Atlases offer a fair amount of space for doodles on the verso side of plates. Our copy of Olney’s School Atlas shows some fine signature flourishes as well as some drawings of rural homes.  

Olney, J. (Jesse), (1798-1872). Olney’s School Atlas.  New York : Pratt, Woodford and Co., [not before 1847]

Marriott C. Morris is not unlike your shutter happy friends who frequently capture you mid bite or with a mouth full of food, but we love him for it. 

Morris, Marriott Canby, 1863-1948, photographer. [Portrait of a seated man], canoeing, Egg Harbor River, NJ.  October 12-14, 1907. 1 photograph: film negative; 3 x 4 in.  

19th-Century publishers’ bindings marked a new trend in book decoration: using images from the text as the cover design. Prior to this, book decoration rarely related to the textual content. Our copy of Katherine Berry di Zérèga’s The Children’s Paradise (New York, 1877) features a gilt-stamped binding based on an illustration by Lucy Gibbons Morse from the book.  #PublishersBindingThursday

Zérèga, Katherine Berry di. The children’s paradise. New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons 182 Fifth Avenue, 1877.

The National Women’s Trade Union League (est. 1903) supported strikes that led to the establishment of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. The NWTUL’s official seal was designed by the sculptor Julia Bracken Wendt. It depicts a young mother shaking hands with an allegorical female figure of victory. Wendt herself worked as a domestic servant until the woman who employed her enrolled her at the Art Institute of Chicago. This 1914 pamphlet promotes the NWTUL’s training school for women labor organizers. #NotHiddenLabor

Robins, Margaret Dreier. Educational plans of the National Women’s Trade Union League. [Chicago] [1914?]

The last twenty-five years of Birch’s life were in many ways professionally disappointing. Yet throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, Birch’s vision of the city and its environs began to find its place in the city’s iconography whether reproduced on high quality porcelain, as book illustrations, or as inexpensive mass produced pieces of ephemera. Birch’s work as an enamel painter also received recognition in the art world. William Birch’s legacy has been far-reaching and long-lasting. An example are these two vases on loan to the Library Company from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

Tucker Factory, Pair of vases ornamented with views from Birch’s Country Seats. (Philadelphia, ca. 1827). Glazed porcelain with enamel and gilt decoration. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of Miss Mary Lea Perot, 1958.

We love the delicate gilt blocking on our copy of Henry Mackarness’ Etiquette for Little Folks (Boston, circa 1860) #MiniatureMonday

Mackarness, Henry S. Etiquette for little folks. Boston: G.W. Cottrell, 36 Cornhill., [between 1856 and 1870?]

Of course we’re impressed by the horn on this Bahama Unicorn Fish, but its toothy pout is what really caught our eye. #FishyFriday

Catesby, Mark. The natural history of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands. London. MDCCLIV. [1754]

The bindings on our copies of Emma Britten’s The Electric Physician (Boston, 1875) show the effect of light and time on the dye used to color the bookcloth. #mauvine #PublishersBindingThursday

Britten, Emma Hardinge. The electric physician: or Self cure through electricity. [Boston, Mass.] Published by Dr. William Britten. [1875]     

As part of the #NotHiddenLabor challenge, this week we share this 1890 photograph showing laborers, including three African American men and one white youth without shoes, from the Philadelphia Grain Elevator Co. posing in front of a grain storage building. 

[Employees of the Philadelphia Grain Elevator Company’s Twentieth Street elevator]  [ca. 1890]  1 photographic print: albumen mounted on cardboard; 18 x 23 cm. (6.75 x 8.75 in.)

On display now is this watercolor Plan of Springland, William Birch’s Pennsylvania country home near Neshaminy Creek in Bucks County.

Birch envisioned an impressive arrival for visitors to Springland. A path to a circular drive would lead guests arriving by water or land to the front of his residence and the adjacent “Green Lodge,” the building housing his extensive art collection. A grove of trees would surround his nearby painting studio. The plan incorporated practical features of a working rural residence, including a granary, hen house, and pig sty along with more picturesque elements such as “Neptune’s Garden” with a grotto.

Birch sold the property in 1805, continued to dwell on the grounds, and repurchased the estate in 1813.

See this painting and more on view in our main gallery as part of our current exhibition, William Birch, Ingenious Artist: His Life, His Philadelphia Views, and His Legacy, through October 19, 2018.

William Birch, Plan of Springland, near Bristol, Pennsylvania, ca. 1800. Watercolor, ink, and pencil. Library Company of Philadelphia.