It’s #FishyFriday and these gilt-stamped beauties on our copy of John Ray’s Collection of English VVords Not Generally Used (London, 1674) are ready for their debut! 

We’re already planning to incorporate some of the amazing vvords featured in this collection into our vocabulary, including Flizze, Fudder, and Fuzzen. 

John Ray. A collection of English vvords not generally used.  London: printed by H. Bruges for Tho. Burrell. 1674.       

It’s #PublishersBindingThursday, which means it’s almost Friday! If you’re still making plans for the long weekend, we have just the book for you. Impromptu charades, anyone? William B. Dick. What shall we do to-night? or, Social amusements for evening parties. New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1873.

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.

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 

Cyrus Thomson. A brief narrative and life of the author : comprising his views of medicine and the theory of diseases. Syracuse, N.Y. : J.G.K. Truair & Co. 1860.           

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.      

Our copy of Juliana Berners’ The Gentlemans Academie (London, 1595) is decked out in gorgeous marbled endpapers and fancy decorated turn-ins featuring gilt-stamped tulips.

Originally published in 1486 with the title The Booke of  St. Albans, The Gentlemans Academie covers a broad range of topics, including falconry, hunting, and heraldy.

#MarbledMonday

Berners, Juliana, 1388?- The gentlemans academie. Or, The booke of S. Albans.  London : Printed [by Valentine Simmes] for Humfrey Lownes, and are to be sold at his shop in Paules church-yard., 1595. [4], 95, [1] leaves :  ill. ;  19 cm (4⁰)

For nearly two hundred years, researchers of Philadelphia history from all disciplines and backgrounds have turned to John Fanning Watson’s extensive Annals of Philadelphia to help uncover the stories of the city’s past. First published in 1830 and subtitled “A Collection of Memoirs, Anecdotes, & Incidents of the City and Its Inhabitants from the Days of the Pilgrim Founders,” Watson’s Annals has become an enduring and impactful source of knowledge on a range of Philadelphia’s legacies that includes information on everything from agriculture and apparel to transportation and military history.

Library Company Print and Photograph Department intern and Haverford College student, Allison Wise, has spent the last few months working with our extra-illustrated copy of Watson’s Annals. Read all about it on the Library Company blog.

Watson, John Fanning. Annals of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: E. L. Carey & A. Hart, 1830.

William Birch, An Unfinished House, in Chesnut Street, Philadelphia (Philadelphia: William Birch, 1800). 

Queen B! We found this royal insect in our copy of Charles Butler’s The Femininʻ Monarchiʻ, or The Histori of Beeʻs (Oxford, 1634), which was likely previously owned by Benjamin Franklin. #BugginOut

Butler, Charles. The femininʻ monarchiʻ, or the histori of beeʻs. Oxford [England], Printed by William Turner, for đe author. M.DC.XXXIV. [1634]

There’s still time to register for PLOT: a talk in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission!

Join us next Tuesday, July 16, to hear artist Rebecca Kamen talk about her recent art and video project in collaboration with artist Tim Chrepta. PLOT celebrates lunar exploration and the Parkes Observatory radio telescope to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. She will discuss the research and development of PLOT and the significance of art as a vehicle for observing and capturing the moon prior to the advent of the camera. 

Kamen’s new interpretive artworks that transform historic lunar research into sculptural form will be discussed as well as exhibited. The PLOT project video created for an Australian Apollo 11 anniversary exhibition will also be shown.

Learn more and register here.

Johannes Hevelius,  Johannis Hevelii Selenographia : Sive, Lunae Descriptio  … (Gedani: Autoris sumtibus, typis Hünefeldianis, 1647).

To celebrate #brocadepaper week, we are sharing some of the more lavish #giltypleasures from our collections. These glittering green and gold brocade endpapers adorn the inside of a manuscript Italian libretto dedicated to and bound for Charles Sackville, 2^nd Duke of Dorset. Decorated papers similar to these can often be found as endpapers on fine bindings, but were also sometimes used as temporary wrappers on more ephemeral volumes, such as these pocket almanacs for the year 1803.

–Sophia Dahab, Curatorial and Reading Room Librarian.

Francesco Vanneschi. Anibale [sic] in Capua. [London, England, ca. 1754]

Poor Will’s pocket almanack, for the year 1803. Philadelphia [Pa.] [1802]