#LCPchallenge

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What better way to kick off this month’s #LibraryLeaves challenge than with Joseph Breintnall’s leaf prints (circa 1730s)? The vertical fold in the page is a clue as to how Brientnall achieved these detailed leaf impressions. He inked the leaf, folded the paper over the leaf and then used pressure to create the print. He made hundreds of leaf prints like this to collect botanical information. 

Check out more of Breintnall’s prints here, and let us know if you feel inspired to make your own prints!

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We’re featuring more #NaturePrints for the second week of the #LibraryLeaves Challenge! 

Oerii, Joannis. Specimen herbarii typico-vivi … . [Europe : s.n., 1759.]

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Athanasius Kircher’s The Vulcano’s: or, Burning and Fire-Vomiting Mountains (London, 1669) includes this fold-out frontispiece showing his theories on how fire and water interacted through an elaborate system of interconnected  subterranean channels and vents that resulted in volcanic activity (or, as the title suggests, fire-vomiting!). Notice the cross section of an erupting Mount Vesuvius in the third image. 

For the month of June we are participating in the #PeakOfOurCollections challenge, sponsored by the John Carter Brown Library, highlighting collection materials that feature mountains and volcanoes.

Athanasius Kircher. The vulcano's: or, Burning and fire-vomiting mountains.  London : printed by J. Darby, for John Allen. 1669.

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Our final #LibraryBookArt feature comes from our copy of The Roman Histories of Lucius Iulius Florus (London, 1636). A former owner added this glorious portrait to the final leaf along with the inscription: Dikus Mulberry. We’re not sure whether Dikus is the person depicted, the former owner, or perhaps both. Regardless, we’re feeling some serious #HairEnvy.

Lucius Annaeus Florus. The Roman histories of Lucius Iulius Florus. London: Printed by R. Bishop, and are to be sold by Fr. Bowman, in Oxford. 1636.           

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We’re shining a light on this week’s #LibraryBookArt situation! Our Chief of Conservation, Jennifer Rosner, found this gorgeous geometric watermark while going through our copy of T.H. Saunders’ Illustrations of the British Paper Manufacture (London, 1855). We love how a seemingly plain piece of paper can come alive with just a little light.

T. H. Saunders. Illustrations of the British paper manufacture. London, Waterlow and Sons, 1855.    

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We had an incredibly difficult time choosing which images to share from Johann Heck’s Iconographic Encyclopædia of Science, Literature, and Art (New York, 1851-1852) for this week’s #LibraryBookArt feature! The two image atlases that accompany the text are chock-full of beautiful engravings, depicting fossils, minerals, natural phenomena, and so much more. 

Johann Georg Heck. Iconographic encyclopædia of science, literature, and art. New York: Rudolph Garrigue, [1851-52].             

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We’re #BugginOut! Each week this month we’ll be sharing all the bugs, insects, and various creeping critters we can find in our collection as part of the #BugginOut challenge hosted by Sutro Library.

This tiny, 7/8″ x 3/4″, decorative glass mosaic is from our Stevens-Cogdell / Sanders-Venning Collection, and depicts a beetle composed of gold, red, and green glass.

The Stevens-Cogdell / Sanders-Venning family was a middle-class African American family active in the Philadelphia political, social, educational, and cultural community from the 1850s to the 20th century. The family was involved in several prominent local African American institutions, including the St. Thomas P.E. Church, Church of the Crucifixion, Central Presbyterian Church, the Colored Institute of Youth, and the Citizens Republican Club.

Collection of objects from the Stevens - Cogdell - Sanders - Venning families.

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We’re sharing a bonus #PeakofOurCollections adjacent image to promote an upcoming event at the Library Company:

PLOT: IN CELEBRATION OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE APOLLO 11 MISSION

Join us on July 16 to hear artist Rebecca Kamen talk about her recent art and video project in collaboration with artist Tim Chrepta. PLOT celebrates lunar exploration and the Parkes Observatory radio telescope to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. She will discuss the research and development of PLOT and the significance of art as a vehicle for observing and capturing the moon prior to the advent of the camera. Kamen’s new interpretive artworks that transform historic lunar research into sculptural form will be discussed as well as exhibited. The PLOT project video created for an Australian Apollo 11 anniversary exhibition will also be shown.

Learn more and register here.

The featured image is from James Nasmyth’s The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite (London, 1874), and shows the “Back of a hand & shrivelled apple to illustrate the origin of certain mountain ranges by shrinkage of the globe.”

James Nasmyth, The Moon:  Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite … (London: J. Murray, 1874). Second edition.

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We were challenged by the American Antiquarian Society to post seven days of #bookcovers without explanation or review.

Day 7:

Proctor, R. A. The Expanse of Heaven: A Series of Essays on the Wonders of the Firmament. New York : D. Appleton and Company. 1889.       

We had so much fun participating in this challenge! Thanks for joining us!

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Photographer Frank Berry captured this image of corn husks in the early 1900s. Although we can’t be certain, the husks were possibly used as decoration for Halloween or a local harvest festival. #LibraryHarvest 

See more images from our Frank Berry Photographic Negative Collection here.

Berry, Frank. [Corn husks in piles on the side of a road] [graphic]. ca. 1907. 1 negative: glass; 4 x 5 in.

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We love the steady gaze and snow-covered clothing on the newsboy featured on this die-cut trade card, which also shows the December 6, 1885 edition of the family newspaper, Sunday Grit, published in Williamsport, Pa. 

The illustration on the newspaper depicts bust portraits of Grit founder Dietrick Lamade and editor George W. Rianhard. Grit was founded in 1882 as the Saturday edition of the "Daily Sun and Banner" before the name was bought by Lamade circa 1885. #LibraryWonderland

Sunday Grit. [Williamsport, Pa.] [1885] 1 print: chromolithograph

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We’re joining @pemlibrary and @um_spec_coll for this month’s #SpineTingling challenge! First up is the gold-blocked spine title on our copy of Phantom Flowers: A Treatise on the Art of Producing Skeleton Leaves (Boston, 1864).   

#PublishersBindingThursday

Phantom flowers : a treatise on the art of producing skeleton leaves. Boston : J. E. Tilton. 1864

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We own several copies of Bailey’s Festus (Boston, 1851) that feature this gold-blocked image on their front covers, but this is the only copy we could find with the blocking on its spine. Perfect for this month’s #SpineTingling challenge! #PublishersBindingThursday

Bailey, Philip James.  Festus : a poem.  Boston : Benjamin B. Mussey & Co. 1851.

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We adore this decidedly witchy gilt decoration on our copy of Virginia W. Johnson’s The Kettle Club (Boston, 1866) #SpineTingling #PublishersBindingThursday #GreenPublishersBindingThursday

Johnson, Virginia W. The Kettle Club. Boston: Nichols and Noyes, 1866.

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It’s time for our final #LibraryHarvest feature! We have enjoyed participating in this challenge and seeing harvest related items from collections around the world. 

We love the ethereal quality of this circa 1889 albumen print by photographer Robert Redfield, which shows a man harvesting grain using a cradle scythe. 

Redfield, Robert S. [Man harvesting grain with a cradle scythe] Philadelphia [ca. 1889] 

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We’re joining @rutgers_scua and @rarebkcat for the July #JoyofGLAM challenge! We will be posting joy-inspiring images from our collection each Wednesday for the rest of the month.

To kick things off we’re sharing this video of a small portion of a recently acquired collection of publishers’ bindings featuring printed pattern book cloth. If you’ve been following us for awhile then you know that we love publishers’ bindings here at the Library Company, and seeing this new collection in the stacks every day always makes us smile.