Happy Thanksgiving from your friends at the Library Company! 

Detail from: Broadbent & Phillips, photographers, 1206 Chestnut St., Philada. [Philadelphia, ca. 1875]

Us, following the scent of pumpkin pie…

This cute little red fox is from Audubon’s Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. (New York : J.J. Audubon, 1845-1848).  Audubon is best known as a bird artist, but after he had completed his elephant folio Birds of America in 1838, he turned his attention to mammals. He used the same huge format and the techniques that had made him famous, drawing all specimens full-size from direct observation in lushly rendered natural habitats and in life-like postures and activities. However, instead of having his 150 plates engraved on copper in England, he had them drawn on stone and printed in Philadelphia by master lithographer J.T. Bowen. 

This holiday season might look very different, but at least we know one thing will stay the same. 

Robert S. Redfield, Mae, 1887. Platinum mounted on cardboard.   

Now that we’re going to be stuck indoors again, it might be time to think about redecorating! 

William Harvey Doering, [Living room of the Doering family residence, 1837 N. Bouvier Street, Philadelphia], ca. 1897. Lantern slide.

Sometimes by Friday our brain kinda feels like how these twirly swirly marbled endpapers look.  Anyone else?

These stunners are from: Giovanni Domenico Musanti. Tabulae Chronologicae. (Rome, 1751.)

Do you think you could pass the Balmoral Test?
(This book is about Queen Victoria, and the first rule is don’t sit in her chair.)

Frank Pope Humphrey. The Queen at Balmoral. London: T.F. Unwin, 1893.

We’re still trying to decide on a (much smaller than usual) #Thanksgiving menu for next week, and these menus for an eleven course meal have us thinking that maybe we should include some creams and ices this year. Maybe just creams and ices. And pie. What’s your go-to dessert?

Have you ever wondered why some daguerreotypes have such an eerie appearance? The haunted, ghost-like qualities of photographs like this one are due in large part to the deterioration of the images over time. 

Marcus Aurelius Root, [Portrait of an unidentified woman holding a baby], ca. 1845. 1/6 plate daguerreotype.

This whimsical scrapbook was compiled by Janet Morris, Marriott C. Morris’s daughter, during her travels to Europe in 1925. The journal documents her voyages to England, France, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Turkey, and Italy. It also features clipped periodical illustrations and souvenirs from her travels.

Janet Morris, “Europe - 1925,” 1925-1926. Scrapbook.  

We’re not all that superstitious, but we’re also not sure we’d want this cat crossing our path…it looks cross enough.
Happy Friday the 13th. The second Friday the 13th this year. 2020, amirite?
Frank Berry. [Alice Berry, with cat]. ca. 1907