#LibraryChallenge

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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!

[kislak-center]

The Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Collection of Early American Judaica includes over 4,500 Victorian trade cards. Handed out to both customers and suppliers alike, these customized works of early mass production reflect the development of lithographic printing techniques. This wintry array of advertisements for Jewish-owned businesses spans from the late 1870s through the 1890s. From the Kaplan Collection, Ms. 56 http://ow.ly/qASv30mXyEx #librarywonderland #librarychallenge #winterwonderland #tradecard #victorian #printmaking #vintagepostcard #ephemera #victoriantradecards #librariesofinstagram #pennlibraries #kislakcenter #specialcollections https://www.instagram.com/p/BrSwnHIA5Fx/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1h5cpdp1jbda6

[njbiblio]

UPDATED: Join me in my 2015 Reading Challenge http://wp.me/p3kRfv-3E #books #reading #librarychallenge #readingchallenge2015

[librarycompany]

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

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

[librarycompany]

"Per post, sir, received your last invoice and letter, 

No consignment of your's ever suited me better: 

The burnt bones (for flour) far exceeded my wishes, 

And the coculus indicus beer was delicious." 

 A snippet of "Death (A dealer) to his London Correspondent" from Death's Doings. Boston: Charles Ewer, No. 141, Washington Street.; Dutton and Wentworth--printers, 1828. Illustrations by Richard Dagley. 

[librarycompany]

Queen B! We found this royal insect in our copy of Charles Butler’s The Femininʻ Monarchiʻ, or The Histori of Beeʻs (Oxford, 1634), which was likely previously owned by Benjamin Franklin. #BugginOut

Butler, Charles. The femininʻ monarchiʻ, or the histori of beeʻs. Oxford [England], Printed by William Turner, for đe author. M.DC.XXXIV. [1634]

[librarycompany]

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.

[librarycompany]

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.           

[librarycompany]

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.    

[librarycompany]

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].             

[librarycompany]

“When shall we three meet again”...

We’re kicking off September’s #LibraryBookArt challenge with our copy of George Kingsley’s The Social Choir (Boston, 1835), which features this fantastic drawing and inscription on its front pastedown. Who doesn’t love a casual Macbeth reference?

George Kingsley, editor. The Social choir. Boston : Leavitt, Lord, & Co.,  1835.  

[librarycompany]

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.

[librarycompany]

By June 1861 an “Envelope Mania” had taken hold of the Union, which, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, was an economic boon for engravers, stationers, and printers who had “no cause to complain of a lack of business” while others struggled to adjust to the new wartime economy. This collecting fad was made possible by recent innovations to methods of graphics printing. Civil War–era printers in the North fed the frenzy by producing patriotic, sentimental, and satiric illustrations that covered the entire fronts of wrappers and rendered them nearly unusable as anything other than collectors’ items. Consequently, many of these pieces never made it into circulation, but rather were saved in the scrapbooks of “collectors of curiosities” like Philadelphian John A. McAllister (1822–1896), who gave his collection of Civil War ephemera to the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1886. 

These envelopes, engraved and lithographed with images of soldiers engaged in heated battle, enslaved African Americans depicted as human contraband, and the stoic visage of Abraham Lincoln, appeared within weeks of the start of the conflict. Over 6,000 envelope designs flooded the market during the war; the majority (about 4,000) between 1861 and 1862. These “queer devices” (as described by the Inquirer) that proved an economic windfall for Northern stationery printers and purveyors not only document the politics of the nation, but also provide valuable information about mid-19th-century consumer and visual culture and the social and technological changes that impacted it during this critical period in our nation’s history. #MagnificentCollections

Browse our McAllister Collection of Civil War Envelopes & Stationary.

[librarycompany]

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

Day 2:

Preston, Harriet Waters. Boston : Roberts Brothers. 1876

[librarycompany]

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.

[librarycompany]

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!