This frog is absolutely crushing #TrendyTuesday! 

Finale of a breakfast on biscuits made of Heckers’ self-raising flour ([New York], [ca, 1880]), Chromolithograph. 

Image depicts an anthropomorphic frog attired in trousers and suspenders smoking a pipe.   

How we’re “leaping” into this long February! 

“Ranger” The Famous High Jumping Horse, 1926. Photomechanical print. 

Image depicts a horse jumping over four people in a car during the Worlds Championship Rodeo at the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia.   

This week our #publishersbindingThursday post goes #outofthisworld with three delightfully star-studded covers. Because we couldn’t pick just one. 

Proctor, R.A. The Expanse of Heaven: a Series of Essays on the Wonders of the Firmament. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1889.

Raymond, Rossiter W. The Man in the Moon, and Other People. New York : The American News Company, 1874.

Rambosson, J. Astronomy. New York: D. Appleton & Co., [187-?].

“Certainely there are yet many things left to discovery, and it cannot be any inconvenience for us, to maintaine a new truth or rectifie and ancient errour.”

Wilkins may have been wrong about the possibility of life on the moon, but he was definitely on to something. 

A Jacobean clergyman, founder of the Royal Society, and brother-in-law to Oliver Cromwell, Wilkins’s writings not only helped to bring the science of astronomy to the general public, he also arguably started the space race. 

Wilkins, John. The discovery of a vvorld in the moone. Or, A discourse tending, to prove, that ‘tis probable there may be another habitable world in that planet. London: Printed by E.G. for Michael Sparke and Edward Forrest, 1638.

#OnThisDay in 1787, the Free African Society, which was co-founded by Richard Allen in Philadelphia, began to organize. The organization was created to provide a range of services to city’s free African American population. Its creation eventually led to the establishment of some of the first independent Black churches in the United States.

Albert Newsam, Revd. Richard Allen (Phialdelphia: P.S. Duval, ca. 1850). Lithograph.

Image depicts a half-length portrait of abolitionist and first African American bishop, Richard Allen. The work was probably drawn on stone by deaf and mute Philadelphia lithographer Albert Newsam. 

We’re dreaming of warmer weather on this #MorrisMonday! 

Marriott Canby Morris, Bathing group on beach. Anne & Mary Emlen, Father & self, 1885. Glass negative. 

Image depicts Anne Emlen, Mary Emlen, Marriott Canby Morris and his father Elliston P. Morris sitting on the beach at Sea Girt in bathing attire. The women wear scarves on their heads.

These #endoftheweekendpapers come from a collection of inaugural theses published by medical students at the University of Pennsylvania in 1804.

We have some pretty #stellar #cometcontent lined up for this weeks #outofthisworld post.  (see what we did there?)

These plates come from Seller’s Atlas Coelestis, a stunning volume published in 1677 which contains 53 two-page engravings depicting the planets, constellations, sun and moon, and yes, #comets. 

John Seller. Atlas coelestis, containing the systems and theoryes of the planets, the constellations of the starrs and other phenomina’s of the heavens. [London, 1677].

Hopefully you aren’t feeling as sluggish as this tortoise being driven by a cherub after the long weekend! 

Compliments of R.C. Geddes, rubber goods, 316 Market St. & 716 Chestnut St., Philadelphia (Philadelphia, [ca. 1885]). Chromolithograph. 

Image depicts a cherub riding on the back of a tortoise with a whip in mid-air on a flower-lined path.   

Today we honor the life and legacy of trailblazing Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. 

Honoring Martin Luther King ([United States], 1979). Collotype envelope. 

Image depicts a 1st day of issue commemorative envelope featuring a portrait of Martin Luther King.