Library Company of Philadelphia Upcoming Events
Current Exhibition in the Library Company’s
Louise Lux-Sions and Harry Sions Gallery:
Capitalism by Gaslight:
The Shadow Economies of 19th-Century America
Drawing on books, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, prints, photographs, and ephemera in the Library Company's collection, guest curator Wendy Woloson explores underground urban commerce in the 19th century in our upcoming exhibition "Capitalism by Gaslight: The Shadow Economies of 19th-Century America."
The exhibition focuses on how many Americans earned their livings outside the spheres of wholesale and retail commerce, conducting economic transactions in illicit and semi-legal ways. From pick-pocketing to gambling, counterfeiting to prostitution, "Capitalism by Gaslight" describes the myriad ways people participated in an earlier, shadowy realm of commerce that required a surprising degree of creativity, cunning, and financial acumen.
DID YOU MISS
John A. McAllister's Civil War: The Philadelphia Home Front
in our gallery? View the online exhibition here: http://www.librarycompany.org/mcallisterexhibition
Black Gotham: African American Family History in the 19th Century
Wednesday, February 15, Reception at 5:30 p.m., Program at 6:00 p.m.
Carla L. Peterson, Professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park, and author of Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in 19th-Century New York City, will speak about Philadelphia’s 19th-century African American elites. Black Gotham is Peterson's riveting account of her quest to reconstruct the lives of her 19th-century ancestors.
Register Online: www.librarycompany.org/events/blackgotham.htm
Members-Only Tour of Girard College and Mother Bethel AME Church
Thursday, February 16, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Join us for a guided tour of Founders Hall, Girard College’s original classroom building, by Director of Historic Resources Elizabeth Laurent, and visit the museum collections and Girard archives housed in this National Historic Landmark. Following lunch (provided), there will be a guided tour of Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, founded by Bishop Richard Allen in 1816. Call 215-546-3181 for more information about costs and transportation.
The cost of this tour is $40 per person.
Register Online: www.librarycompany.org/events/memberstour.htm
Become a member: www.librarycompany.org/development/membership.htm
Before Madison Avenue: Advertising in Early America
March 15-16
Speakers at this conference will present new research on advertising in North America before the rise of the modern advertising agency (late 1870s). Co-sponsored by the Center for Historic American Visual Culture at the American Antiquarian Society. Free of charge for Library Company members, $50 for the general public, and $25 for students. Co-Sponsored by VCP at LCP and the Center for Historic American Visual Culturewww.librarycompany.org/madisonave
Freedom’s Cap: The United States Capitol and the Coming of the Civil War
Tuesday, March 27, Reception at 5:30 p.m., Program at 6:00 p.m.
The history of the modern U.S. Capitol, the iconic seat of American government, is also the history of America’s most tumultuous years. As the majestic new building rose above Washington’s skyline, battles over slavery and secession ripped the country apart. Author Guy Gugliotta will speak at the Library Company of Philadelphia. Co-sponsored by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Teachers may receive Act 48 credit.
Register Online: www.librarycompany.org/events/fredomscap.htm
How to See a Story: Representations for Children in Nineteenth-Century American Visual Culture
Thursday, April 12, Reception at 5:30 p.m., Program at 6:00 p.m.
Visual Culture Program Fellow Catherine Walsh will discuss the ways in which children learned to construct visual narratives by thinking about a variety of sources, including textbooks, primers and readers, illustrated magazines, toys, and games. The goal is to begin to understand how visual education informed one's experience of genre paintings and illustrations, both as a child and later in life.
Register Online: www.librarycompany.org/events/tellmeastory.htm
Members-Only Annual Meeting & Public Lecture
Tuesday, May 15, 5:00 p.m. and 5:45 p.m.
Join us for our Annual Meeting (5:00) followed by a talk by Wendy Woloson, guest curator of “Capitalism by Gaslight” (5:45). Dr. Woloson will discuss legitimate but marginal ways that people earned money in the 19th century and will focus on seamstresses, rag pickers, beggars, dog catchers, newsboys, and street sellers.
Register Online: www.librarycompany.org/events/annualmeeting.htm
Capitalism by Gaslight Symposium
Thursday, June 7, and Friday, June 8
This two-day symposium will highlight the many ways Americans earned livings through economic transactions made beyond the spheres of “legitimate” commerce and explore the crucial importance of the shadow economy to the development of commercial and industrial capitalism in 19th-century America. Co-sponsored by the McNeil Center for Early American Studies. Thursday, June 7, at 3355 Woodland Walk; Friday, June 8, at the Library Company.
Registration coming soon
Making Freedom in the Atlantic World
Saturday, June 16, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
A one-day conference exploring the process and impact of emancipation across the United States, the Caribbean, and Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries. The conference celebrates Juneteenth, commemorating the news that slavery had ended. The program will include a panel discussion featuring Gary Nash, Roseanne Adderly, Jasmine Cobb, and Edna Medford; a roundtable discussion on collecting Afro-Americana; and a keynote address by James Stewart of Macalester College.
Registration coming soon.
For more information and to RSVP for these events please visit http://www.librarycompany.org/events or call 215-546-3181.
“A Walk through the Civil War” Lecture Series
Library Company members have a special opportunity to hear a series of lectures by Allen C. Guelzo, the Henry R. Luce Professor of Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College and award-winning author of such books as Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President (1999), Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (2004), and Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates That Defined America (2008).
The lectures will be given in the coming months at the Union League of Philadelphia, which was founded in 1862 to support the Union and the Lincoln administration and which has graciously offered to include Library Company members in this event. There will be two lectures on each of four occasions, as follows:
Monday, October 3, 2011
The Coming of the War 1861: Was it Inevitable?
The First Guns: Could the South Have Won?
Monday, November 14, 2011
The Blundering War (1862/63): Did the Generals Want to Win?
Lincoln and Emancipation: Why Did Lincoln Free the Slaves?
Monday, January 9, 2012
Tipping the Scales (1863/64): How did Grant Make a Difference?
A Tale of Two Presidents: How did Lincoln & Davis Wage Politics?
Monday, February 20, 2012
The People’s War 1864/65: How Did the War Change the Lives of Ordinary People?
The Final Reckoning: How Did the War’s End Change America?
The programs will take place at the Union League, 140 South Broad St. There is a charge of $100 per person for all four programs.
Each program begins at 6 p.m. and concludes at 8 p.m.
An optional dinner follows each program ($50 incl. tax & gratuities).
Reservations are required for both the lectures and dinners. Space is limited so register early. For more information or to reserve your spot, call 215-587-5568 or e-mail beardl@unionleague.org
All events will be held at 1314 Locust Street, except where noted above. RSVP acceptances only to 215-546-3181 or email lpropst@librarycompany.org.
The Library Company will observe the following remaining holidays in 2011:
Christmas - Friday, December 23 & Monday, December 26
The Library Company will observe the following holidays in 2012:
New Year's - Monday, January 2
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - Monday, January 16
Presidents’ Day - Monday, February 20
Good Friday - Friday, April 6
Memorial Day - Monday, May 28
Independence Day - Wednesday, July 4
Labor Day - Monday, September 3
Thanksgiving - Thursday, November 22 & Friday, November 23
Christmas -Monday, December 24 & Tuesday, December 25