Happy Caturday! We found this image and description of the Cape Cat, or Caracal, while cataloging our copy of Bingley’s The Animal Kingdom (circa 1884). According to Bingley, the caracal can be similar to a house cat, as long as its human feeds it:

“It was fond of being stroked and caressed; rubbed its head and back against the person’s clothes who fed it, and seemed desirous of being noticed; and it purred in the same manner as domestic Cats do when they are pleased.”

Bingley, William, 1774-1823. The animal kingdom.  [Philadelphia] : Hubbard Brothers, [1884?] [4], 9-1122 p., [3] leaves of plates :  ill. ;  25 cm.

We love the Eastlake-inspired decorative gilt blocking on our copy of Beautiful Snow; and Other Poems (1869).

Browse the Library Company’s database of 19th-Century Cloth Bindings to see more!

1869, Beautiful Snow; and Other Poems.  Philadelphia : T. B. Peterson & Brothers. 1869. 14 cm x 21 cm x 1.5 cm.

In honor of #WomensHistoryMonth, we are taking a look at this now famous frontispiece portrait of Phillis Wheatley, from her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773).

Because she arrived in the American colonies as an African slave, the year and location of Phillis Wheatley’s birth remain unknown. She received her name from the slave ship Phillis in which she was transported and acquired the surname of her purchaser, John Wheatley, who intended her to be his wife’s servant in their Boston home. Impressed by her intelligence and manner, the Wheatleys raised Phillis more as a daughter than a slave, allowing their oldest daughters to educate her and allotting her a bedroom and a place at their dining table.

After learning to speak, read, and write English with remarkable ease, Phillis Wheatley began to compose poetry. The verse that made her reputation was an elegy for George Whitefield, a Methodist minister whom Phillis Wheatley had seen preach in Boston shortly before his death in 1770. Her elegy, reprinted throughout the colonies and in London, earned her international fame. As a female African American poet, she captured much attention, and her only published volume, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, appeared in 1773 with a foreword attesting to her talent signed by eighteen prominent Bostonian men, and a portrait of the author sitting at her writing table with a pen in hand.

After Mrs. Wheatley died in 1774, the family dispersed and Phillis Wheatley married free black John Peters and settled in Delaware. Later abandoned by her husband, she worked in lodging houses until her health deteriorated and she became totally impoverished. She died alone on the outskirts of Boston of complications resulting from the birth of her third child.

Phillis Wheatley was the first African American to publish and the first American woman to try to support herself through her writing. Regarding slavery, she wrote in a letter in 1774 that “in every human breast, God has implanted a Principle, which we call Love of Freedom; it is impatient of Oppression, and pants for Deliverance.” She supported the American Revolution and admired political figures such as George Washington, with whom she corresponded.

Check out our online exhibition, Portraits of American Women Writers, to see more!

This Ethiopian manuscript brilliantly illustrates the Homilies of Michael (ca. 1682). The text alone is beautiful. #callmeilluminated

The Homilies of Michael. Gondar, ca. 1682. Gift of Countess Van Cuelenbroeck, 1900.

A purrrrr-ific example of an owner repair on our copy of Infantine Ditties (1830). If you look closely at the stitching you can see evidence of a printed page sewn to support the repair. This could be either a half title page or, more likely, waste papers. 

Jones, Mrs. Elizabeth C. Infantine Ditties. Providence : Cory, Marshall, and Hammond, 1830. 

A rare and beautiful printed pattern bookcloth on this #PublishersBindingThursday 

Browse the Library Company’s database of 19th-Century Cloth Bindings to see more!

1847, The history of Charles the Twelfth, king of Sweden.   New York : Leavitt, trow & Co., 1847. 10 cm x 17 cm x 2.5 cm

This week, the tale of decorative edges and domestic disease diagnoses!

These beautiful marbled edges brighten up our copy of Domestic medical practice: A household adviser in the treatment of diseases, arranged for family use. #MarbledMonday

Miller, Frank E., et. al.  Domestic medical practice: A household adviser in the treatment of diseases, arranged for family use. Chicago, Domestic Medical Society, 1917.

Happy Caturday! How great is this image featuring a clever old cat and some even cleverer mice? We are obsessed.

Aesop’s Fables: a new version, chiefly from original sources. Philadelphia : Geo. S. Appleton, 1851. 208, [8] p. :  ill. ;  16 cm.

For Publishers’ Binding Thursday, we present this ribbon-embossed cloth bound book from 1840. This style of decorative cloth typically featured a floral or botanical pattern, though more abstract designs have been documented. Ribbon-embossed grain got its name from its original intention: as decoration for cloth ribbons. However, the rising popularity of grained and decorated book-cloth in the 1830s and 1840s led to the production of ribbon-embossed cloth for use as a book covering.

Browse the Library Company’s database of 19th-Century Cloth Bindings to see more! 

Stephens, John Lloyd.  1840, Incidents of travel in Greece, Turkey, Russia, and Poland.  New York : Harper & Brothers. 1840

This cat is either ready for story time or looking for a way out of this room. #chooseyourownadventure

D. Lothrop & Co.’s holiday books, a select list with illustrations. Boston : D. Lothrop & Co., [1884?]