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.     

Pretty in pink! Our copy of Dew Drops (New York, 1850) is bound in a pale pink cloth, one of the least common colors we see in our collection.

Browse the Library Company’s database of 19th-Century Cloth Bindings to see more!

Dew-drops. New York : American Tract Society. 1850. 5.5 cm x 3.5 cm x .5 cm  

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.

Library Company founder Benjamin Franklin knew what was up when he said “The discovery of a wine is of greater moment than the discovery of a constellation. The universe is too full of stars.“

With this sentiment in mind, we wish you a happy #NationalWineDay! We have a feeling Ben would be celebrating. Cheers!

1867, An elementary treatise on American grape culture and wine making. / Mead, Peter B.  New York : Harper & Bros.

#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.)

Check out our new series: Shareholder Spotlight

Imagine you’re hanging out with a group of friends at a bar, engaged in a conversation about a current topic. When half of your friends begin disagreeing with the other half over a point, what resources do you consult to settle the matter? If there are no readily available resources, would you and your friends consider founding a library?

For Benjamin Franklin and his friends in 1731, this scenario was a reality, and the beginning of the Library Company. 

In our new Shareholder Spotlight series, we highlight the lives and contributions of the men and women who were instrumental in the creation and sustainability of the Library Company over the last 287 years.

Check out our blog to read about the Library Company’s first shareholder, Mr. Robert Grace.

Articles of Association. Manuscript on vellum, Philadelphia, July 1, 1731.

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.

It’s #PublishersBindingThursday, and we have Hen Fever!

We love this binding on our copy of George Burnham’s The History of the Hen Fever (Boston, 1855), in which he claims, “Never in the history of modern ‘bubbles’, did any mania exceed in ridiculousness or ludicrousness.” 

Hen Fever refers to the mid-19th-century trend in collecting rare and beautiful chickens from around the world, popularized by Queen Victoria and her aviary. Although the trend was over as quickly as it began, we are thrilled it resulted in this incredible binding! #Feathursday

[1855], The history of the hen fever : a humorous record.  Burnham, Geo. P. (George Pickering).  Boston : James French and Co.