The Library Company of Philadelphia

In past blogs I have talked about some of the top collections of antique prints around the country but I have yet to discuss any of the superb Philadelphia institutions with print collections. Today I’ll look at one of these, The Library Company of Philadelphia.

The Library Company is an independent research library which focuses on American society and culture. The Library Company is actually the oldest American cultural institution, founded as a lending library in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin. In the early days of the colony, books were difficult to find, so Franklin convinced 50 like-minded citizens to form the Library Company and pool their resources to create a library they could all use. The Library continued to grow over the years, serving as the original Library of Congress when Philadelphia was the nation’s capital. In the 1950s the Library Company was transformed into a research library, serving as a fabulous resource for researchers, students, or anyone who has need for what is one of America’s great libraries.

The collections encompass rare books (including those acquired in 1731), manuscripts, broadsides, works of art, ephemera, photographs, and of course prints. A separate Print & Photographs Department was formed in 1971 to manage and help provide access to the graphics holdings which encompass approximately 75,000 (!) prints, photographs, maps, and original drawings and watercolors. These focus especially on prints and photographs by Philadelphians and images which document the history of Philadelphia, though the Library Company also has a strong representation of historical prints, portraits and political cartoons documenting wider American history from the 18th through early 20th centuries.

The Library Company is now a non-circulating library, but the staff make every effort to make their collections accessible to anyone interested. Readers can visit at no charge and there is a separate reading room for the Print & Photograph department. At the same time, the Library Company is working on making their collections available over the internet. There is a useful Library Company web site, and one can access descriptive records and many digital images of the collections through their online catalog WolfPAC and the digital collections catalog ImPAC.

Philadelphia on Stone: The First Fifty Years of Commercial Lithography, 1828-1878

What really is exciting to me is a three-year research project which the Library Company has undertaken. Called Philadelphia on Stone, the project, under the direction of Erika Piola, aims to research, document and publish the history of Philadelphia lithographers, artists and printers and the work they produced between 1828 and 1878. Included in this project is a survey of Philadelphia institutional holdings of lithographic views of Philadelphia and the production of a digital catalog of about 800 views. The starting foundation of this survey is the “Wainwright collection.”

Nicholas B. Wainwright was a local scholar who collected and studied lithographed views of Philadelphia before 1866. In 1958 he published the seminal Philadelphia in the Romantic Age of Lithography . This includes a history of early lithography in Philadelphia along with a descriptive list of 480 prints of Philadelphia. Many of the prints described were from the collections of the Library Company, which currently holds 285 of the prints in Wainwright’s work (all of which are available now for viewing online.)

Besides this survey and catalog of Philadelphia views, the Philadelphia on Stone project will result in an exhibition at the Library Company from March to October 2010 and a number of related public programs. The project will also generate an illustrated biographical dictionary documenting over 500 individuals involved in commercial lithography and a heavily-illustrated scholarly book with thematic essays on 19th-century Philadelphia lithography. As someone who works daily with Philadelphia views and the work of Philadelphia lithographers, the Philadelphia on Stone project is very exciting and I eagerly look forward to the results. In the meantime, though, there is much material already online and, of course, one can always stop by and explore the Library Company’s holdings first-hand.

Vanity Fair prints

I recently watched an episode, "They Do It With Mirrors," of the PBS Masterpiece: Mystery! series based on Agatha Christie's work. In one bedroom scenes there were two prints hanging on the wall which were immediately identifiable as caricatures from Vanity Fair. This was quite appropriate, as these prints are among the most commonly found prints hanging in homes in England and are also found in quite large numbers in this country. You will see these distinctive portraits hanging in simple black frames in homes and offices all over. These prints are probably familiar in appearance to most readers of this blog, but the history of these prints might not be so well known.

The prints in question are humorous caricatures of figures from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. They were issued in Vanity Fair, which from 1868 until February 5, 1914, was a weekly magazine of social, literary and political content, published to the delight of Victorian and later, Edwardian England. Most popular of its features were these wonderful full page caricatures of famous men and women of the day, prints that remain Vanity Fair’s great legacy.


Early on, in response to a charge by The Daily News that Vanity Fair caricatures were devoid of humor, Thomas Gibson Bowles, founder, owner and editor until 1889, described the caricatures which appeared in his magazine; “There are grim faces made more grim, grotesque figures made more grotesque, and dull people made duller by the genius of our talented collaborator ‘Ape’; but there is nothing that has been treated with a set purpose to make it something that it was not already originally in a lesser degree.” To publish with these visual caricatures, Bowles also wrote the accompanying biographical commentaries under the pseudonym ‘Jehu Junior.’ Bowles’ goal in writing these epigrams was to reflect in prose that which was presented graphically.


The prints from Vanity Fair are printed by chromolithography and they range in subjects from Kings and Queens, to scientists and artists, authors and sportsmen, lawyers and politicians, and figures from pretty much all other types of occupations. There are some very famous figures (such as Winston Churchill, Bernard Shaw, P.T. Barnum) and a large group of now virtually unknown "Men of the Day." Some of the images are fair staid, but many have a delightful verve and humor.


These prints are often called "Spy" prints, because many have that signature in the image. Spy, however, was the pen name for Leslie Ward, who was the artist who drew more of the Vanity Fair caricatures than any other artist (his portrait is below, on the right). Carlo Pellegrini (whose portrait is below, on the left), used the pen names of "Ape" or "Singe" or "JTJ," and he was the other artist whose work appears most commonly in Vanity Fair prints, but other well known artists' work also appears in these caricatures, including images by Max Beerbohm, Thomas Nast, and James Montgomery Flagg.


Here is a listing of the artists whose work appeared in Vanity Fair, along with the signatures they used:

AJM

Arthur H. Marks

Ape

Carlo Pellegrini

Atn

Alfred Thompson

Bulbo

Sir Max Beerbohm

CB

Cuthbert Bradley

Cecioni

Adriano Cecioni

CG

Francis C. Gould

Coide

James Jacques Tissot

Delfico

Melchiorre Delfico

D'Epinay

Prosper Comte d'Epinay

FCG

Sir Francis Carruthers Gould

Flagg

James Montgomery Flagg

Furniss

Harry Furniss

G.D.G.

Godfrey Douglas Giles

GO

F. Goedecker

Guth

Jean Baptiste Guth

Hester

Wallace Hester

Imp

Julius Mender Price

JTJ

Carlo Pellegrini

LIB

Liberio Prosperi

Lyall

Lyall

M

James Jacques Tissot

Max

Sir Max Beerbohm

Montbard or MD

Charles Auguste Loye

Nast

Thomas Nast

PAL

Jean de Paleologue

Qviz or Quizz

John Page Mellor

Ruth

Sir Max Beerbohm

Sic

Walter Richard Sickert

Singe

Carlo Pellegrini

Snapp

Snapp

Spy

Sir Leslie Ward

T

Theobald Chartran

WAG

A.G. Witherby

Pricing antique prints: value rankings

In a previous blog I talked about how we price prints, especially when there are no good historical price record to be found for the particular print in question. Our main modus vivendi in these cases is to compare the print to other prints where we do have established prices. Of course the question is, compares in what way? There are a number of criteria which determine the prices of prints and we try to find a comparable prints with established prices to see if the print in question is better in terms of these criteria, in which case it will be priced higher, or not quite a good, in which case it will be priced less.

Obviously, one of the most important criteria is the content of the print in question. Historic prints which show a person, place or event have their value primarily dependent on what person, what place or what event. So in comparing a print we're trying to price with one we have a price record for, we start by seeing which of the subjects of two prints has a higher “value ranking.”

The “value ranking” of a person, place or event is where in a ranking of values that subject falls relative to other subjects of the same sort. This hypothetical ranking is simply a function of popularity of the subject among the buying public. If many people want images of a particular person, place or event, it will be ranked near the top and if few people are interested in a subject, it will be near the bottom. This “value ranking” of the subjects is not dependent on the importance of the subject (there are many important individuals, for instance, whose prints do not sell for very much), but simply popularity.


So who are the most popular people? On the world scene, individuals like Napoleon, Jesus, and Simon Bolivar are both famous and heroes to many, so they come in near the top of the value ranking of portraits, whereas people like King John of England, Don Lope de Aquirre, and Marie Antoinette, though famous, tend to be looked on in a negative way, and so they rank well down in their value ranking.


In terms of American historical figures, there are two names that are at the top of the value ranking of portraits, significantly above any others, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Others near the top of the ranking are Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Teddy Roosevelt. Figures who played a prominent role in American history, but whose prints tend to be well down on the value ranking are people like Henry Clay, Aaron Burr, and Winfield Scott. It is always interesting to compare people from the same period to see how their value rankings differ, and for the Civil War, while Lincoln is at the top, it is mostly Confederate generals, like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, who are valued highly, while Union generals like Grant and Sherman are relatively less valued.

For maps and views of places, those showing American locations tend to be the most highly valued, though important foreign locations are also quite desirable, for instance cities such as London, Paris, Cape Town, and so forth. Within the world of American places, the value ranking of states is quite interesting to look at. This value ranking is reflected closely in the hierarchy of values of maps of those states.

At the top are maps of Texas. For the maps from any particular world atlas, the map of Texas will almost always be worth more than that of any other state. Again, not because Texas is more important (a statement many Texans would probably disagree with), but because lots of Texans love Texas and desire maps of their state. A similar thing applies to some other states, such as Virginia, where the fondness Virginians have for the “Old Dominion,” translates into maps of Virginia selling for more than most other states.
It is not just the popularity of the state which determines its value ranking. Another factor can be the shape of the state! I hate to say it, but Pennsylvania is a fairly boring shape—pretty much a standard rectangle. Compare that to Florida, with its swooping peninsular and delicate pan-handle, or Kentucky with its interesting hump-backed shape. I am convinced that maps of Pennsylvania would sell for more if the state had a more interesting shape and that Florida would not be so desirable if it were squared-off!
There are a number of other reasons for a state’s ranking in the list of values, but one other factor that is interesting is whether people identify with the entire state or not. For instance, in New York State, citizens of New York City tend not to identify with the state as a whole, only with the city. This cuts out many of the people who you might think of as wanting New York state maps, so that state is quite a ways down in the ranking. Similarly, Pennsylvania (again!) is ranked fairly far down in the state value ranking because those in the southeastern part of the state tend not to identify with the rest of the state, while those in the west often don’t like those in the east, and those in the middle often wish both ends would drop off. This means that there are not a lot of people who love Pennsylvania-as-a-whole, and so its maps are valued less highly than many other states
For cities and towns there is also a complex and varied calculus which determines how highly that place is valued. Maps and views of New York City are very popular and valuable, as there are lots of people with lots of money who want them. Philadelphia views and maps are also quite valuable, as are most of the big cities, though some cities seem to generate less positive vibes, so that we find that views of San Francisco almost always sell for more than views of Los Angeles, while views of Chicago are more desirable than those of Detroit (there are, of course, other reasons for these differences besides the cities’ positive vibes…).
In terms of events, probably the most desirable images are those of the American Revolution, followed by those of the Civil War. Wars always create interest, but whereas the French & Indian War prints are valued highly, and those of the War of 1812 are relatively popular, those of the Mexican-American are less so, and those of the Spanish-American War even less. This doesn’t mean there are not collectors for all these wars and that some images of each do not sell for a large amount; it is simply that all other things being equal, a print of the Civil War will sell for more than one of the War of 1812, which in turn will sell for more than one of the Mexican-American war.
In general, the value of other American historical events tends to reflect how well known they are today or whether the issues involved still seem to matter. There were plenty of disasters, assassinations, scandals, elections, treaties, and so forth, in American history which at the time were important and had many prints made of them, but which now are known by relatively few. Prints of these events are wonderful American documents, but the lack of recognition means that their relative value is fairly low.

It can be a lot of fun to see how different subjects—persons, places, events—compare in terms of their value ranking and to try to figure out why (why, for instance, do maps of North Carolina have a higher value than those of South Carolina?). Getting a sense of these value rankings is the start to figuring the price for any print. However, as I alluded above, the value rankings determine the difference in value of prints for different subjects all other things being equal. Of course, rarely are all other things equal, so in the next blog I’ll talk about some of the other factors which we need to take into account when assigning a price to print for which we have no good price records.

Click here to go to next blog on pricing antique prints.

Allegories of Washington & Lincoln

Another wonderful, thoughtful blog from Kelli Lucas:

A couple of weeks ago, Victoria wrote a great post about traditions of allegory in Western art. As I’ve been researching an image in our inventory of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, I’ve been thinking a lot about the particularly American set of symbols and icons that appear in popular prints. Puzzling out how those symbols have been portrayed in the past and how they came to be is a great way to unravel a little bit of American history.

From the beginning, Thomas Jefferson and other framers of our early federal documents aligned the new nation with classic republics, borrowing even classical architectural styles to express ideas of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (visit Jefferson’s University of Virginia for the most famous examples). Early purveyors of national iconography did the same, piling classical references one upon the other. One Philadelphia artist, John James Barralet, used classically draped goddesses in Greek klismos-style chairs to symbolize the bounty and freedom of the new republic, where Hermes (Mercury) leads merchants and immigrants to the throne of Liberty. Advised by Athena (Minerva), goddess of wisdom, she sits in welcome at a pristine, colonnaded temple of justice and self-determination and receives the new arrivals with a cornucopia of produce, displaying the judicial scales which would ensure their free and equal pursuit of happiness. Greek and Roman characters, elements, and symbols were adopted to communicate new American ideals and characteristics.

As the nineteenth century progressed, Protestant Christianity became the dominant framework for American narrative of origin, replacing characters of Greek mythology with characters of the Old Testament. Bible passages were applied liberally to public speeches, and public schools were well-supplied with copies of Protestant Scripture. Popular culture and religious culture mingled in the celebrity of people like author Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote the wildly popular Uncle Tom’s Cabin and whose family tree was famously populated with Christian ministers and moralists. As historians like Nathan Hatch and Mark Noll have documented (more eloquently than I can in the scope of this post), popular and political culture became infused with Protestant statements of morality.

To make matters more complex for those interested in the progression of American visual culture (including print enthusiasts like us), popular Protestantism did not simply replace the Early Republic’s allegorical vocabulary of Classical imagery; rather, it layered atop the Classical stratum a drape of Protestant canonry. These layers are perhaps most evident in the nearly sacred iconography of George Washington. In a nation whose dominant, sometimes virulently anti-Catholic religion brooked no saints and no idols, Washington became like a federal deity. Cast as the father of his nation, he took on a nearly Abrahamic role in young nation’s mythology. To Protestant patriots, Washington was the one with whom God established the nation-building covenant: that his descendants would be greater in number than the stars. Scenes of allegory took on biblical casts: in a print published at his passing, George Washington, crowned with a Classical laurel wreath, journeys to heaven carried by angels, familiar symbols from Christian imagery. As though he were a chosen one borne to his eternal reward, Washington lifts his eyes toward heaven, spreading his hands to receive blessing.

Fast forward a few generations, and up comes came Abraham Lincoln: the mingled embodiment of both the Protestant work ethic and the classic American promise of opportunity. Republican campaigners literally sang his praises, lauding his adolescent wood-chopping abilities and humility of character. Following his assassination, Lincoln was elevated to a Messianic role: if Washington was the nation’s father, Lincoln was seen as its savior, and was termed exactly that by Currier and Ives in the subtitle of a print they published of the two presidents (Conningham: 6510).

After Lincoln passed, enterprising print pirates used the same image as was used to memorialize Washington decades earlier. Engraving Lincoln’s head where Washington’s had been, they ascribed to the martyred president the same divine approval as had been ascribed to the first president. Lincoln was the bearer of a sort of new covenant – the one whose Union-focused perseverance would redeem the wayward nation. He was the martyr, a Messiah-like figure whose death proved his virtue.

In 1865, Stephen J. Ferris participated in this trend, producing an image that was published by Philadelphian J.A. Arthur. Educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Paris, Ferris was a highly-trained and influential Philadelphia artist whose paintings and prints were exhibited throughout the and Europe. His image demonstrates that even fine artists took part in the elevation of Lincoln to American icon through the pairing of the sixteenth president with the first. In a shaft of heavenly light, Washington lifts Lincoln through the clouds to his eternal rest, where a crown of laurels awaits him and confirms his achievements as the Preserver of the Union. Like many images pairing the two, this was so popular as to be reproduced in cartes-de-visite form and copied by at least one amateur artist working in charcoal (see images below).



Harold Holzer is the historian who has most fully developed these ideas in his excellent article, “ ‘Columbia’s Noblest Sons’: Washington and Lincoln in Popular Prints (Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 15.1 (1994): 47 pars. 19 Aug. 2009 ),

In that work, he discusses the development of the pairing of the two presidents and examines how Lincoln came to achieve equal status with Washington in the heart and memory of the American Public. He examines the progression from campaign poster to memorial print, explaining how artists and print publishers responded to public demand to create an iconography of American heroes. Layering images from the early republic’s classical symbolism and Messianic, Protestant themes, they produced a group of pictures that encapsulates the complex layers of nineteenth-century American ideology.

American Antiquarian Society

From time to time I will be posting blogs about institutions which hold important collections of antique prints. I have already written about the Library of Congress, the Amon Carter Museum, and the Connecticut Historical Society. Today I will write about the American Antiquarian Society (AAS), which has an American print collection second to none. It is a relatively unknown gem of a research institution located in Worcester, Massachusetts and one that is near and dear to my heart.

The AAS was established in 1812, founded by Isaiah Thomas and others in order to "encourage the collection and preservation of the Antiquities of our country, and of curious and valuable productions in Art and Nature [that] have a tendency to enlarge the sphere of human knowledge." They wanted to use these collections in order to "aid the progress of science, to perpetuate the history of moral and political events, and to improve and interest posterity." This intent still forms the basis of the AAS as an independent research institution. As stated on their web site, the AAS’s purpose is to collect, organize and preserve the records of the lives and activities of the American people from the colonial era through the Civil War and Reconstruction, and to make these collections available for research so as to further the study and understanding of our past.

The collections of the AAS include books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, broadsides, manuscripts, music, local histories and graphic arts. Much information on these collections is available on the AAS web site. The collections are intended to be used for study and the collections are available for on-site study by experienced researchers. The collections are also often used by other institutions for exhibitions and the like (for instance a few items were borrowed for Panorama of Pittsburgh which I curated last summer), and the AAS further promotes its goals by offering fellowships, educational programs, producing publications, and exhibitions. The AAS is very active on-line, helping produce Common-place, an “interactive journal of Early American Life” and on-line exhibits such as Beauty, Virtue and Vice (which will be the subject of a future blog).

It is the graphics collection at the AAS which is of most interest to me, and as I said, it is in the first rank of American graphics collections. The Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Graphic Arts is Georgia B. Barnhill, one of the leading print scholars in the country. She has lectured and published widely and is known for her insightful and entertaining talks. From when I first got involved with antique prints, Georgia has always been one of my inspirations and all those who are interested in American prints are blessed both for the AAS and that she is the curator of its amazing graphics collections.

I asked Georgia to answer a few questions, which she graciously agreed to do.

The print collection at the AAS is one of the best in the country. How was this put together?

The collection of prints at the American Antiquarian Society has been in formation since the founding of the institution by Isaiah Thomas in 1812. One of his early acquisitions was a copy of every single sheet ballad available at a printer's shop in Boston in 1814. Many of the ballads are illustrated with relief cuts so the collection is both textual and pictorial. The most significant early collection to come to AAS was the bequest of the Reverend William Bentley of Salem, Massachusetts. At his death in 1819, there was no institution in Salem to absorb his collection and it came to Worcester. He was one of the founding members and his collection that came to AAS was rich in drawings and prints of colonial figures. Foremost among the bequest was the woodcut portrait of Richard Mather. The collection of prints was enriched by Isaiah Thomas's collection as well as those of residents of Worcester in the nineteenth century. Clarence Brigham, librarian for over fifty years from about 1910 to 1965 focused on acquiring prints by Paul Revere and other colonial Boston engravers. One generous member in those years was Charles Henry Taylor who was very interested in the history of American lithography. The collection of books illustrated with lithographs as well as independent prints was due to his generosity. More recently the collection received funds from Jay and Deborah Last that enabled me to add to the collection in significant ways. The collection is particularly strong in political prints, portrait prints, city views, landscapes, depictions of historical events, and architectural subjects.

How did you end up as the graphic arts curator?

I came to AAS in 1968 without an advanced degree, but with a general background in art history that fortuitously included a course on the history of prints. After several years, I was offered an opportunity to compile a descriptive bibliography of books and articles on American prints. That was my formal education, and a good one. Within a two year period, I went from a rank amateur in the field to a curator with a great deal of knowledge at my finger tips. Several years ago, the American Historical Print Collectors Society published a revised version of that original bibliography with the literature current to 2000. At some level, I must have realized in the early 1970s that early American prints was a good field and I have happily been researching American prints and illustrations ever since.

How can people get access to the collection?

They can access this collection by using the Society's online catalogs. Engravings issued before 1821 as book and periodical illustrations or as independent prints are in the Catalogue of American Engravings. This union catalog was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Getty Trust, and several other foundations and generous supporters of AAS. Lithographs can be located through the online catalog. Using the term "Lith?" will limit any search to lithographs. There are not any links to digital images at this point. Beginning in the fall of 2009, engravings published after 1820 will be cataloged together with engravings found in literary annuals and gift books. In due course, scans of these items will be linked to the catalog records.

Scholars access the collection remotely, but most successfully by visiting the Society's library in Worcester, Massachusetts. Most researchers who come to AAS are academic scholars; a few are from museums. Prints serve various functions in research. Often they are the subject of the research project; sometimes, they enhance our understanding of an historical moment. Fashions in academic scholarship change from year to year or decade to decade. Right now we have several scholars interested in political prints. But there is always interest in the works of Paul Revere.

How does the AAS support print research?

There is an active fellowship program for scholars interested in visual culture funded by Jay and Deborah Last, Diana Korzenik, and the American Historical Print Collectors Society. Information on the fellowship program is available on the AAS website. The topics of our current research fellows include slavery and abolitionism, type faces, early political prints, ruins, book illustration, the Mississippi River in the public imagination, ancestry and identity, race and photographic humor, sensationalist images and the theatre, games and toys in public libraries, and French and American artistic exchanges.

The future for the use of prints at the Society is bright. In 2005, we initiated the Center for Historic American Visual Culture (CHAViC). In the spring of 2008, AAS received a two year grant from a foundation that has allowed the Society to undertake ambitious programming to exploit our collections and to provide enhanced access. In October, we will hold our third CHAViC conference--Destined for Men: Visual Materials for Male Audiences, 1750-1880. Access to collections has included the cataloging of individual prints and collections and the creation of inventories of large archives. The collections page of the AAS website provides additional information. Inventories of drawings, cased photographs, work by David Claypoole Johnston, photographs of Native Americans are among the fully illustrated collections. AAS also has an active online exhibition program. The two most recent exhibitions are Big Business: Food Production, Processing & Distribution in the North, 1850-1900 and Beauty, Virtue, and Vice: Images of Women in Nineteenth-Century American Prints.

Our efforts reach museum staff, academic scholars, graduate students and members of the public. We hold an annual five-day summer seminar on Interpreting Prints for Teaching and Research and incorporate pedagogical information on using prints in our programs for middle and high school teachers. AAS also sponsors a website for teachers which is richly illustrated with prints from the collection. In short, prints are at the center of much activity at AAS.