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founded by benjamin franklin in 1731 “for the advancement of Knowledge and Literature” Summer 2014 Occasional Miscellany A Newsletter for Members and Friends of The Library Company of PHILADELPHIA The Visual Culture Program (VCP at LCP) will host an installation by book artist Teresa Jaynes in the Logan Room from September 4 to October 10, 2014. The first new work by Jaynes since her directorship of the acclaimed print festival Phi- lagrafika 2010, the Moon Reader is a multimedia installation that invites participants to learn to read Moon, a raised-letter writing system invented by blind educator William Moon in 1845. The Moon Reader is a multimedia in- stallation, based on two handmade books. The first is set in Moon type and has em- bossed illustrations. The second book, a translation of the first, is printed both in Braille and large type. The texts and an ac- companying audio recording are designed to be combined in different ways to best suit the abilities of the reader to decipher Moon. Modeled after Victorian primers, the books are based on Jaynes’s research in the Library Company’s Michael Zinman Collection of Printing for the Blind. The textbook structure of the Moon Reader reflects the overarching imperative that religious instruction be included in all forms of education in the nineteenth cen- tury. Beginning with an exercise to learn Moon, readers deepen their involvement with the writing system through a series of lessons inspired by history, music, and science textbooks in the Zinman Collection. The Moon Reader will serve as a literal and figurative meet- ing place where the tactile experience is primary. The activ- ity—deciphering, translation and finally reading—is intended to be a quiet act of discovery. Visitors will be invited to learn to read Moon and interpret ideas about “sight” in ways that elicit curiosity, humor, and empathy. Readers are invited to post com- ments on the Moon Reader Facebook page where they can also learn more about William Moon and the artist’s creative process. The Visual Culture Program’s collaboration with Jaynes will Learn to Read Moon continue through the fall on development of a main-gallery exhibition also based on her work with our historic material printed for the blind. Provisionally entitled “Talking to the Fin- gers in the Language of the Eyes,” the exhibition will combine historic collections with new work and multimedia experiences designed to challenge the privileged status of sight. “Talking,” which is being funded by a major grant from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, is scheduled to open in February 2016. On September 23, 2014, to celebrate this collaboration, the Library Company will host a conversation with project advisors from the blind community who will discuss changing relations between sighted and visually impaired people over the centuries. A limited edition, the Moon Reader will also be on display at the Magill Library at Haverford College and the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia this fall. The Moon Reader was made possible by an Independence Foundation Artist Fellowship in conjunction with the Library Company of Philadelphia. William Moon, A Simplified Alphabet for the Use of the Blind. [Brighton, England, 1893?]

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Page 1: Occasional Miscellany - Summer 2014

founded by benjamin franklin in 1731 “for the advancement of Knowledge and Literature” Summer 2014

Occasional MiscellanyA Newsletter for Members and Friends of

The Library Companyo f PHIL ADELPHIA

The Visual Culture Program (VCP at LCP) will host an installation by book artist Teresa Jaynes in the Logan Room from September 4 to October 10, 2014. The first new work by Jaynes since her directorship of the acclaimed print festival Phi-lagrafika 2010, the Moon Reader is a multimedia installation that invites participants to learn to read Moon, a raised-letter writing system invented by blind educator William Moon in 1845.

The Moon Reader is a multimedia in-stallation, based on two handmade books. The first is set in Moon type and has em-bossed illustrations. The second book, a translation of the first, is printed both in Braille and large type. The texts and an ac-companying audio recording are designed to be combined in different ways to best suit the abilities of the reader to decipher Moon. Modeled after Victorian primers, the books are based on Jaynes’s research in the Library Company’s Michael Zinman Collection of Printing for the Blind.

The textbook structure of the Moon Reader reflects the overarching imperative that religious instruction be included in all forms of education in the nineteenth cen-tury. Beginning with an exercise to learn Moon, readers deepen their involvement with the writing system through a series of lessons inspired by history, music, and science textbooks in the Zinman Collection.

The Moon Reader will serve as a literal and figurative meet-ing place where the tactile experience is primary. The activ-ity—deciphering, translation and finally reading—is intended to be a quiet act of discovery. Visitors will be invited to learn to read Moon and interpret ideas about “sight” in ways that elicit curiosity, humor, and empathy. Readers are invited to post com-ments on the Moon Reader Facebook page where they can also learn more about William Moon and the artist’s creative process.

The Visual Culture Program’s collaboration with Jaynes will

Learn to Read Moon

continue through the fall on development of a main-gallery exhibition also based on her work with our historic material printed for the blind. Provisionally entitled “Talking to the Fin-gers in the Language of the Eyes,” the exhibition will combine historic collections with new work and multimedia experiences designed to challenge the privileged status of sight. “Talking,” which is being funded by a major grant from the Pew Center

for Arts & Heritage, is scheduled to open in February 2016. On September 23, 2014, to celebrate this collaboration, the

Library Company will host a conversation with project advisors from the blind community who will discuss changing relations between sighted and visually impaired people over the centuries. A limited edition, the Moon Reader will also be on display at the Magill Library at Haverford College and the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia this fall. The Moon Reader was made possible by an Independence Foundation Artist Fellowship in conjunction with the Library Company of Philadelphia.

William Moon, A Simplified Alphabet for the Use of the Blind. [Brighton, England, 1893?]

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“Outsulating” the Ridgway LibraryStaff and visitors to the Library Company this spring were

treated to a light coating of “snow” from a series of Styrofoam panels being affixed to the building exterior on stack floors three through seven. When the building was constructed in the 1960s, it included no vapor barrier or insulation of any kind—just cinder blocks, cast concrete panels on the front and back façades, and brick on the sides. A current “outsulation” project is part of our continuing effort to increase energy ef-ficiency. As shown above, once a cosmetic top coat is applied to the 5”-thick insulation material, the appearance of the build-ing is very much the same as it has always been (an important consideration for admirers of mid-twentieth-century brutalist architecture!). However, it is much better suited to the storage of our priceless collections, and we will save significantly on energy costs into the bargain.

A second concurrent maintenance project involves re-placement of the old pneumatic controls governing our HVAC system with a digital control system. The new equipment will

Frankliniana on Display

The Library Company’s recent acquisition of French artist Jean Baptiste Weyler’s portrait miniature of Benjamin Franklin needed a place to be showcased. In the course of planning to exhibit this jeweled miniature it was decided that the whole North wall of the Logan Room should be dedicated to our founder.

To start, a glass case was installed to house our new ac-quisition and additional related artifacts, including Franklin’s glass electrostatic tube (which generates static electricity when rubbed by a cloth or piece of leather), a magnifying mirror he gave to the Library Company in 1743, two medals (Libertas Americana, commemorating the American victory during the Revolution, and a Peace Medal handed out to Native Ameri-cans), and space for both a book and a print, which we will rotate periodically. A snuff box Franklin commissioned in 1779 from François Dumont, with a portrait of himself, is also displayed in the case (housed in a new box designed to protect the delicate watercolor on ivory from light.) Mountmaker William Boucher created new mounts that are painted to match the objects seam-lessly, making them appear as if they are floating.

Above the case hangs James Reid Lambdin’s copy of David Martin’s portrait of Franklin. But before it could be displayed, the painting first required restoration. Painting conservator Carole Abercauph cleaned the canvas and mended two tears. Furniture conservator Bret Headley conserved the frame. It is wonderful to have Dr. Franklin in the Logan Room watching over his legacy!

The Library is also fortunate to have a bust of Franklin by Jean-Jacques Caffieri, but this sculpture needed a new pedestal to better fit the display. Additionally, the bust needed cleaning and several chips in the plaster needed repair. The bust has not been cleaned since we acquired it and had darkened greatly with years of dirt and grime. Sculpture conservator Linda Lennon is undertaking this duty and, though it has not been completed, the photographs of the progress are astonishing. John C. Van Horne generously funded this conservation work in honor of the Board of Trustees. We are looking forward to the bust’s return and invite you to visit the new installation soon.

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Jean-Jacques Caffieri (1725-1792). Benjamin Franklin, ca. 1779-1784. Plaster. Gift of Walter Franklin, 1805.

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Mark Your Calendars • Tuesday, September 23 – Conversation with

Moon Reader project advisors from the blind community on disability relations in early America and now

• Thursday, October 2 – Lecture by San Francisco State University Professor Marc Stein, author of City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: Lesbian and Gay Philadelphia, 1945-1972, at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania

• Friday, October 24, and Saturday, October 25 – “Economic History’s Many Muses,” Fourteenth Annual Conference of the Program in Early American Economy and Society

Framing American Society: The Michael Zinman Collection of Social Constitutions

The American propensity to form voluntary associations has often been remarked upon, most notably by Tocqueville in Democracy in America (1835), but less well known is our pro-pensity to organize these associations by means of printed documents called constitutions. In the colonial period these founding documents were called charters or articles of associa-tion—the Library Company has one of each—but after 1776, when the newly independent states began to adopt constitu-tions, voluntary non-governmental associations began to call their founding documents by the same name, and to have them printed. The earliest example in our collection is the Constitution of the United Fire Society Providence, Rhode Island, adopted in 1786, a year before the US Constitution was written.

All this is preamble, as it were, to our news that Michael Zinman has given the Library Company his collection of al-most 1,600 American social constitutions, ranging in date from 1794 (the New York Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge and Piety) to 1999 (his dentist’s local association). Obviously this is just a fraction of all the social constitutions published in those two centuries, but it is an excellent cross section. Some of our largest public libraries may have more of them scattered in their stacks under many different classifi-cations, but even by that metric, Mr. Zinman’s collection must be pretty large because its nucleus was formed by him in the 1990s out of a mass of some 100,000 pamphlets discarded by the New York Public Library after they had been microfilmed; and he continues to add to it actively.

All these social constitutions have not only a common name but also a common language or mode of address. Just

as the US Constitution begins with a statement of purpose (“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union…”), so most social constitutions begin with a statement of what brings an organization’s members together and what goals they hope to achieve. This is true no matter whether the organization is cultural, professional, fraternal, benevolent, religious, political, or just plain social. Thus the second article of the Constitution of the Doberman Pinscher Fancier’s Association (an undated mimeograph) reads, “The object of this Association shall be to promote and encourage the breeding and improve-ment of the Doberman Pinscher Police Dog as defined by its standard.” Some have far loftier goals: the Colored Teachers’ Association of Ohio, founded in 1861, wrote that “the object of our desire is the education and elevation of our race.” Others prefer to cut to the chase: Porky’s River Rats (Coxsackie, NY, 1978) states, “The purpose of this club is purely social.” But for most of these organizations (as Mr. Zinman himself wrote) “what comes through over and over is the nobleness of the object—whatever it might be—of the group that had banded together. It really is a mirror of how our society relates to itself.”

enable us to monitor temperature and humidity throughout the building much more easily and accurately and adjust the equipment as necessary to ensure the most stable and comfort-able environment for all the “residents” of the building (both animate and inanimate).

These two significant improvements to the physical plant have been partially supported by a Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylva-nia.

continued from page 2

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The John C. Van HorneLecture Inaugurated

On May 28, we initiated our newest tradi-tion with the inaugural John C. Van Horne Lecture. Approximately 150 people were in attendance at the American Philosophi-cal Society’s Benjamin Franklin Hall for an inspiring conversation between award-win-ning author Nathaniel Philbrick and Library Company Trustee and McNeil Center for Early American Studies Director Daniel K. Richter. Faced with the nearly impossible task of articulating John’s contributions to the Library Company over almost 30 years, the assembled staff, Trustees, sharehold-ers, friends, and family members contented themselves with celebrating them. The Li-brary Company Lecture in honor of John C. Van Horne, generously endowed by the Trustees and members, will be held annually as an enduring monument to John’s dedicated leadership. John’s final staff meeting in May was commemorated with the above group portrait.

From left to right: Nicole Joniec, Linda August, Molly Roth, Krystal Appiah, Susan Lee, Cornelia King, James Green, Alison McMenamin, Sarah Weatherwax, Arielle Middleman, Holly Phelps, Charlene Knight, Emily O’Rourke, Concetta Barbera, Nicole Scalessa, Alice Austin, Andrea Krupp, Jennifer Rosner, Erika Piola, John Van Horne, and Al Dallasta.

News from the Board and Staff

The Library Company welcomed four new Trustees in 2014. Louise Scheide Marshall is a fourth-generation book collector whose late husband Gordon M. Marshall was Assistant Librarian of the Library Company from 1970 to 1993 and a Trustee from 2002 to 2013. Her father is the eminent bibliophile and Trustee Emeritus William H. Scheide. Daniel K. Richter is the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of American History and the Richard S. Dunn Director of the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Michael F. Suarez, SJ, is Director of Rare Book School and University Professor in the Department of English at the University of Virginia. Edward M. Waddington has since 1989 been Managing Director of accounting firm Smart Devine & Co. LLC. Development Committee Chair Harry S. Cherken, Jr., was appointed to a second three-year term, and Howell K. Rosenberg, reappointed after his one-year hiatus from voting trusteeship, was named President.

We said goodbye to several Trustees who have served this institution with great passion and dedication over many years. Outgoing Board President B. Robert DeMento, outgoing Treasurer Robert J. Christian, outgoing Secretary Helen S. Weary, and Davida T. Deutsch were all named Trustees Emeriti. Additionally, we regretfully said farewell to Autumn Adkins Graves and Ignatius Wang who stepped down from the Board at the conclusion of their terms.

Other than a major transition in the corner office, there has been no turnover in our remarkably stable staff. Recep-

tionist Charlene Knight celebrated a 20th anniversary in her position this year. However, this summer we are joined by a large number of interns: With funding from the International Fine Print Dealers Association, Rutgers graduate student Alison Van Denend is a Curatorial Assistant in the Print Department; Rutgers graduate student Mikaela Maria is working on an online presentation of our rare Cassey and Dickerson friendship albums; Bryn Mawr student Jo Dutilloy joins us through the Tri-Co Digital Humanities Initiative to work on the same project; University of Maryland gradu-ate student Laura Michel is identifying rare 18th-century books in the Union Library Company of Hatboro, PA, for possible deposit at the Library Company; Swarthmore student Paul Bierman is helping the Development Department with research and data management; and RIT student Giles Holbrow is assisting with digital projects. Emma Ricciardi, Rutgers Library Information and Science graduate student, returns for her second summer as Reading Room Assistant.

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Mellon Scholars Program

In June the Program in African American History held its inaugural Mellon Scholars professional development workshop and hosted its first interns, two components of a program designed to increase the participation of scholars from underrepresented backgrounds and others in the field of African American History prior to 1900. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, these summer programs were designed by PAAH Director Dr. Erica Armstrong Dunbar and Curator of African American History Krystal Appiah. Michael Dickinson, a history doctoral student at the University of Delaware, served as Research Advisor for the program.

Interns—Kwasi Agyemang (George Washington University), Sherri Cummings (CUNY, Brooklyn College), and JaMarcus Underwood (North Carolina Central University)—spent four weeks in residence. The majority of their time was devoted to diving enthusiastically into the Library Company’s extensive African Americana Collection to conduct original research in primary sources on topics ranging from Martin Delany’s conception of black Diasporic identity to African American abolitionists’ response to the Haitian Revolution and the development of black education in Philadelphia. A capstone colloquium and research paper concluded their intensive research experience.

The professional development workshop took place during the third week of June when the three interns were joined by Menika Dirkson (Villanova University), Harrison Graves

(University of Maryland, College Park), Maria Esther Hammack (East Carolina University), Harvey Long (Winston-Salem State University), Tasha Martinez (Bowie State University), Leroy Myers, Jr. (University of Maryland, Eastern Shore), and Jessica Wicks (Howard University).

Led by area scholars including Dr. Allison Dorsey (Swarthmore College), Dr. Marisa Fuentes (Rutgers University), and Dr. Kimberly Saunders (University of Delaware), workshop seminars included lectures on African American historiography as well as professional development talks on topics such as drafting a successful personal statement and curriculum vitae, selecting a doctoral program, and applying for academic funding. Workshop participants also spent time with the African Americana collections to gain experience conducting archival research. Field trips to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, and Temple University’s Blockson Afro-American Collection introduced them to other important African American historical and archival resources in Philadelphia. Together with our Mellon Scholars research fellows, our summer program participants form a community of students and scholars who will help invigorate the field of early African American History.

From left to right: Harrison Graves, Kwasi Agyemang, Leroy Myers, Jr., Tasha Martinez, Menika Dirkson, Harvey Long, JaMarcus Underwood, Jessica Wicks, Maria Esther Hammack, Sherri Cummings.

Help us Meet the Match!

The Program in African American History exemplifies the ways the Library Company continues to realize founder Benjamin Franklin’s vision in the twenty-first century. With sought-after collections—both in the Reading Room and on line, well-attended programs, competitive fellowships, and a robust publication list, the Program makes pre-1900 documents relevant to contemporary life, empowering teachers, students, and communities.

In recognition of this fact, in December 2013 the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded the Library Company a coveted Challenge Grant of $500,000. These grant funds, together with matching funds of $1.5 million, will create a permanent endowment to support fellowships, programs, acquisitions, publications, and administrative expenses. A permanently endowed Program will increase scholarly attention to the experience of people from the African diaspora in early America and create a more complete understanding of the origins of our society.

Please help us to realize this vision! We must raise the matching funds by July 2018, and everyone who cares about the Library Company and African American History has a role to play. Please contact Molly Roth at [email protected] for more information.

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The Library Company of Philadelphia 1314 Locust Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107

Summer 2014 ISSN 0734-3698215-546-3181 FAX 215-546-5167

www.librarycompany.org

My esteemed pre-decessor John Van Horne liked to say that his several de-cades of service did not amount to a long time in the grand scheme of the Library Company’s history. If that’s true, then my brief tenure at the helm of Frank-lin’s library is only a blink of an eye. But in my first 30 days, I have seen the institu-tion in a wonderful new light. From the

dedication of staff to first-class reader services (something I always took for granted as a researcher!), the pride of Board members in an ever-evolving research library to academic programs that bring our amazing collections alive for new generations of teachers and students, I am now able to see how many gears are constantly in motion. And yet, Franklin’s library is still animated with the same spirit that engendered it in 1731: people want to use our books, pamphlets, and prints to empower themselves and change the world.

That became clear in my first week, when I arrived to find our Reading Room full of fellows and our meeting rooms wall to wall with scholarly enterprise. One conference room housed a dozen Rare Book School participants, eagerly ab-sorbing lessons in the history of the book from Librarian James Green; another held participants in the Mellon Scholars Program, interns and research fellows here to learn about our African American history collections and develop their research skills. Both groups meditated on the meaning of Library Company resources for their own work and careers. And both groups came away with a new appreciation for our expertise.

A few weeks later, I learned that the Albert M. Greenfield Foundation—the visionary source of pilot funding for the Program in African American History—had awarded the Li-brary Company a major grant to endow the annual Juneteenth Seminar and help meet the match for our Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. At this year’s Seminar on June 19, almost one hundred people at-tended a lively discussion of issues in black education from Emancipation to the present day. It was wonderful to be able to announce to the assembled guests the Greenfield Founda-tion’s support for this meaningful event, which connects the Library Company’s collections to ongoing political and social debates.

In June, the Library Company engaged in another form of

From the Director empowerment and outreach: public programs related to our “That’s So Gay” exhibition, which has had a steady stream of daily visitors and received national media attention. Scholar Kate Culkin spoke about Harriet Hosmer, the noted 19th-century artist who is featured prominently in our exhibition, on June 9. And Philadelphia Voices of Pride serenaded guests with choral music based on early American texts on June 30. The exhibition has created opportunities to partner with a wide range of cultural organizations—including the William Way LGBT Community Center where these programs took place—and introduce the Library Company to new audiences happy to discover the diversity of our collections and our commitment to sharing them with an informed public.

Perhaps the most moving moment of my first month came when I received a follow-up email from a scholar in our Mellon program who was still dazzled with her week-long visit. It was, she wrote from home, “the opportunity of a lifetime.” This young scholar was inspired by her time here to pursue a PhD in order to become a scholarly researcher. Library Company people, programs, and pamphlets had inspired and empow-ered her.

Somewhere, Ben Franklin is beaming that his upstart library is still doing what he hoped: giving people information to change their lives and reshape the world.

Richard S. NewmanThe Edwin Wolf 2nd Director