Was there a Victorian wedding industry? Pennsylvania publishers Crider & Bro, thought so. Read about their bevy of a selection of marriage certificates in Associate Curator Erika Piola’s “Wedding Industry, Victorian-Style,” here.    

We are getting closer to summer and with that we are seeing a lot of adorable doggos walking their owners lately. The cute aggression is real. 

This photograph of a young girl holding a puppy is double the cuteness! 

Redfield, Robert S., 1849-1923, photographer. Luv me - luv my doggie. Philadelphia, ca. 1895.  1 photographic print : gelatin silver mounted on cardboard.

EMINENT WOMEN (1884): TWELVE WOMEN AND THE PHOTOGRAPH THEY NEVER TOOK

These days, with a multitude of photo editing apps, we can make almost anything happen in the pictures we take. In the 19th century, way before Photoshop, photographers also manipulated images —although their techniques were much more labor-intensive than just pressing a few buttons. 

Eminent Women is one such photograph. It features twelve women– including  Louisa May Alcott and Harriet Beecher Stowe– arranged in a group, but they never sat down together. Some of them likely never even met each other. That this group portrait was created speaks to the fame each woman enjoyed at the time.

Our new interactive site devoted to Eminent Women is now live! Check it out here.

Eminent women [graphic] Boston: The Notman Photographic Co. Limited, 3 Park St., 1884. 1 photograph:  albumen on card mount.     

Our final #SleepingInTheStacks feature brings us back to our Marriott C. Morris Collection with Spry the dog enjoying a rooftop snooze in the winter of 1886. 

Sleepy Spry is helping us segue into next month’s #JuneDogs challenge! Watch for some of our favorite pups from our collection Wednesdays in June!

Spry on back roof over out-kitchen, [5442 Germantown Avenue, Deshler-Morris House] [graphic]. February, 1886.   1 photograph: glass negative; 4 x 5 in.

**SAVE THE DATE** OCTOBER 5, 2018

WILLIAM BIRCH AND THE COMPLEXITIES OF AMERICAN VISUAL CULTURE

A free symposium celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Visual Culture Program at the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Launched in 2008, the Visual Culture Program (VCP) began with the mission to foster the study of historical images as primary sources for studying the past. VCP has grown to promote dialogues about the history of our social construction of the visual through exhibitions, research fellowships, conferences, acquisitions, and public programs.

William Birch and the Complexities of American Visual Culture explores the visual, cultural, and social themes elicited from the work of Philadelphia artist William Birch (1755-1834) in celebration of the anniversary of VCP.  The 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.

What can be learned from works conceived and executed by a non-native artist parallel to constantly (and infinitely) evolving fields and definitions of art, and means of art production, distribution, innovation, and appreciation?

Registration opens in August.

Birch, William Russell, 1755-1834 artist. [Artist’s study of detail from Second Street north from Market St. wth. Christ Church. Philadelphia.] [graphic]. [ca. 1798] 1 drawing: wash; 11 x 11 cm.(4.25 x 4.25 in.)

#tbt to the horse drawn Philadelphia street car. 

This street car traveled on Ridge Ave and probably what we know now as Kelly and Lincoln drives adjacent to the Schuylkill River and through Wissahickon Creek Park, also visiting Girard College in Brewerytown.  

Street cars, Philadelphia. [graphic]. London : The London Stereoscopic Compy  [ca. 1865] 1 photographic print : albumen on stereograph mount ; 8 x 17 cm. (3.25 x 6.75 in.)

There is no better talent than being able to fall asleep peacefully anywhere. This gent is in full on slumber mode, open mouth and all. 

Conway, gent’s furnisher, 1602 South Street, Philadelphia. [graphic]. [Philadelphia] [ca. 1880]  1 print : chromolithograph ; 11.5 x 8 cm. (4.5 x 3 in.)

Pears up! This image from our Marriott C. Morris Collection is inspiring us to enjoy our meals al fresco. #MorrisMonday

Morris, Marriott Canby, 1863-1948, photographer. [Group portrait of unidentified individuals holding up picnic foods] [graphic]. ca. 1880-ca. 1900.     

Ok, so “a study in butter” should be a thing. Learning would be so much more delicious. 

This relief sculpture of Iolanthe, the title character in a Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera, was on display at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. 

The Dreaming Iolanthe, King Rene’s daughter, by Henrick Herz. A study in butter, by Caroline S. Brooks. [Philadelphia] : [1876.]  1 photograph :  albumen on carte-de-visite mount.

The Busy World.

Just before he left for America, Birch began work on a series of Hogarthian satirical and humorous engravings called The Busy World, or London Dissected, based on drawings by Dutch- British artist Benedictus Antonio van Assen. They clearly anticipated the many vignettes of street life scattered throughout Birch’s later views of Philadelphia. Some were sold separately, hand-colored or plain, before and after he emigrated.  This manuscript list of completed prints includes all the prints shown here, and another list of projected prints and a short list of subscribers found in his papers indicate that he was perhaps halfway through with this project when he abandoned it.

William Birch, Ingenious Artist: His Life, His Views of Philadelphia, and His Legacy is on display now through October 19, 2018. To learn more visit:  http://librarycompany.org/birch2018/