I love a flower! It ever brings 

A warmth of feeling to my heart,

Unlike those gay and gilded things 

That flatter coldly, coldly part. 

But flowers! Oh they are eloquent 

They speak when lips would still be dumb 

When by the hand of friendship sent, 

Her pure interpreters they come. 

 -Sarah Mapps Douglass 

From the Amy Matilda Cassey Friendship Album, ca 1833 

This week’s #BindingAppreciationPost is brought to you by these floral printed paste papers. 

Also, #36DaysuntilSpring! 

Ein christlicher send-brief, an geistliche personen geschrieben. Allentown: Gedruckt fur die Verleger von A. und W. Blumer, 1835.

2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the #FifteenthAmendment which granted African American men the right to vote. 

This commemorative print celebrates the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, depicting a large central scene of the celebratory parade held in Baltimore in May of 1870 surrounded by several bust portraits of important figures. Among those pictured are Abraham Lincoln, abolitionist John Brown, and Frederic Douglass, alongside vignettes of African American troops, a classroom, congregations, and parade.

 -Jasmine Smith, African American History Subject Specialist

Image: The result of the Fifteenth Amendment, and the rise and progress of the African race in America and its final accomplishment, and celebration on May 19th A.D. 1870. [graphic]. Baltimore: Published by Metcalf & Clark, ca. 1870. 1 print:  lithograph, hand colored;  54 x 69 cm.

What exactly is going on in this beach scene and where can we try it? 

[Detail of] New Excursion House, Atlantic City (Philadelphia: Lineaweaver and Wallace, ca. 1870). Advertising broadside.

Image depicts uniformed men on a beach performing a training exercise in the water. Other uniformed men observe nearby and a horse-drawn carriage drives past the scene.

Is it too early to be excited for the post-Valentine’s Day candy sales?

A Sweet Tooth (Philadelphia: Chas. W. Logan, ca. 1880). Lithograph.

Image depicts a seated young girl in a large red bonnet eating two sticks of candy.   

These shell marbled endpapers and matching fore edge are helping us celebrate #EndoftheWeekEndpapers *and* #ForeEdgeFriday! TGIF indeed!

James Thompson. The seasons; with the Castle of indolence. New York: W.B. Gilley, 1812.

We have a #BindingAppreciationPost to share this Thursday because it’s grey and rainy here in Philadelphia and this stained leather beauty is making us think of blue skies, blue oceans, and sandy beaches. #135daysuntilSummer 

The Works of Cornelius Tacitus. In Six Volumes. Philadelphia: Printed for H.C. Carey & I. Lea, et al., 1822.

Each year the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) creates a national #BlackHistoryMonth theme.  This year’s theme is *African Americans and the Vote* which focuses on the #FifteenthAmendment, the rise of black political officers, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  In thinking about the ongoing struggle of African American’s right to vote, one must first consider the question, are “all men born free and equal”? 

This image was taken from an essay entitled “Opinions of Travellers,” a compilation of excerpts from various travel accounts including one from Captain Alexander on a rice plantation in South Carolina. He initially thought that the enslaved were well treated but soon realized that their want for education and lack of ordinary comforts was unreasonable.

He writes: “To suppose that slavery can long continue in this country, when other nations shall have freed themselves from the foulest strain which ever polluted humanity, is to contemplate a period when the United States will become a nuisance upon earth, and an object of derision to the whole world.”

-Jasmine Smith, African American History Subject Specialist

Image: William Croome. All men born free and equal? [graphic]. [Boston: s.n., 1834].  1 print:  woodcut;  4 x 6 cm. Published in Lydia Maria Francis Childs. Oasis. Boston: Benjamin C. Bacon, 1834.
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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.