Lucy Peacock's Reward

Title page of Lucy Peacock's La Petite Émigrée (1836)

Book Arts & Special Collections is in the midst of cataloging its French language humor books, which form part of  the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor. Books that were formerly hidden are now discoverable in the library's online catalog, alerting readers to humorous 6th floor treasures en français. Sometimes, in addition to the book proper, a book holds an unexpected gift. For instance, this copy of Lucy Peacock's La Petite Émigrée (shown above) opens with a lovely engraved document on the front paste-down: a nineteenth century reward of merit.

Reward of merit pasted into Lucy Peacock's La Petite Émigrée (1836)

Our book shows that a student, Mlle. Hortense--and here the inscription is a bit unclear and seems to read "Leboucher"-- was awarded a prize by her teacher on 26 April [1837?]. Mlle. Hortense must have cherished this book, a token of esteem for her academic achievement. A little book of moral tales, amusing stories and instructive lessons, La Petite Émigrée was first printed in England in 1799. The French edition was published in Paris in 1836.

Much of what we know about the author, Lucy Peacock, may be found in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. She seems to have been a popular children's author, active from about 1785-1816. Her children's stories appeared in the Juvenile Magazine in the 1780s; her books were later published with such titles as The Adventures of the Six Princesses in the Travels to the Temple of Virtue (1785), The Visit for a Week (1794), and Patty Primrose (1813). With R. Peacock (perhaps her husband), Lucy Peacock also ran a book shop at 259 Oxford Street, London. She translated works from French, and, in turn, several of her books, like the one described here, were translated for French children.

Mlle. Hortense's prize is similar to the reward of merit that American children received in the nineteenth century. Beginning in the early part of that century, teachers awarded certificates to students for good conduct, attendance, excellence in handwriting, and progress in learning. The reward of merit became a popular aspect of American education, evolving from a simple one-color printed slip to a major sideline for the chromolithography industry by the end of the nineteenth century. It makes sense that prizes such as the reward of  merit would jump the pond; this nineteenth century innovation had a positive effect on the academic achievements of children. One wonders what might have happened to Mlle. Hortense Leboucher, if indeed that was her name.

This post is part of Everyday Matters, an occasional series of blog posts featuring ephemera in the collections of the Book Arts & Special Collections Center and the San Francisco History Center. In his Encyclopedia of Ephemera, an exhaustive work on the subject, scholar Maurice Rickards proposed a definition that has gained wide support, although it isn't perfect: ephemera is "minor transient documents of everyday life."

REFERENCES:



A Dictionary of British and American Women Writers, 1660-1800 edited by Janet Todd (1985), 242

Dictionary of National Biography [1963-1965]: volume 15, 588

Encyclopedia of Ephemera by Maurice Rickards (2001), 271-273

Exeter Working Papers in Book History (retrieved 19 May 2012)

The London Book Trades, 1755-1800 by Ian Maxted (1977), 173

Rewards of Merit by Patricia Fenn and Alfred P. Malpa (1994)



Detail of reward of merit from Lucy Peacock's La Petite Émigrée (1836)

Images: La Petite Émigrée by Lucy Peacock (Paris, 1836)
Schmulowitz Collection of Wit &  Humor, San Francisco Public Library





Kalligraphia Spotlight: Georgianna Greenwood

On Saturday, June 23 at 2 pm, Georgianna Greenwood will present: Italic Calligraphy

Georgianna Greenwood is a graduate of Reed College (1960) where she studied calligraphy with Lloyd Reynolds. She has taught and lectured internationally on calligraphy and letterforms and she is a founding member of the Friends of Calligraphy. Her work is in the Richard Harrison Collection of Calligraphy and can be viewed in the Book Arts & Special Collections Center on the 6th floor of the Main Library.

Be sure to check out Kalligraphia 13 - an exhibition of modern calligraphy by members of the Friends of Calligraphy, a non-profit Bay Area organization. Kalligraphia 13 will be on view in the Skylight Gallery on the 6th floor of the Main Library through August 26.

Handwritten Glimpses of Civil War Era San Francisco

One of our archivists here at the San Francisco History Center has just finished cataloging a diary of Edward L. G. Steele, a Civil War-era commission merchant's clerk who later became President of both the Oceanic Steamship Company and American Sugar Refinery. We invite you to come up to the 6th floor to read it, perhaps as part of your Summer Reading Program. The diary, which opens Nov. 1, 1863, when Steele is 21, gives the reader a candid view of the social, personal, and workaday life of a young man before he becomes a tycoon.

Steele first landed in San Francisco November 4, 1861, after a voyage from New York in the ship Contest (this voyage is documented in an earlier diary, a transcription of which is also available here in the San Francisco History Center while the original is out for repair). Two years later, when the diary pictured here opens, Steele is in the thick of his leisure and office life. Here's the first page:

Entry from Edward L.G. Steele Diary, SF MSS 22/2

As the diary progresses, Steele muses about romantic relationships, various girlfriends (Miss Sue Hazeltine, and Miss Icy Turner, to name two), and several rejected marriage proposals.  He plays violin, billiards, and vingt-un, goes drinking, and attends public dances, parties, and "Bunker Hill Balls." He drills with the City Guard, Co. B, a state militia unit, and occasionally comments on their meetings, parades, and other activities. He socializes with his landlords, Charles R. Story and wife Caroline Bayley Story, and her brother George Bayley.

 On April 1, 1864, Steele moves from the Story's home to Anna Key Turner's boarding house at 933 Sacramento Street, which one source calls the most fashionable boarding-house in San Francisco. Here it is highlighted in a detail from  "Vue de San-Francisco"/Vista de San-Francisco," circa 1860, by lithographer Isador Laurent Deroy:

View taken from the site of the Fairmont Hotel, facing east down Sacramento Street

 Steele describes his duties working under Samuel C. Hort for commission merchant and insurance agents C. Adolphe Low and Company in San Francisco. (A ‘commission merchant’ buys and sells goods on behalf of someone else, for a commission.) He notes various business transactions, including buying and selling tea from China and Japan and working on auction sales of tea with George A. Low. He mentions dealings with importers, getting vessels entered at the Customs House, and  sales of essential oils, cochineal, rags, sugar, indigo, and other goods. "Steamer day" crops up often in his entries. The bark Clara R. Sutil, needing repairs, arrives early on December 1863; its cargo is auctioned on Dec. 16, 1863 and consists of coffee, sago, tapioca, and pepper.

The ironclad monitor Comanche, 1864. AAD-8466. San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection.

Steele also notes some significant events, including the sinking of the ship Aquila and the monitor Comanche on November 14, 1863 and subsequent attempts to raise the Aquila; the death of Thomas Starr King on March 4, 1864; and the 1865 San Francisco earthquake.

E.L.G. Steele, San Francisco Chronicle, July 21, 1894 p. 5

If you're interested in reading more about E.L.G. Steele, use your library card to search for him in the San Francisco Chronicle Historical Database, available from the SFPL Articles and Databases webpage. Apparently, he wished to be neither cremated nor buried, and his obituary discusses how this conundrum was resolved. For more details about the diary, you can find a short guide on the Online Archive of California.

The staff of the San Francisco History Center would also like to thank our volunteer Terry Horrigan, who patiently transcribed both Steele diaries, as well as other small manuscripts in our collection. Thank you, Terry!

Images of diary, lithograph, and photograph are courtesy of the San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

Research the History of Your Home at the Parkside Branch

San Francisco History Center's archivist and photo curator will be presenting Research the History of Your Home at the Parkside Branch Library on Wednesday, June 20. The program starts at 7 pm, with plenty of time for questions and answers.  The presentation will include online tips for the research steps in finding out who owned a particular building and who lived in it.  Print-only resources such as Index to Papers on File will be discussed.  There will also be pointers on how to find a photograph of a building, including how to use the recently digitized San Francisco Aerial Views, 1938 and the San Francisco Assessor's Office Negative Collection. But there's no need to wait for the program in order to get started with your research: begin with the San Francisco History Center's online guide How to Research a San Francisco Building.

Twenty-first Avenue at Taraval Street, 1946

San Francisco History Center staff will also be presenting Research the History of Your Home at the Noe Valley Branch on Saturday, July 28.  If you'd like us to come to your local San Francisco Public Library branch to do a program, talk to your branch librarian!

Because researching San Francisco buildings is one of the more popular subjects researched in the San Francisco History Center, What's on the 6th Floor? adds blog entries about research building tips frequently - including what has been recently digitized.

Photograph courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco History Center.

A Visit from Our Former City Archivist

This week, the San Francisco History Center and Book Arts & Special Collections were delighted by an impromptu visit from San Francisco's Emeritus City Archivist, Gladys Hansen, and her son, Richard Hansen. Everyone reminisced about the good old days in the Old Main Library and the San Francisco History Room that began under her tenure.

Gladys Hansen and her son, Richard Hansen, catch up with San Francisco History Center and Book Arts & Special Collections colleagues.

Former City Archivist Gladys Hansen shares a candid moment.

Richard Hansen

Thanks to Richard and Gladys for donating homestead maps and other historical material to the San Francisco History Center!

Detail from a homestead map book donated to the San Francisco History Center by Gladys and Richard Hansen, showing San Miguel Rancho and Horner's Addition.

KALLIGRAPHIA 13: AN EXHIBITION OF HANDWRITING AS ART

This summer, the San Francisco Public Library welcomes Kalligraphia 13, an exhibition of contemporary calligraphy featuring work by members of the Friends of Calligraphy (FOC), a non-profit Bay Area group founded in 1975. Kalligraphia 13 will be on display in the Skylight Gallery from June 16 through August 26, 2012.

You are cordially invited to the Opening Reception on Saturday, June 16 in the Skylight Gallery, from 2-4pm.  Join us again on Saturday, July 21, when FOC members Georgianna Greenwood, Thomas Ingmire and Chris McDonald will lead a Gallery Walk & Talk from 2 to 4 p.m.

Additionally, a series of programs featuring noted Bay Area scribes, who will share their expertise with demonstrations of the art and craft of calligraphy, are planned for Saturdays in June, July and August in the Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting room at the Main Library from 2 to 4pm:

June 23:  Georgianna Greenwood: Italic calligraphy

June 30:  Antonia Smith: Edward Johnston’s Foundational script

July 7:  Sara Loesch Frank: Decorated & illuminated initials

July 14:  Ward Dunham: Blackletter written with bamboo pens

July 28:  Melissa Titone: Pointed pen calligraphy

August 4:  Carl Rohrs: Brush writing

August 11:  Monico Dengo: Improvised compositions

August 18:  Judy Detrick: Uncial & Rustic scripts

Kalligraphia was first organized in 1976. This year marks the thirteenth time that the FOC has produced the triennial, non-juried membership exhibition and the thirteenth time that the library has been its venue. It promises to be a colorful show, highlighting a wide range of calligraphic techniques, from traditional methods dating back to the Middle Ages to contemporary pen and abstract brushwork. On view will be original works including broadsides, manuscript books and three-dimensional pieces.

Friends of Calligraphy is an internationally known guild whose membership of more than 450 includes some of the most highly regarded lettering artists in the world. Committed to furthering the art of beautiful writing, FOC sponsors a year-round program of workshops and lectures for its members, as well as classes for beginners, which are held at Fort Mason and are open to the public. The guild also publishes an illustrated journal, Alphabet, and a quarterly newsletter for its members.

Kalligraphia 13 is co-sponsored by the Marjorie G. and Carl W. Stern Book Arts and Special Collections Center of the San Francisco Public Library. The Center houses highly esteemed collections, including the Robert Grabhorn Collection on the History of Printing and the Development of the Book, The Richard Harrison Collection of Calligraphy and Lettering, and the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit and Humor. For viewing hours and more information about the exhibition and demonstrations, please contact the Book Arts and Special Collections Center at (415) 557-4560.