Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

Over There, Over Everywhere: The Aero Service Collection at the Library Company of Philadelphia

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The following post is by guest blogger Carl H. Winnefeld, Jr. who is mining our Aero Service Collection looking for photographs of company personnel and aircraft.  A former Aero Service employee, Winnefeld and colleagues are compiling…
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

Word Pictures

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The Morris Collection keeps on growing!  David Marriott Morris, Eleanor Rhoads Morris Cox and William Perot Morris recently added to the Library Company’s holdings of over 1600 of their grandfather’s photographs with a gift of travel journals…
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

Two “van”-Tastic Persons

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LCP’s Print Department boasts a collection of some 4000 printed portraits, stored within 52 archival boxes, ranging from Augustus H. Abbott to Ulrich Zwingli. Needless to say, entering all of these priceless items into the LCP database presents…
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

Reconstructing Fragments of African American Life

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The Library Company’s next major exhibition, The Genius of Freedom: Northern Black Activism and Uplift after the Civil War, will be on display from November 11, 2014, through June 26, 2015. One of the more unusual items in the exhibition…
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

Negative/Positive

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The way we experience photographs today is very different from the way people experienced them 120 years ago.  We press the shutter on our digital cameras without concern; if the photograph doesn’t turn out it can easily be deleted.  We…
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

“Ghosts Everywhere, and of Every Color”: Spectral Visions at the Library Company

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The catalog entry for Spectropia; or, Surprising Spectral Illusions (New York, 1864) piqued the interest of Library Company Fellow Jessica Linker, who is researching women science practitioners in early America. Upon examination, she discovered…
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

Marriott C. Morris Collection Online

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Over the next year, more than 1600 glass negatives, photographic prints, film negatives, and lantern slides by Philadelphia photographer Marriott Canby Morris (1863-1948) will be processed, digitized, and used to create a permanent online exhibition. …
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

The Marriott C. Morris Photograph Collection

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A young woman leans against a painted brick wall, her back straight and her hair dark hair pulled into a knot at the top of her head. She holds a baby in her arms wrapped snugly in a knitted blanket. The baby’s left hand is a blur of motion;…
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

Light from Dark: woodcuts old and new

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A woodcut speaks in a language that is abstracted, abbreviated, encoded and timeless. With a sharp blade, the artist removes wood from the surface of a smooth wooden plank, paring away what is not needed.  What is left is a raised design…
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

A View of the Past

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It is always interesting to learn how researchers use the material we make available to them at the Library Company. Obviously, many academics visit us to examine books, documents, and images for use in scholarly publications, but our researchers…
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

Hunting for Werewolves at LCP

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Today we think of werewolves as a pretty common trope from the Wolfman to Twilight. However, they are just one species in the supernatural cannon. The Library Company holds a host of books dealing with witchcraft, sorcery, spirits and ghosts,…
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

Catalogers: Art Historical Detectives

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  The Elms, an etching by Augustus Kollner, initially seemed like it would be a relatively straightforward work to catalog. The artist’s name, title and date, 1844, were all printed beneath the image.   However, in…
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

Mellon Scholars Program: Tools for Success

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In a series of occasional blog posts, participants in our Mellon Scholars Internship and Workshop programs will introduce themselves, discuss their experiences at the Library Company, and share their goals for pursuing careers in the field of…
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

Mellon Scholars Program: A Training Arena for Budding Historians

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In a series of occasional blog posts, participants in our Mellon Scholars Internship and Workshop programs will introduce themselves, discuss their experiences at the Library Company, and share their goals for pursuing careers in the field of…
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

Mellon Scholars Program: Igniting a Scholarly Journey

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In a series of occasional blog posts, participants in our Mellon Scholars Internship and Workshop programs will introduce themselves, discuss their experiences at the Library Company, and share their goals for pursuing careers in the field…
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

“Sew on Your Own Buttons, I’m Going for a Ride!”

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The Library Company of Philadelphia’s current exhibition That’s So Gay: Outing Early America showcases books, photographs, and graphic material that address gay identity in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Beyond attempting to identify…
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

Philly-DH@Penn and The Collinson Book

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Philly-DH@Penn is an annual event consisting of workshops, “unconferences,” and lightening talks. The event attracts a wide audience ranging from academic faculty and students to GLAM (Gallery, Library, Archive, Museum) institution staff…
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

Amy Matilda Cassey’s Friendship Album

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There are few insights into the lives of free wealthy African American women in antebellum Philadelphia as unique as those made possible by the Amy Matilda Cassey Friendship Album. A friendship album is similar to a scrapbook in that it…
Ethiopian bookbinding class. October 10, 2011.

Tales from the Mystery Drawers, Part 1: The World of Tomorrow

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The Print Room at the Library Company of Philadelphia is a very organized place. Each box is labeled and lovingly tucked back into its proper slot after a research session. Each drawer is carefully inventoried and organized by subject matter,…