Imagine our delight when we peeked inside a #16thCentury allegorical poem about chess and were greeted by these great block-printed #endpapers.  It’s such a wonderful treat to stumble across something you weren’t looking for!

Gregorio Ducchi. La scacheide di Gregorio Dvcchi. Vincenza, Appresso Perin Libraro & G. Greco,1586.

We have a charming little number from popular Philadelphia publisher Henry Altemus for your #publishersbindingThursday enjoyment. 

Initially a bookbindery known for their beautiful photographic albums and bibles, Altemus began issuing series and reprints around 1889, all with elaborate and striking decorated cloth bindings such as this. 

 Gold dust: A collection of golden counsels for the sanctification of daily life. Translated from the French by E.L.E.B. ; edited by Charlotte M. Yonge. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus, [1897?]

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!

#onthisday in 1862, Civil War General George B. McClellan was removed by President Abraham Lincoln from his post as commander of the Army of the Potomac. This political cartoon, published two years later, mocks McClellan’s military failures against the Confederate Army at Richmond and the Battle of Malvern Hill. After his removal, McClellan launched a presidential campaign to challenge Lincoln but ultimately lost to the sitting president. 

[Louis Maurer?], The Gunboat Candidate at the Battle of Malvern Hill (New York: Currier & Ives, [1864]). Lithograph. 

Image depicts George Brinton McClellan in a saddle mounted on the boom of the Union ironclad vessel Galena. A speech bubble above him reads, “Fight on my brave Soldiers and push the enemy to the wall, from this spanker boom your beloved General looks down upon you."   

We’re channeling Bonnie the dog’s eagerness at the start of this week! 

Marriott Canby Morris, Bonnie (dog) on front porch, [Sea Girt, NJ], 1886. Glass negative. 

Image depicts Bonnie, a small black dog, standing on a porch wearing a collar with a bell. A woman stands at the edge of the frame next to tall shuttered windows. Both the woman and the dog cast long shadows on the porch.     

Library Company member Robert Eskind brought our attention to a map of Santo Domingo that appeared at a time when the U.S. was considering the annexation of the island as an American territory.  Read more about the map’s origins, and its recent conservation treatment, on our blog.

#HappyHalloween! We’re looking at our copy of The Devil. Or, The New-Jersey Dance (Boston, 1797) for some costume inspiration, though NOT for party planning ideas. According to the “FACTS” printed within, the #JerseyDevil showed up to a dance party dressed as a fiddler, and all the attendants were forced to dance for over 30 days, “…dancing on the stumps of their legs to infernal music, their feet being worn off, and the floor streaming with blood.” 

#YIKES #IsntThisABuffyEpisode

The Devil. Or, The New-Jersey dance. Boston [Mass.]: Printed and sold at Russell’s, near Liberty-Pole., 1797.

Alas, tutto finisce!  All things must end, even this October’s #spinetingling #Wednesdaychallenge.  We hope you enjoyed some of the skeletons from our stacks and that they didn’t elicit too many #facepalms.  Thanks to @pemlibrary and @um_spec_coll for hosting! 

 (a final one from) Death’s Doings. Boston: Charles Ewer, No. 141, Washington Street; Dutton and Wentworth–printers, 1828. Illustrations by Richard Dagley.

There’s nothing like coming across beautiful surprises on the back of unsuspecting lithographs! 

John Collins, St. Mary’s Hall (Philadelphia: T. Sinclair, [ca. 1840]). Lithograph.

First image depicts an exterior view of St. Mary’s Hall from the Delaware River. Trees are on the lawn and the Hall at center is reflected in the river. A stone retaining wall runs along the river. Second image depicts an engraving titled The Language of Flowers which shows two women standing on a river’s edge and embracing while one collects flowers in the skirt of her dress. 

This photograph pretty much sums up our #MorrisMonday mood! 

Marriott Canby Morris, Knock em down group on Uncle Chas’ [Rhoads] porch, Haddonfield, [NJ], 1885. Glass negative. 

Image depicts three women, including Marriott C. Morris’s sister Elizabeth Canby Morris and Mrs. Woods, and a man all leaning to the left against a pillar while sitting on the porch step at Morris’s uncle Charles Rhoads’s house. The man looks outward while the women rest their heads on each other’s shoulders. The man wears a three-piece suit while the women wear dark high-necked dresses. There are vines growing up a lattice on the left. 

The Haddonfield area was originally developed by Elizabeth Haddon (1680-1762) who immigrated to the United States in 1701 to manage property her father had bought in the colonies.