Library Company research fellow Monica Anke Hahn has been transcribing 1762 marginalia by Peter Collinson found in our copy of Maitland's History of London (1739): 

"Those two nurserys of Vice & Lewdness, Bartholomew Fair kept in Smithfields, Southward Fair kept in the Borough, these had for ages continued to be held for Two Weeks Each, down to my Memory ... but growing so notorious for all manner of Wickedness it was often with concern such scenes of Debauchery & Immorality was propagated to the Ruining and undoing the youth of this Great Metropolis."

Over his years of ownership of History of London, Collinson tipped in numerous additional plates, plans, notes, documents, and clippings, with the last note dated just two years before his death.

Collinson played an enormous role in the life and career of Benjamin Franklin. Not only did Collinson “discover” Franklin, send him scientific equipment for experiments in electricity, and introduce him to members of the Royal Society for the first time, he also served as the first book purchasing agent for the Library Company of Philadelphia, Franklin’s historic experiment in democratizing knowledge. 

You can see a portion of Collinson’s copy of the History of London here.

#LCPFellowFriday 

The Library Company of Philadelphia’s Program in African American History (PAAH), with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, offers an annual Mellon Scholars Program of fellowships, internships, and a professional development workshop.

These competitive programs are designed to increase the participation of scholars from underrepresented backgrounds and others in the field of African American history prior to 1900.

The African Americana Collection (over 13,000 titles and almost 1,000 graphics, and growing) includes books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, broadsides, and graphics documenting the western discovery and exploitation of Africa, the rise of slavery in the new world along with the rise of movements against slavery, the development of racial thought and racism, descriptions of African American life, slave and free, throughout the Americas, slavery and race in fiction and drama, and the printed works of African American individuals and organizations.

For more information about the Mellon Scholars program view our website.

Views of Liberia from "W.F. Lynch report of mission to Africa" [graphic]. 1853. 

Series of titled views of the black emigrant country of Liberia that accompanied a government report compiled by William F. Lynch, Commander, United States Navy following an exploratory excursion to the west coast of Africa. Colonization and emigration to Liberia were possible answers to hotly-debated slavery question and at the center of the discussions at the Maryland Free Colored People's Convention, held in Baltimore in 1852.

Life in Philadelphia. General order!! Tention! Philadelphia was the epicenter for not only many Colored Conventions, but also gatherings of free blacks of all backgrounds. The emerging affluence of some black activists proved threatening to white Americans and white immigrants, which led to the creation of numerous racist political cartoons, which mocked free black Philadelphians’ celebration of the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade.

- Abi Bernard, 2017 Mellon Scholar

Meet the 2016 Mellon Scholars!

As part of the Library Company’s African American History Program, directed by Dr. Erica Armstrong Dunbar, the Mellon Scholars Fellowship Program aims to promote research in the collections of the Library Company and to enhance the production of scholarly work in African American history of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.