Philadelphiana, 1826-1873 (inclusive).

ArchivalResource

McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896,. Philadelphiana, 1826-1873 (inclusive).

Philadelphiana, 1826-1873 (inclusive).

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/172833903

The Philadelphiana collection contains miscellaneous ephemera, primarily admission tickets and programs, which document social, civic, and cultural events held in Philadelphia in the mid-nineteenth century. Most of the tickets are for balls and parties which were held for fundraising purposes or were simply social events. Among the sponsoring organizations found in the collection are the Hair Dresser's Union of Philadelphia, the Dallas Association, the Scots Thistle Society, and the French Benevolent Society. Also included are tickets for dinners (one each for Nathan Dunn, Hugh McGinnnis, and the Robert Burns Association) and a concert by the young ladies of the fifteenth ward public schools, and tickets and invitations to the opening of the new Athenaeum, Ledger, and City Hall buildings. The Funeral Obsequies folder holds invitations to local ceremonies following the death of American presidents William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) and Zachary Taylor (1784-1850). Newspaper clippings are mostly unidentified and relate to Philadelphia through being published in a local paper (such as an article about sailing on the ice of the Hudson River) or of local interest (an article on Dan Rice's horse Excelsior, and one on a proposed bridge over the Schuylkill River). The Religion and Reform folder contains tickets for events held by religious organizations including the Sunday Institute of Philadelphia's Thomas Paine Festival and Annual Ball, and a visitor's ticket for Eastern State Penitentiary. The single advertising piece is a small card inviting the reader to have dinner at one of the Wanamaker's Dining Rooms; it is in the Miscellaneous folder, which also holds a wide variety of disparate material. Examples of items in the folder are a plan for the "Decimal System of Numbering Houses" that appeared as a foldout chart in the 1858 McElroy city directory, an invitation to the Butchers & Drovers Ball of 1842, and a circular regarding the watering of city streets. The earliest item in the collection is a season (1826-1827) ticket that admitted John McAllister Jr. to lectures at the Franklin Institute.

1 box .21 linear ft.

Porterville Public Library