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Seasons Greetings (Cards)

Kathy HaasDecember 23, 2016March 24, 2017

As we wrap up the year, here are a few vintage Christmas and New Year’s cards to enjoy from the Rush-Biddle-Williams family papers. Some of them are quite different from our modern cards. To my eye, the 1910 example sent by Mary B. Deedes to Marion Biddle seems more spring-like than holiday, and the idea …

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Collection HighlightsAmericana1 Comment

Cross Writing and Cross Reading

Kathy HaasDecember 9, 2016March 24, 2017

Whenever I give presentations involving 19th-century manuscripts, people are always fascinated by the practice of cross-writing. This is the practice of writing a letter and then turning it 90 degrees and writing the opposite way. We have a number of examples of this from our collection, such as this Civil War letter from Alexander Biddle …

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Collection HighlightsAmericana4 Comments

Parisian Luxury

Kathy HaasDecember 2, 2016September 12, 2017

Although this 1824 print by George Cruikshank was doubtless intended as a dig at the stereotypically spoiled French dandy, I often find myself admiring the  dandy’s set up, especially as we head into the craziness of the holiday season.  The idea of relaxing  in a brimming full hot bathtub while getting to enjoy a hot …

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Collection HighlightsFine Arts

Thanksgiving, 1781

Kathy HaasNovember 24, 2016September 12, 2017

Although Thanksgiving wouldn’t be formally established as an official annual holiday until 1862, the practice of setting aside days of Thanksgiving goes back much further. Colonial legislatures, especially in New England, issued periodic Thanksgiving Proclamations and the Continental Congress designated a day of Thanksgiving every year from 1777 to 1782. You can find the full …

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Collection HighlightsAmericana

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Baby Book

Kathy HaasNovember 18, 2016September 12, 2017

I remember as a child being fascinated with my baby book; I would periodically pull it off the shelf in my mother’s study to look at it and compare it with my brother’s. When I became a parent, I, in turn, bought baby books for my children, although I wasn’t always consistent in filling them …

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Collection HighlightsEnglish Literature

A Souvenir of World War I

Kathy HaasNovember 11, 2016September 12, 2017

This small French flag is a nearly 100-year-old souvenir of the visit of an important World War I figure to Philadelphia. According to its envelope, this is a “Flag thrown from Marshal Joffre’s automobile while visiting Phila. Pa- May 9-1917.” Joseph Jacques Joffre had been commander of the French army during the Battle of the …

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Collection Highlights

Dispatches from the 1800 Election

Kathy HaasNovember 4, 2016September 12, 2017

Between the crazy drama of this election season and the crazy popularity of the musical Hamilton, it seems an apropos time to look at some on-the-spot reporting from the crazy election of 1800. For those of you who have seen or listened to Hamilton, or just remember your history books, you’ll recall that the election …

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Collection Highlights, UncategorizedAmericana

When Willie Wet the Bed

Kathy HaasOctober 20, 2016September 12, 2017

Unless you come from the Midwest or from Amherst, Massachusetts., the name Eugene Field may not instantly ring a bell. However, you probably know some of the works of this poet and newspaper columnist best remembered for his sentimental pieces for children and about childhood (although he also translated Horace and wrote an erotic story …

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Collection HighlightsAmerican Literature

The Man Who Took the Freedom Train

Kathy HaasSeptember 23, 2016September 17, 2017

I’ve written before about our current Freedom Train exhibition , but one element I ran across in my research and was unable to include in the exhibition was an episode of the popular Cavalcade of America radio show promoting the train. At a half-hour long, it was too long for exhibit audio, but I thought …

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ExhibitionsAmericana, Freedom Train

Cheers for Chairs II

Kathy HaasSeptember 16, 2016September 16, 2017

Following up on last week’s post on our cockfighting chair, I thought I’d highlight another interesting set of chairs in our collection in anticipation of  next Thursday’s conversation on the history of the chair with Witold Rybczynski. If you’ve been on a Rosenbach house tour, you’ve seen these English mahogany chairs around the dining room …

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Collection Highlights

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