Oh, hello incunabula. Fancy meeting you here! An incunable or “fifteener” refers to material printed before 1501. 

This month we are joining the #IGlibraries challenge #buildingblocks first by highlighting the old Ridgway Building located on Broad and Christian Streets. The building housed our collections and reading room from 1878 to the 1960s when we moved to our current building. Though it no longer houses Library Company collections, the Ridgway Building still serves those who wish to learn as the High School for the Creative and Performing Arts.  

Library Company of Philadelphia. Ridgway Building. ca. 1940. 

We’re joining @rutgers_scua and @rarebkcat for the July #JoyofGLAM challenge! We will be posting joy-inspiring images from our collection each Wednesday for the rest of the month.

To kick things off we’re sharing this video of a small portion of a recently acquired collection of publishers’ bindings featuring printed pattern book cloth. If you’ve been following us for awhile then you know that we love publishers’ bindings here at the Library Company, and seeing this new collection in the stacks every day always makes us smile.

This #libraryshelfie shows a portion(!) of a 2018 gift of Dr. Charles Rosenberg that we are so excited to dig into. Highlighting 18th and 19th century medical history, with emphasis on domestic medicine and botanicals, this collection is  both an example of educational discovery and documentation of how the study of medicine has evolved.

We like big books and we cannot lie…

It’s Shelfie Saturday! We’re excited to show you a portion of the oversize section of our stacks, which are closed to the public. Enjoy this behind-the-scenes view of our collection, and stay tuned for more shelfies! 

Meet the faces behind the Library Company’s social media endeavors, Arielle Middleman & Concetta Barbera! In addition to introducing LCP collections to the online community, Arielle is also a Rare Book Cataloger specializing in our Benjamin Bradley Bindings Collection. Keep a look out for her upcoming article co-authored by Todd Pattison in the third volume of Suave Mechanicals. Concetta is often found behind the camera, making LCP collections available to readers beyond our reading rooms. She is also responsible for processing new acquisitions as Curatorial Assistant. We wear many hats at LCP, but the collections are at the heart. #librariesarethespiceoflife