This is the exact level of excitement and energy we’re trying to achieve on this #MorrisMonday! 

Marriot Canby Morris, [Parachute game, Boys Parlors Camp, Wildwood, NJ], 1907. Film negative. 

Image depicts a group of boys and young men from the Boys’ Parlors Association launching a young boy into the air with a large blanket at Wildwood, N.J. An American flag flying on a makeshift flagpole and a tent stand in the background.      

It’s the day after Thanksgiving, which means leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast followed by some Black Friday shopping! Might we suggest adding some books to your shopping list? 

Gift books were incredibly popular in the second quarter of the 19th century. The first American gift book, The Atlantic Souvenir, was published in 1826. By 1846 there were at least sixty different titles on the market, and by 1860 the fad was nearly over. 

 Image: Interior view of George G. Evans’ original gift book establishment. 439 Chesnut [sic] Str. Philadelphia: Taken from nature and drawn on stone by E. Sachse. Baltimore: Coloring print of E. Sachse & Co. Sun Iron Building, [1859]. Chromolithograph 30 x 47 cm.

Hopefully your Thanksgiving preparations aren’t nearly as chaotic as the scene depicted in this humorous trade card! 

Vienna Pudding (Buffalo: Clay and Richmond, [ca. 1885]). Chromolithograph. 

Image depicts  a male server carrying pudding and spilling the tray as a dog runs under his feet. Another man, amused by the scene in front of him, carries a stack of plates and men and women seated at a dining table in the next room watch as the dessert spills.    

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.     

#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.   

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."