We’re hoping your week was better than this poor fellow’s seems to have been… found in our copy of Innocent Gentillet’s Discourse Upon the Means of VVel Governing and Maintaining in Good Peace, a Kingdome, or Other Principalitie (London, 1602).

 #FinisFriday #WhatIsHappening

Innocent Gentillet. A discourse upon the meanes of vvel governing and maintaining in good peace, a kingdome, or other principalitie. London, : Printed by Adam Islip. 1602.     

Celebrate Open Access Week with us and download this chromolithgraph! The Library Company has more than 20,000 high-res images available to download and use… For. Free. #OAweek

“Autumn beauties” from Book of cabinet chromos 1881 [graphic]. Augusta, Me: Published by P.O. Vickery. 1881      

“Thy time is come, thy glass is spent 

No golden bribes can Death prevent." 

This watercolor half-skeleton is part of a book of metamorphic pictures based on the text of Benjamin Sand’s *Metamorphosis.* The verses are revealed and the images change as you open the flaps, telling a story of life, progress and death. This #spinetingling frame, as you might have guessed, is from the end.

 Benjamin Sands. [Metamorphosis, or, A transformation of pictures with poetical explanations]. [United States? :s.n.,1802]

This stereograph satirizes the “New Woman” of the early 20th century by depicting a domestic scene in which the era’s stereotypical gender roles are inverted. The “New Woman” represented the burgeoning population of educated and professional women who belonged to the white middle and upper middle class in the United States and Europe. 

William Herman Rau, Have dinner at one dear, [ca. 1897]. Albumen on stereograph mount. 

Image depicts a genre scene satirizing the evolving role of women in the home. Shows the lady of the house dressed in bloomers (bicycle garb) with her back to her children who play with toys on the floor. With her bicycle by her side, she tells her husband, who is washing clothes, to have dinner ready by one. 

Stereographs are photographs which are meant to be viewed through a device called a stereoviewer in order to produce a three-dimensional effect. The medium was very popular between the 1870s and 1920s and was widely accessible to audiences of a range of class backgrounds.    

On this #MorrisMonday, we’re getting Halloween costume inspiration from these stylish young subjects! 

Marriott Canby Morris, Elliston P. Morris Jr. and Marriott C. Morris Jr. playing railroad conductor, probably W. Walnut La[ne]. G[erman]t[ow]n,“ [ca. 1906-1907], cyanotype. 

Image depicts Marriott C. Morris’s sons Elliston Perot Morris Jr. and Marriott Canby Morris Jr., probably taken at their home at 131 West Walnut Lane. Both boys pose in sailor suits. They wear conductor caps and look at the camera with a serious expression. 

Cyanotypes are photographs made from a "blueprint” process that was pioneered in the 1840s but did not gain relative popularity until the 1890s. The simple process and low cost of producing cyanotype prints caused the method to become popular among amateur photographers. 

We admired this #finispiece for its elegance and simplicity, and then loved it even more after we noticed the final mis-matched ornament at the lower right. Cheers to you, little ornament, on this beautiful #FinisFriday! 

Samuel Clarke. Scientia metrica & rhythmica, seu Tractatuvs de prosodia Arabica… Oxonii: excudebat H[enry]. H[all]. Academiæ typographus, anno Domini 1661.

There’s still time to see From Negro Pasts to Afro-Futures: Black Creative Re-Imaginings, up through tomorrow in our main gallery!

Can’t make it? We got you! We’re pleased to announce that you can now see the exhibition online here.

This circa 1821 lithograph of Black Brazilian market women selling goods shows the importance of women entrepreneurs in the marketplace. Their presence demonstrated how savvy and creative Black businesses were in the 19th century.

C. Shoosmith, “A Free Negress and Other Market-Women,” in James Henderson, A History of Brazil: Comprising Its Geography, Commerce, Colonization, Aboriginal Inhabitants, &c. &c. (London, 1821). Lithograph.

Why, you look as though you’ve just seen a ghost!  Or maybe it was just an afterimage? We can reassure you, this #spinetingling skeleton is nothing to be afraid of, though it will certainly play tricks on your eyes. 

This illustration is one of many ghoulish examples from a book explaining the phenomenon of complementary afterimage.  If you stare at the star under the skeleton’s chin for 30 seconds and then look at a white object, a negative afterimage will appear. Boo!

Spectropia, or Surprising spectral illusions: showing ghosts everywhere, and of any colour. New York: James G. Gregory, 1864.

Have you gone pumpkin picking yet? 

John H. Webster, [Bertha T. and Clement B. Wester near the smokehouse, Mount Equity, Pa.], ca. 1890, glass negative. 

Image depicts the photographer’s brother, Clement B. Webster, with his wife, Bertha T. Webster, near the smokehouse on the property of Mount Equity in Pennsdale, Pa. Bertha is attired in a striped dress, standing against the shed with a tennis racket in hand. Clement sits at her feet, resting his elbow on a pumpkin. The photographer’s aunt, Hannah Mary S. Taylor, rented Mount Equity from her son-in-law’s family during the summer months of 1889 and 1890. The property is now home to a Buddhist Monastery, Mt. Equity Zendo Jihoji. 

Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a celebration of Native American history and culture. To commemorate the day, we are sharing this view by Philadelphia landscape photographer James Rich. Rich was commissioned in 1908 to accompany a Rodman Wanamaker expedition to Yellowstone to photograph the region’s landscape and Native American life. 

James Bartlett Rich, Dividing the beef, Lodge Grass, Montana, 1908. Lantern slide. 

Picture shows Native Americans and African American cowboys dividing a carcass of beef in front of tepees and a tent. This lantern slide was created for optical viewing devices known as “magic lanterns,” a technology that predates the advent of photography. Slides like this one were often meticulously hand-colored to entice viewing audiences.