As the Philadelphia on Stone project begins to wind down, the exhibition has garnered some recent media attention.

 

In early March, local historian and commentator Tom Keels interviewed project director Erika Piola and assistant Linda Wisniewski for the WRTI radio program Creatively Speaking. Mr. Keels provided an insightful overview of the influence of 19th-century commercial lithography on the visual culture of Philadelphia based on themes examined in the exhibition, which is an Independent Project of Philagrafika.

 

An impromptu visit by Austin artist and Printeresting blog contributor Jason Urban, who was attending the Southern Graphics Council Conference (March 24-March 27) evoked this enthusiastic review: Click Here. Local print scholar and co-owner of the Philadelphia Print Shop Christopher Lane also wrote positively about his “visually captivating and intellectually stimulating” experience at the exhibition on his Antique Prints Blog.

 

In addition, the exhibition opening on March 26attracted over 100 people, including descendents of featured lithographers John F. Finkeldey and Alphonse Bigot.

 

Descendents of John F. Finkeldey: Erica Cantley, Emily F. Ballard, Jane Stephenson, and Jeremy Finkeldey. Mr. Finkeldey was a lender to the exhibition.

 

Connecticut Historical Society Graphics Curator Nancy Finlay presented the thought-provoking, illustrated lecture “Forgotten Heroes of Early Lithography: Popular Printmaking in America before Currier & Ives,” which led to a lively round of questions and answers. Attendees of the event also received a limited-edition souvenir lithograph inspired by the collections of the Library Company by local artist Elizabeth Gross, and had an opportunity to purchase for a donation the similarly-inspired print “My Personal Perspective” by rising lithographers Lauren Abshire and Farrar Fitzgerald.

 

Artists Farrar Fitzgerald and Lauren Abshire with Curator Erika Piola. Copies of their print My Personal Perspective remain available for purchase for a donation of $35 or more to the Library Company. Please contact 215-546-3181. For a close up of the print, please select image.

 

Philadelphia on Stone: The First Fifty Years of Commercial Lithography in Philadelphia, 1828-1878  will be on display until October 15, 2010. The on-line exhibition will be available at http://www.librarycompany.org/pos/posexhibition.htm in the coming weeks.