**UPDATE: Registration is now full for this event, but we are still adding names to the waitlist!***

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.

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.

This pamphlet from LCP’s collections offered LCP fellow @obrassillkulfan a glimpse of what happened when the infamous 1832 cholera epidemic struck Philadelphia’s Arch Street Jail - it was “a tale of horror”.  #LCPFellowFriday

A tale of horror!  Philadelphia: : To be had, wholesale, at the S.E. corner of South and Second Streets., [1832?]

**SAVE THE DATE** OCTOBER 5, 2018

WILLIAM BIRCH AND THE COMPLEXITIES OF AMERICAN VISUAL CULTURE

A free symposium celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Visual Culture Program at the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Launched in 2008, the Visual Culture Program (VCP) began with the mission to foster the study of historical images as primary sources for studying the past. VCP has grown to promote dialogues about the history of our social construction of the visual through exhibitions, research fellowships, conferences, acquisitions, and public programs.

William Birch and the Complexities of American Visual Culture explores the visual, cultural, and social themes elicited from the work of Philadelphia artist William Birch (1755-1834) in celebration of the anniversary of VCP.  The 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.

What can be learned from works conceived and executed by a non-native artist parallel to constantly (and infinitely) evolving fields and definitions of art, and means of art production, distribution, innovation, and appreciation?

Registration opens in August.

Birch, William Russell, 1755-1834 artist. [Artist’s study of detail from Second Street north from Market St. wth. Christ Church. Philadelphia.] [graphic]. [ca. 1798] 1 drawing: wash; 11 x 11 cm.(4.25 x 4.25 in.)

We browsed our John Frank Keith Photograph Collection  for inspiration for our final #ShoesInTheLibrary post, and we were not disappointed! 

This classic Philly image is typical of Keith’s style, who often depicted working-class Philadelphians seated on stoops. 

Read more about Keith and his photographs in an October 2017 blog post by Erika Piola, our Associate Curator of Prints and Photographs, here.

Keith, John Frank, 1883-1947, photographer. Three women and infant sitting on doorstep, Philadelphia. [graphic]. ca. 1915. 1 photographic print : gelatin silver on postcard mount ; 14 x 9 cm. (5.5 x 3.5 in.)    

Check out those top hats and long coats! Marriott C. Morris captured this image of his siblings, family members, and Jet the dog in April 1885. 

The house shown in this image was rented by President George Washington during the 1793-1794 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, and was owned by the Morris Family from 1804 to 1948. The house is now known as the Germantown White House, and is owned by the National Park Service.

Morris, Marriott Canby, 1863-1948, photographer. Group. Ellie & Anna Rhoads, Bessie & Sam [Porch of Deshler-Morris House, 5442 Germantown Avenue] [graphic]. April 17, 1885. 1 photograph: glass negative; 4 x 5 in.

William Harvey Doering captured this image of his son Karl and friends enjoying the snowy streets of North Philadelphia in the winter of 1897, and it’s giving us serious winter weather #SquadGoals. #LibraryWonderland

Doering, William Harvey, 1858-1924, photographer. [Albert Lindsay and Karl Doering playing with friends in the snow, 1837 N. Bouvier Street, Philadelphia.] [graphic]. ca. 1897. 1 slide: lantern; 8 x 11 cm.(3 x 4 in.)

Today is New Year’s Eve in the United States, and we’re using this circa 1871 trade card as a check list for our party planning… 

champagne ✔️ oysters ✔️ beer ✔️ snacks ✔️ 

Rosenthal, L. N. (Louis N.), printer. The best wines, liquors, & lager beer, we are selling here = Die besten weine, liquors, ale and lager bier, gind in haben hier. [graphic]. Philadelphia: Published by L. N. Rosenthal, 321 Walnut St. 1 print: chromolithograph. 

It’s time for a winter weather edition of #WetnoseWednesday! This playful pup just wants to keep her humans in view, all while promoting “the best soda water in the city”.

J.H. Bufford’s Sons Lith., printer. [St. George Pharmacy trade cards] [graphic]. [United States] [ca. 1880] 

We’re getting into the holiday spirit with some decoration inspiration from our Frank Berry Photographic Negatives Collection!

Frank Berry was a Philadelphia-based photographer who documented his neighborhood of Manayunk and Wissahickon Valley in Fairmount Park during the early 20th century. This image of a Christmas tree was captured in Berry’s home, circa 1907.

See more images from the Frank Berry Photographic Negatives Collection here.

Berry, Frank, b. 1863, photographer.  [Christmas tree, interior, 201 Righter Street, Manayunk] [graphic]. ca. 1907. 1 negatives glass; 4 x 5 in.