Library Company of Philadelphia
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
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.
Getting One’s Due: An Episode in the 19th-Century Book Industry
In honor of #WomensEqualityDay today, we take a look at Reading Room Intern Lydia Shaw’s research into 19th-century author Mary Abigail Dodge. Check out Lydia’s blog post to learn how Dodge called out her publisher, Ticknor & Fields, for pay inequality in the 1860s.
The incredible decoration on our copy of C.W. Webber’s Wild Scenes and Song-Birds (New York, 1854) is a perfect example of the tendency toward rich elaboration on publishers’ bindings in the 1850s. The combination of faux-marble printed pattern book cloth and intense gilt-stamping make for a memorable binding that would have looked impressive on a coffee table.
Check out of database of 19th-Century Cloth Bindings to see more!
#Feathursday #PublishersBindingsThursday
Webber, C. W.
Wild Scenes and Song - Birds.
New York : George P. Putnam.
1854
It was bound to happen: we have fallen in love with a paper binding <3
This pocket almanac for 1755 was printed and sold by Benjamin Franklin in 1754 and is bound in embossed and colored paper wrappers. #MiniatureMonday
In addition to this woodcut of two charming #HatsintheLibrary, The Little Book of Trades (New Haven, circa 1840) features images and descriptions of several professions, including blacksmith, paper-maker, and weaver. #MiniatureMonday
The Little book of trades.
New Haven.
Published by S. Babcock,
[ca. 1840]
Passing the Torch
James and John Harper founded their publishing firm, J. & J. Harper, in 1817. In 1833 the firm changed its name to Harper & Brothers and began to use variations on the publishers’ device shown above: two hands with a torch.
According to the 1889 edition of The Book Buyer : A Summary of American and Foreign Literature, the meaning behind the Harper & Brothers device stems from Book I of Plato’s Republic, which has a reference to a torch race at a festival in honor of a Thracian Goddess that reads: “Carrying torches, they will pass them on to one another.”
Here we see two variations on the Harper & Brothers device from the front covers of two books. The first example is from 1846, the second example is from 1856. Although Harper & Brothers has since become HarperCollins Publishers LLC, resulting from a merger with Scottish publisher, William Collins, Sons, the torch has remained a part of their legacy. The current HarperCollins device combines the two firms’ logos: a torch above a fountain.
Browse the Library Company’s database of 19th-Century Cloth Bindings to see more!
1856, The wonders of science; or, Young Humphry Davy. Mayhew, Henry. New York : Harper & Brothers.
Toby is a tiny pup, and this little book is even tinier #MiniatureMonday
This pamphlet from LCP’s collections offered LCP fellow @obrassillkulfan a glimpse of what happened when the infamous 1832 cholera epidemic struck Philadelphia’s Arch Street Jail - it was “a tale of horror”. #LCPFellowFriday
Charles Knowlton’s Fruits of Philosophy; or, the Private Companion of Young Married People (New York, 1832) is the first edition of the first popular manual on birth control and the first book on the subject by a physician. While earlier books had advocated birth control and even hinted at various methods, Knowlton was the first to describe in detail all the known methods and to discuss their pros and cons in practical and medical terms. He advocated douching with cold water or with various solutions of alum or vinegar, which was “sure, cheap, convenient, and harmless,” and had the added advantage of putting control over contraception in the hands of women, where he insisted it should be for both medical and political reasons. #MiniatureMonday #MedicalHistoryMonday
Read more about this important little book on our blog.