Happy Hat Day

The internet tells me it’s “National Hat Day” today, January 15. I’m not really sure where this supposed holiday comes from, but it is a good excuse to show off some some of the fabulous hat-wearers in our collection. Here’s Ben Franklin in his classic fur hat. “”Dr. Benjn. Franklin, Engraved for the Select Portrait …

The Yule Log

George Cruikshank, title page for The Yule Log. Glyphograph. 1954.1800.2691 This personified Yule log and its attendant sprites come from an 1847 Christmas book by L.A. Chamerovzow. Here’s what a grumbling William Makepeace Thackeray had to say about the book (and its genre) in “A Grumble About Christmas Books”: [T]he personification mania of the Mayhew …

Silver Menorah

This silver Chanukah lamp is one of three menorahs in the Rosenbach’s metals collection . William Abdy I (d. 1790), Chanukah lamp. London, 1786. Rosenbach. 1954.1818. It is a bench form menorah with eight oil lamps;  originally there would have also been a shammash lamp, which presumably would have hooked into the socket on the …