Decatur
- Title
- Washington Fire Company of Frankford
- Description
- Fire company certificate containing vignettes depicting fire fighters surrounded by spectators, battling the July 12, 1866 fire at the "Tackawana" (i.e., Tacony) Print Works in Frankford; a steam engine parked in the company fire station on Frankford Avenue between Sellers and Oxford streets; and fire fighters rushing a horse-drawn steam engine past a church. Fire fighting equipment including a fire hose, a ladder, an axe, a trumpet and other tools are drawn bundled together to form decorative elements on both sides. A small oval portrait of George Washington adorns an arch at the top. An American eagle rests on top of the portrait and clutches an American flag that is intertwined over the arch that is printed "First in War. First in Peace. First in the Hearts of His Country Men." Also contains the company institution date - 1793. Company was incorporated in 1846 (date visible on the station house)., Not in Wainwright., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 819, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Certificates - Fire Companies - Washington, Duval and Hunter was a partnership between Stephen Orr Duval (P.S. Duval’s son) and Thomas Hunter that lasted from P.S. Duval’s retirement in 1869 until 1874.
- Creator
- Bosch, A. H., artist
- Date
- [ca. 1870]
- Location
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania HSP Certificates - Fire Companies - Washington
- Title
- Marion Hose Company of Philadelphia
- Description
- Fire company certificate containing a central view, vignettes, and firefighting iconography. Central view shows the company's fire station at Queen Street below Sixth Street. Two men and a dog sit in front of a fenced lot adjacent to the station. Vignettes show volunteers drawing a hand pump past the station in "1857" and a church in "1864"; firefighters battling the "Burning of the Ironsides" at League Island on December 16, 1866; and fighting the blaze from a boiler explosion at "Merrick's Foundry" on April 7, 1864. Fire fighting equipment including a fire hose, helmets, and axes are drawn layered together to form decorative elements in the upper corners. A small oval framed scene of "Marion and the British," semi-draped with an American flag, adorns an arch at the top. The scene shows Continental Army Lieut. Col. Francis Marion's slave Oscar Marion preparing a meal that the officer invited the British to share. Also contains the company institution date, 1833, and incorporation date, 1834., Not in Wainwright., Company seal pasted on recto., Issued to Geo. Jeffries on May 9, 1871. Signed by William Byrnes, Pres. and Alfred A. Mullen, Sec., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 456, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Certificates - Marion Hose, Duval and Hunter was a partnership between Stephen Orr Duval (P.S. Duval’s son) and Thomas Hunter that lasted from P.S. Duval’s retirement in 1869 until 1874.
- Creator
- Bosch, A. H., artist
- Date
- [ca. 1870]
- Location
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania HSP Certificates - Marion Hose
- Title
- Reliance Steam Fire Engine Company of Philadelphia
- Description
- Fire company certificate containing five vignettes showing the company firehouse and engines, and firefighting scenes bordering text framed as a badge. Vignettes depict firefighters gathered around a hand-pump, and a steam engine, at their stations near New and Second streets; firefighters racing an engine past the Public Ledger Building (built 1866-1867) and Independence Hall en route to a fire; and firefighters using a steam engine to battle a fire aboard a sailing vessel, and a hand pump to battle a fire at buildings opposite piers at the Delaware River. Also contains above the vignettes two American flags draped over a pole; a panoramic view of cityscape; an empty framed oval, probably to be used for a photographic portrait of the fire fighter member; two oval frames surrounding the company's institution and incorporation date, 1786 and 1848 respectively; and the company motto "We Persevere to Conquer." Company originally established by Quakers., Not in Wainwright., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 636, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Bc 834 R 279, Duval and Hunter was a partnership between Stephen Orr Duval (P.S. Duval’s son) and Thomas Hunter that lasted from P.S. Duval’s retirement in 1869 until 1874., Mifflin fund, November 12, 1959.
- Creator
- Bosch, A. H., artist
- Date
- [ca. 1870]
- Location
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania HSP Bc 834 R 279