Library Company of Philadelphia
For this week’s #ToolsOfTheLibraryTrade challenge we bring you FOAM! Foam is the gentle support your books need in times of binding stress. Foam doesn’t make a sound and is perfect for a quiet reading room. Foam comes in many sizes and supports books from the miniature to folio. Choose Foam and you’ll also have a pillow for those research break cat naps.
Alexander Hamilton, Observations on Certain Documents Contained in No. V & VI of “The History of the United States for the Year 1796” (Philadelphia, 1797).
Commonly referred to as The Reynolds Pamphlet, this was Hamilton’s attempt to address Callender’s accusations. The copy on the left was never rebound and appears here just as it would have appeared on the streets and in the hands of all those interested in reading the lurid details of one of the first sex scandals in American politics. The copy on the right is opened to the beginning of Hamilton’s explanation, in which he writes, “The charge against me is a connection with one James Reynolds for purposes of improper … speculation. My real crime is an amorous connection with his wife…”
Come see the documents that inspired Hamilton: The Musical, on display for a limited time only!!
Jennie Collins (1828-1887) started Boffin’s Bower to help the working women of Boston. This past summer, Library Company intern Lydia Shaw researched Collins and her remarkable project, which was featured in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (June 26, 1875). Read more in Lydia’s blog post for Women’s Equality Day 2019.
Philly is getting that Fall feeling today with temperatures and humidity finally taking a break. Bring on the sweater weather because librarians love their cardigans.
Our copy of Cyrus Thomson’s A Brief Narrative and Life of the Author (Syracuse, 1860) is bound in a bright and mesmerizing coarse wave grained bookcloth.
#PublishersBindingThursday
We often think of temperature control when we think of housing special collections. What about our extra special and also, spontaneously combustible collections?? At the Library Company we house nitrate and safety negatives in freezers to keep them stable. To access the negatives, boxes must acclimate to room temperature for 24 hours before being handled. To return to the freezer, curators must bake the boards inside the box (I mean literally bake cardboard in the oven!) to remove humidity before storing.
Hamilton, the Musical opens next week at the Forrest Theater, and we are excited to share our collections that correspond with the show! Curated by our Curator of Printed Books, Rachel D’Agostino uses Hamilton’s song lyrics to drive this mini exhibition. Come check it out, then see the show!
Alexander Hamilton-Aaron Burr Dueling Pistols (Aldo Uberti for U.S. Historical Society, ca. 1976). On loan from Erik Almquist.
These .54 caliber, muzzle-loading, flintlock-action pistols are working reproductions of those used by Hamilton and Burr on July 11, 1804, in the duel that lead to Hamilton’s death two days later. The original pistols are owned by J.P. Morgan Chase, which traces its founding to Aaron Burr and his Manhattan Company (see the case across from this one for more on that dodgy endeavor).
We love all the facial expressions and angles in this family portrait by Marriott C. Morris (August, 1884), including those of the dog sitting on Sam Morris’ lap.
#MorrisMonday
Discovery is the best part of working in a special collections, and the staff at the Library Company often come across items in our collections that we didn’t know we had before, or at least we didn’t know we could look for. The images in this post come from an elephant folio of chomolithographs that illustrate all the beautiful stone surfaces and mosaics of the Basilica di San Marco in Venice (1880s), Italy. Most of the prints show immense detail of the building, but there were a few that took our breathe away with their simplicity. We believe all of the prints could be joined together to create a whole image of the basilica, but these simple vignettes with their “happy clouds” stand alone.
La basilica di San Marco in Venezia. Venice : Ongania, 1881-1887. 12 v. ; cm. (fol.)
We don’t see too many white cloth bound books, and those we do see are usually quite discolored. At least the grayed cloth on our copy of Pictorial Life of Benjamin Franklin (Philadelphia, 1846) adds to the moodiness of those gilt-stamped clouds!
#PublishersBindingThursday
Pictorial life of Benjamin Franklin. Philadelphia : Lindsay & Blakiston.
1846.