We hope it’s been smooth sailing from the weekend and into this #MorrisMonday! 

Mariott Canby Morris, [Group in a rowboat, Boys Parlors Camp, Wildwood, NJ], 1907. Film negative. 

Image depicts a group of boys and young men from the Boys’ Parlors Association in a rowboat on the Wildwood shoreline. Four boys in the center of the boat hold oars to push the boat further into the water. Most of the boys wear bathing costumes. 

Founded in 1887, the Boys’ Parlors Association of Germantown served as a safe space for neighborhood children whose parents worked longer hours in an industrializing city. The name changed in 1907 to the Germantown Boys’ Club after joining ranks with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Marriott Canby Morris served as the president of the club in the first decade of the 1900s.     

With Thanksgiving only one week away, menu planning is officially in full swing!  We doubt our table is going to look as fancy as this one (the number of glasses is particularly impressive) but at least now we know how properly fringe our celery for garnishing!  

Mary Newton Henderson. Practical cooking and Dinner Giving. New York : Harper & Brothers, 1877.

This week our #LibraryLeaves feature is also an early #PublishersBindingThursday present!  

#OnThisDay in 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, four months after the Civil War’s bloodiest battle. At just 275 words, the speech remains one of the most memorable in U.S. history and was a powerful appeal to the American public as to why the Union needed to win the war. 

Henry Bryan Hall, Diogenes his lantern needs no more, an honest man is found! The search is o'er (New York: N.P. Beers, [1865]). Engraving. 

Image depicts  the Greek philosopher Diogenes resting his lamp on an oval framed portrait of Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United States. Also includes a view of the U.S. Capitol with its original dome designed by Charles Bulfinch.

With the days getting shorter and the temperatures dropping, we’ve found ourselves wishing we were at this beach in Bermuda on this #MorrisMonday! 

Marriot Canby Morris, Looking through Natural Arch, [Bermuda], 1889. Glass negative. 

Image depicts an arch shaped rock formation spanning a beach into a body of water. Two women are seen through the arch standing on the rocky shore.    

Now that’s an impressive #NoShaveNovember beard! 

Buckingham’s dye for the whiskers (United States, [ca. 1885]). Chromolithograph. 

Images depict a before and after bust portrait of a man with a long beard. With the foldout closed, the man frowns through a white beard. With the foldout open, the man smiles through his dyed brown beard.     

We’re hard at work on this #MorrisMonday! 

Marriot Canby Morris, [Woman doing handiwork], 1908. Film negative. 

Image depicts a woman bending over a project. The woman’s hair is swept up on her head and she wears a pleated dress. A newspaper rests next to her.   

Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, there’s still time to register for our upcoming seminar, Victorian Sweets: Exoticism & Agrarianism in Local Confectionery!  

Using 19th-century advertisements, photos, packaging, and broadsides from the Library Company of Philadelphia’s rich collections, experts from The Franklin Fountain & Shane Confectionery will explore the written & visual culture of the 19th-century confectionery trades. 

 And yes, there will be dessert.

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?]

#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."