This week’s #MiniatureMonday feature is a circa 1850s #blook box measuring just 11 centimeters. Inside the box are 22 tracts published by the American Baptist Publication Society, each in its own colorful printed paper wrapper.

Little Library. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 530 Arch Street., [between 1858 and 1876?]

Word to the wise, if you go on a hike be like this group, and bring snacks.  Hanger should be avoided at all costs. You see? The two ladies holding food are the happiest.

Keith, John Frank, 1883-1947, photographer. Two men and three women picnicing in wooded area, Philadelphia. ca. 1915.  1 photographic print : gelatin silver on postcard mount ; 14 x 9 cm. (5.5 x 3.5 in.)

Raise your prolegs if you’re craving mulberry leaves! We love this circa 1880 trade card showing a silkworm, its cocoon, and transformation to silkmoth.  #TradeCardThursday #Chromolithographs

John D. Cutter & Co. manufacturers of pure silk threads & fabrics. [graphic] :  [New York] [ca. 1880] 1 print : chromolithograph ; 7 x 12 cm. (2.75 x 4.75 in.)

We are excited to join the Special Collections of the University of Texas at San Antonio, the Labor Archives of Washington, and Northwestern University’s Transportation Library in the September #NotHiddenLabor challenge! Each week this month we will be sharing items from our collection that document various aspects of the American labor movement, trade unions, and American workers in general. 

This Charles Pancoast photograph from our World War One Photograph and Ephemera Collection shows members of the National League of Workers taking a break from gardening at Little Wakefield in Germantown. Founded during World War One in 1917, the National League of Workers was formed by a group of women as a national organization geared toward the standardization of work of the women of the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., it quickly became a nationwide force with a particularly large division in Pennsylvania. 

Pancoast, Charles R., b. 1858, photographer. [Group of National League Workers at Little Wakefield]. 1 photograph: gelatin silver (6 X 8 in.).

**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.

Delicate lines and calligraphy decorate this sweet memento that is part of our Fraktur collection. 

Sydney A. Tarra, creator. Remember Me. Pennsylvania, 1854.

This beautiful chromolithograph with hand-coloring has the autumnal feels, we we are here for it. The landscape view depicts the Erie Railroad train crossing the Starrucca Viaduct Bridge in Lanesboro, Pennsylvania. Can you spot the hidden wet nose(s)? 

Dreser, William, artist. [American autumn, Starucca Valley [sic], Erie R. Road]  Printed exclusively for members of the Crosby Opera House Art Association. Wm. Dreser fect ; J.F. Cropsey 1865.

William Birch, Mendenhall Ferry, Schuylkill, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1809). Hand-colored engraving. Library Company of Philadelphia. Gift of S. Marguerite Brenner.

This is the only country view showing a public building, but in its celebration of the Schuylkill River scenery it is related to many of the other views.  

Birch wrote:

This beautiful spot close upon the falls of Schuylkill is one of nature’s choicest retreats. Mr. Mendenhall has opened his house for public entertainments.

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 advertisement used in the place of a bookplate offers books bound and sold gilt or plain by Andrew Barclay. Well Mr. Barclay, there is no shame in gilt. 

Bayley, Daniel. The psalm-singer’s assistant … .  [Newburyport, Mass.] : Printed for, and sold by the author, [between 1764 and 1768].