A rare sighting! Just beyond a few trees we catch a glimpse of men lined up to use an outhouse.

Morris, Marriott Canby, 1863-1948, photographer. [Waiting in line for the outhouse] [graphic]. May 21, 1927. 1 photograph: gelatin silver print; 4 x 5 in.

A proud pelican’s prey by the bay, near the end of a sweet summer day. 

Thomas Liggins, ornamental confectioner & fine cake baker … [graphic]. [Philadelphia] [ca. 1880]. Chromolithograph; 16.5 x 7 cm. (5.5 x 2.75 in.)

This week’s #MusicintheLibrary feature is a circa 1907 glass negative from our Frank Berry Photographic Negative Collection that shows a street band of young boys, including Berry’s sons, marching in the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia. We love the makeshift instruments!

Berry, Frank, b. 1863, photographer. [Street band of young boys marching down the 200 block of Kalos Street, Manayunk] [graphic]. ca. 1907. 1 negative: glass; 4 x 5 in.

Registration is open for William Birch and the Complexities of American Visual Culture: A Symposium Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Visual Culture Program, taking place Friday, October 5, 2018 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM EDT at the Library Company of Philadelphia.

This free symposium will explore the visual, cultural, and social themes elicited from the work of Philadelphia artist William Birch (1755-1834). The one-day symposium in collaboration with our current exhibition, William Birch, Ingenious Artist: His Life, His Philadelphia Views, and His Legacy aims to promote broad discussions on the continual resonance in American visual culture of the work of this premier enamel miniaturist, aspiring gentleman, and artist of the first American viewbooks.

Register here.

Erika Piola, Associate Curator of Prints & Photographs, introduces William Sesler, a Philadelphia-born bee keeper based in Jenkintown, Pa. and a little summertime nostalgia in a letter he wrote requesting housing for a lakeside retreat (ca. 1900). Read more on our blog: https://librarycompany.org/2018/08/15/a-bee-farmers-ode-to-summer/

Wm. A. Selser, Bee Farmer and Breeder of Italian Bees & Queens. Blossom Nectar and Beeswax. Jenkintown, Pa. (Philadelphia: Craig, Finley & Co., ca. 1900).

Our recently acquired Goldman Collection of trade cards contains hundreds of images of African Americans, nearly all of them degrading, stereotyped, and racist. Why were caricatures of African Americans so often used in Victorian advertising? Our Hurford Center Summer Intern Mathilde Denegre shares her thoughts, today on the LCP blog.

Our copy of the Wissahickon Polka (ca. 1858) reminds us of cheerful days in Philadelphia’s picturesque park along Wissahickon Creek. 

Drayton, Frank, composer. Wissahickon Polka.  Philadelphia: Lee & Walker, ca. 1858.

William Birch, Lansdowne, the seat of the late Wm. Bingham Esq. Pennsylvania (Philadelphia,1809).  Hand-colored engraving.  

Lansdowne was considered by many to be the best country house in America. William Bingham was fabulously wealthy; his wife Anne Willing Bingham was the hostess of the Federalist era “Republican Court.”  Birch wrote:  

Lansdowne lies on the bank of the Pastoral Schuylkill, a stream of peculiar beauty, deservedly the delight and boast of the shores it fertilizes. The house was built upon a handsome and correct plan by the former governor Penn.

See this painting and more on view now in our main gallery as part of our current exhibition, William Birch, Ingenious Artist: His Life, His Philadelphia Views, and His Legacy, through October 19, 2018.

Hand-colored lithograph depicting diadelphia in flower, from Botanical Specimens (Liverpool, 1828).

Volunteer, Ann Nista explores a mysterious folio of botanical drawings. The drawings might be clear, technical, and beautiful, but the source of these drawings and their printing are unknown. Read more this folio and our Ms. Nista’s project on our blog : http://librarycompany.org/2018/08/01/a-portfolio-of-botanical-illustrations-at-the-library-company/

William Birch, Analostun, or Mason’s Island, with one wing of the House, at Georgetown, and two of Mr. Custus’s in the distance. Watercolor. 

John Mason built a Greek revival country seat in the 1790s on the island across the Potomac from Georgetown. In 1806 one wing of the house burned, which must be why Birch shows only part of it. George Washington Park Custis was Washington’s stepson, and his house, dimly seen in the distance, is the site of Arlington National Cemetery.

See this painting and more on view now in our main gallery as part of our current exhibition, William Birch, Ingenious Artist: His Life, His Philadelphia Views, and His Legacy, through October 19, 2018.