Iconographic Treasures at the Library Company of Philadelphia

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Iconographic Treasures at the Library Company of Philadelphia In the summer of 1731, Benjamin Franklin later re­counted in his autobiography, “I set on foot my first Proj­ect of a public Nature, that for a Subscription Library.” He encouraged fifty subscribers to contribute forty shillings each for the purchase of books that were considered indispen­sable to colonial Americans, but were generally too expensive for any one individual alone to...
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Fathers of Modern Photography: The Brothers Langenheim

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Fathers of Modern Photography: The Brothers Langenheim Two brothers – German immigrants who left their native Brunswick and chanced upon one another in Philadelphia several years later – have been praised by scores of scholars and histo­rians as the “Fathers of Mod­ern Photography” for their technical contributions to the first twenty years of American photographic history. William and Frederick Langenheim achieved...
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A Special Place for Photography

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Special Place for Photography Edward L. Wilson wanted photography to have a special place at the Centennial Exhibition. Smartly dressed, the publisher of the nationally­-read Philadelphia Photographer stood out from the typically rumpled and chemical-stained lensman. But his enthusiastic promotion caused him to stand out even more. Wilson nudged his colleagues toward professionalism and toward his vision of a productive,...
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Preserving Philadelphia: A Conversation with Charles E. Peterson, F.A.I.A.

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Preserving Philadelphia: A Conversation with Charles E. Peterson, F.A.I.A. Those who know Philadelphia realize that it is an enormously important city with an illustrious, prestigious past. By many it is called the birthplace of a nation, by others the cra­dle of liberty. The United States was cre­ated in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Indepen­dence. The principles of the American Revolution were...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf A Sacred Challenge: Violet Oakley and the Pennsylvania Capitol Murals By Ruthann Hubert-Kemper and Jason L. Wilson, editors Capitol Preservation Committee, 2003 (168 pages, cloth, $59.95) Violet Oakley (1874-1961) was an ideal candidate to accept the challenge of creating the artwork adorning the Governor’s Reception Room in Pennsylvania’s opulent State Capitol in Har­risburg. Born...
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