While there might not be any snow in the forecast this week, we’re still feeling plenty of holiday cheer!

Marriott Canby Morris, [Marriott Canby Morris Jr. rolling large snowball], 1909. Film negative.

Image depicts Marriott C. Morris’ son Marriott Canby Morris Jr. as a boy rolling a large snowball across a snowy field, likely at their home at 131 W. Walnut Lane. He wears a dark jacket. A path crosses the field in the background and houses are visible behind the path. 

Happy #FinisFriday indeed! Not only did we make it to the end of the work week, but also to the end of the work year. The Library Company will be closed December 23, 2019 - January 1, 2020 for the holiday season, and will reopen on January 2.

Charles Le Pois. Selectiorum observationum et consiliorum de praetervisis hactenus morbis affectibusque praeter naturam, ab aqua… Lugduni Batavorum: E typographeo Francisci Hackii, 1650.

This stylish fella certainly has something to sing about - it’s #feathursday! And wherever he’s perched looks much warmer than it is here.

C.W. Webber. Wild Scenes and Song-Birds. New York: George P. Putnam & Co., 1854.

This weeks #LibraryWonderland comes from Cloud Crystals, an album dedicated to snow-flakes by Mrs. Frances E. Chickering, with illustrations by J.F. RIchardson. Part scientific explanation and part literary expression, this volume sings the praises of all the unique stellated forms of snow.

Mrs. Frances E. Chickering. Cloud Crystals. New York: Appleton and Companyy, 1883.

This young girl is giving us serious winter style inspiration! 

John Frank Keith, Little girl in knitted winter coat and hat standing on steps, Philadelphia, ca. 1931. Gelatin silver on postcard mount. 

Image depicts a little girl wearing a dark knitted or crocheted coat with full sleeves and matching hat standing on marble steps in Philadelphia. Her outfit is trimmed with several rows of fluffy white angora yarn. 

Keith was a Philadelphia photographer who specialized in portraiture, mainly of working-class Philadelphians in South Philadelphia and Kensington from the 1910s to the 1940s.     

It may not be Sunday anymore, but this alligator is still giving us a case of the scaries! 

Marriott Canby Morris, [Alligator with open mouth], 1913. Gelatin silver print. 

Image depicts an alligator with its mouth open laying in a patch of grass, likely in Jacksonville, Florida. A pond is visible behind the alligator’s bared teeth.      

It may be Friday the 13th, but at least that means it’s Friday! And I don’t know about you, but this #finispiece seems to have had quite the week, so #TGIF! 

Jacques Houllier. Omnia Opera Practica. Coloniae Allobrogum [Geneva] : Excudebat Iacobus Stoer, 1623.

Found within the pages of an 1849 edition of “A Parting Gift,” this carefully cut and woven bit of paper art offers a hint into the life of this book before it came into our hands. 

Bits of ephemera such as this, whether they be lovingly crafted tokens tucked away for safe keeping or purely utilitarian bookmarks, offer clues into the history of books, the people who made them, the people who read them and the people who loved them. 

No skates? No sled? No problem! With Solar Tip Shoes you can still experience that #WinterWonderland thrill of slipping down a hill of ice into a dogpile!

Solar Tip Shoes: Made only by John Mundell & Co. Philadelphia.
[Philadelphia], [ca. 1880]. 1 print: chromolithograph; 66 x 51 cm. 

#OnThisDay in 1768, the Royal Academy of Arts was founded in London. A few decades later, Pennsylvania-born painter Benjamin West became the Academy’s second president. Pictured here is an engraving done after West’s monumental painting that idealizes William Penn’s entry into a treaty with the Lenape. 

Wm. Penn’s treaty with the Indians when he founded the Province of Pennsila. 1661 (New York: James Baille, [ca. 1849]). Hand-colored lithograph. 

Image depicts the treaty made at the village of Shackamaxon (i.e. Penn Treaty Park, Kensington) on the Delaware River. Penn, surrounded by his delegates, negotiates with the Delaware Indian chief near a giant elm tree. Crates of goods are sat upon and displayed by the English delegation. Native Americans, including a translator and a woman breast-feeding her baby, participate in and watch the negotiations. Also shows brick residences being built in the background. River depicted on right.