#lcpchallenge

What better way to kick off this month’s #LibraryLeaves challenge than with Joseph Breintnall’s leaf prints (circa 1730s)? The vertical fold in the page is a clue as to how Brientnall achieved these detailed leaf impressions. He inked the leaf, folded the paper over the leaf and then used pressure to create the print. He made hundreds of leaf prints like this to collect botanical information. 

We’re featuring more #NaturePrints for the second week of the #LibraryLeaves Challenge! 

Athanasius Kircher’s The Vulcano’s: or, Burning and Fire-Vomiting Mountains (London, 1669) includes this fold-out frontispiece showing his theories on how fire and water interacted through an elaborate system of interconnected  subterranean channels and vents that resulted in volcanic activity (or, as the title suggests, fire-vomiting!). Notice the cross section of an erupting Mount Vesuvius in the third image. 

For the month of June we are participating in the #PeakOfOurCollections challenge, sponsored by the John Carter Brown Library, highlighting collection materials that feature mountains and volcanoes.

Our final #LibraryBookArt feature comes from our copy of The Roman Histories of Lucius Iulius Florus (London, 1636). A former owner added this glorious portrait to the final leaf along with the inscription: Dikus Mulberry. We’re not sure whether Dikus is the person depicted, the former owner, or perhaps both. Regardless, we’re feeling some serious #HairEnvy.

We’re shining a light on this week’s #LibraryBookArt situation! Our Chief of Conservation, Jennifer Rosner, found this gorgeous geometric watermark while going through our copy of T.H. Saunders’ Illustrations of the British Paper Manufacture (London, 1855). We love how a seemingly plain piece of paper can come alive with just a little light.

We had an incredibly difficult time choosing which images to share from Johann Heck’s Iconographic Encyclopædia of Science, Literature, and Art (New York, 1851-1852) for this week’s #LibraryBookArt feature! The two image atlases that accompany the text are chock-full of beautiful engravings, depicting fossils, minerals, natural phenomena, and so much more. 

We’re #BugginOut! Each week this month we’ll be sharing all the bugs, insects, and various creeping critters we can find in our collection as part of the #BugginOut challenge hosted by Sutro Library.

This tiny, 7/8″ x 3/4″, decorative glass mosaic is from our Stevens-Cogdell / Sanders-Venning Collection, and depicts a beetle composed of gold, red, and green glass.

The Stevens-Cogdell / Sanders-Venning family was a middle-class African American family active in the Philadelphia political, social, educational, and cultural community from the 1850s to the 20th century. The family was involved in several prominent local African American institutions, including the St. Thomas P.E. Church, Church of the Crucifixion, Central Presbyterian Church, the Colored Institute of Youth, and the Citizens Republican Club.

We’re sharing a bonus #PeakofOurCollections adjacent image to promote an upcoming event at the Library Company:

PLOT: IN CELEBRATION OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE APOLLO 11 MISSION

Join us on July 16 to hear artist Rebecca Kamen talk about her recent art and video project in collaboration with artist Tim Chrepta. PLOT celebrates lunar exploration and the Parkes Observatory radio telescope to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. She will discuss the research and development of PLOT and the significance of art as a vehicle for observing and capturing the moon prior to the advent of the camera. Kamen’s new interpretive artworks that transform historic lunar research into sculptural form will be discussed as well as exhibited. The PLOT project video created for an Australian Apollo 11 anniversary exhibition will also be shown.

Learn more and register here.

The featured image is from James Nasmyth’s The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite (London, 1874), and shows the “Back of a hand & shrivelled apple to illustrate the origin of certain mountain ranges by shrinkage of the globe.”