Spring Events

Before Madison Avenue: Advertising in Early America

Visual Culture Program Conference, Wednesday, March 15, and Thursday, March 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.

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. 

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.

'A Work to Wonder At': Stowe House and the American Revolution
Tuesday, April 17, Reception at 5:30 p.m, program at 6:00 p.m.

Dr. Jonathan Foyle, Chief Executive of World Monuments Fund Britain and British architecture expert, will discuss the rise and fall of Stowe House in the context of American Independence and the demise of the English aristocracy, and will chart its rediscovery and ambitious restoration as one of the major current projects of World Monuments Fund. Co-sponsored by the English-Speaking Union.

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.

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.

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.

For more information  please visit http://www.librarycompany.org/events/index.htm or call 215-546-3181.