August 18th in History

Aug 18, 1795: George Washington signs Jay Treaty with Britain

From the LCP Collection:
Dallas, Alexander James, 1759-1817. Features of Mr. Jay's treaty. To which is annexed a view of the commerce of the United States, as it stands at present, and as it is fixed by Mr. Jay's treaty. Philadelphia: Printed for Mathew Carey, by Lang & Ustick, 1795.

Search our catalogs: http://www.librarycompany.org/catalogs/index.htm

The Stewardship Program

Become a Steward of the collections of the Library Company and sponsor your own piece of history! Through our Stewardship Program, you can support the purchase of interesting and important rare books, pamphlets, prints, and photographs. Each month, we will list new items available for stewardship on our website. Click here for more information about the program and to see the complete list of stewardship opportunities.


Above Images:
Love and Death in a Barn; or, the Sad, Sorrowful Life of Beautiful Kate Harrington... . (Philadelphia, 1876).

The Stranger’s Illustrated Pocket Guide to Philadelphia … . (Philadelphia, 1876).

Ben's Lens

In our current Ben's Lens, Philadelphia photographer James B. Rich has recorded his wife and daughter while on a trip to a popular New York State tourist destination. Does anyone recognize the location?

Email your answers to printroom@librarycompany.org.

Click here to see our Ben's Lens archive.

Philadelphia on Stone in ImPAC

Following the excitement of the Philadelphia on Stone exhibition that opened in March 2010 and the submission of the manuscript of the illustrated book in May 2010, Project Assistant Linda Wisniewski focused on completing a final component of the project: the mounting of the Digital Catalog and the Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers.

Three years of research and survey work, between May 2007 and May 2010, yielded the Digital Catalog of approximately 1,350 records for lithographs, related ephemera, and prints compiled from the collections at the eight collaborating institutions. Illustrated by their respective digital surrogates, the catalog records are keyword searchable by artist (author), title, date, and subject, as well as browseable by repository.

The Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers contains more than 560 entries for artists, lithographers, printers, and publishers who worked in commercial lithography in Philadelphia between 1828 and 1878. The biographical entries include 155 images depicting portraits and advertisements of the more prominent lithographers, as well as views of their establishments gathered from the survey of the Library Company’s and partnering institution’s collections.

Many of the catalog records and biographical entries link to multiple digital images indicated by multiple digital file names in the record. To access these images, enlarge the visible thumbnail. Items from the Library Company of Philadelphia collections will contain the code “LCP” in the digital file name and items from the collaborating institutions will contain their respective code.

Although the official period of the grant-funded project, sponsored by the William Penn Foundation has ended, Philadelphia on Stone will continue its programming into the fall. On Friday October 15, 2010, at the close of the exhibition, the Library Company’s Program in Early American Economy and Society (PEAES) and the Visual Culture Program (VCP@LCP) will sponsor the conference, Representations of Economy: Lithography from 1820-1860. Information about the symposium and registration can be found on our website.