Free Library Blog - Posts by Administrator

Like a Red, Red Rose

Administrator — 2011-08-10T10:24:00-05:00

Carolyn Haywood once described herself as “grand student of Howard Pyle.” Haywood was heavily influenced by several of Pyle’s students: Jessie Willcox Smith (1863-1935), Elizabeth Shippen Green Elliott (1871-1954), and Violet Oakley (1874-1961). They were known as the Red Rose Girls for the time that they spent living and working at the Red Rose Inn in Villanova, Pennsylvania. The Red Rose Inn was the trio’s respite from the bustling and tiresome streets of Philadelphia. The charm and romanticism of the inn offered the women distance from the distractions of the outside world. The inn allowed them studio space to flourish. Together with their friend and housekeeper, Henrietta Cozens, they later moved down the road to the house that came to be known as Cogslea. C-O-G-S, for each of the letters in their last names, became a sort of surname for the women. Their artwork and friendship made them famous in their own time.

Jessie Willcox Smith was a notoriously proper woman. She studied under Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, though she felt that he was a “madman” and kept a significant distance from the scandal that surrounded him. Since 1885 was not a time when many women would receive such an education, Smith was determined to pursue a life as an artist on her own terms. Carolyn Haywood described her as having an “impersonal sense of her work” and though “she seemed to work without egotism,” she approached her work with a professional manner and was incredibly mindful of her deadlines. Her paintings and illustrations were of children in a vibrant and idyllic world. She was well known for her illustrations of children’s literature, and also provided many covers for Good Housekeeping magazine.

Elizabeth Shippen Green was the most outgoing of the three women. She began illustrating at an early age and was encouraged to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts, her father’s alma mater. Green was not interested in the fine arts, but wanted to focus on illustration. When she was 29 years old Green signed an exclusive contract with Harper’s Monthly Magazine that lasted for 23 years. Haywood said that “her sense of humor did not stop with an idea, it fulfilled it.” She was meticulous in her work and was known to be a perfectionist. When she married Huger Elliott, she had a well-established career and she continued to be prolific well into her later years.

Violet Oakley was the youngest of the Red Rose Girls. She was born into a family of painters and felt that her career choice was hereditary. She established her place in the art world with the commission for the murals in the Governor's Reception Room at the Pennsylvania Capitol Building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Her work proved to be so successful that the commission was extended to include murals in the Supreme Court Building there. Her work on such prominent murals allowed her financial independence and elevated her status in Philadelphia society, at a level not typically reached by a woman based on her own merit. As Carolyn Haywood described her, Oakley “had a great sense of perfection…she could forgive sin, but not stupidity.”

It should be noted that Henrietta Cozens was friend and housekeeper to the Red Rose Girls. She first lived with them at the Red Rose Inn in Villanova, PA in 1902. She was a horticulturalist and kept the many gardens on the grounds of each of their homes. She also oversaw the household at Cogslea and later moved with Smith, in 1914, to a nearby home and studio that would be known as “Cogshill.”

Carolyn Haywood shared a friendship with each woman and maintained correspondence with them that is now in her collection in the Children’s Literature Research Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Haywood was a student of both Green and Smith and she worked as Oakley’s assistant on several murals. The influence from each woman’s distinctive style can be seen throughout Haywood’s early work. Much of Jessie Willcox Smith’s artwork focused on children, which is reflected heavily in Haywood’s illustration of children. The Christmas cards that Elizabeth Shippen Green Elliot sent to Haywood feature pen and ink drawings similar to those featured in Haywood’s books. They were more than just teachers for Carolyn Haywood; they provided the inspiration for her to live her life as an artist. Haywood’s career path has strong similarities to Oakley’s. Haywood spent much of her early career working on murals for the Manayunk National Bank and painting portraits of Philadelphia society. Carolyn Haywood looked to the Red Rose Girls for inspiration in her lifestyle and career. She wrote, “as an author and illustrator of books, I owe a great deal to these three distinguished women who shared what they knew with me, inspired me, and counseled me. They have had my love and gratitude for the greater part of my life and enriched it immeasurably.”

And as always, visit our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter for more updates from the Children’s Literature Research Collection.

--Lindsay Friedman

Workplace Tips

Administrator — 2009-09-22T14:49:00-05:00

Hi there! Paul Savedow here, your go-to librarian for career resources. I am the head of the Education, Religion, and Philosophy Department in the Parkway Central Library and run WORKPLACE Wednesdays, a weekly program that can help you create and improve your résumé, search for new jobs, and help you figure out a new career path. Each Wednesday this fall, WORKPLACE Wednesdays will be held from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in Parkway Central’s Skyline Room on the fourth floor. Free of charge, the programs are designed for adult job seekers and feature advice on workplace topics such as career decision making, writing and critiquing résumés, job hunting tips and techniques, interviewing skills, and computer and internet resources. Tomorrow's program will address creating and improving your résumé.

To complement WORKPLACE Wednesdays, I am proud to introduce a new blog on WORKPLACE tips! Every other week, I will be blogging about need-to-know topics like company and industry research, the role of professional organizations in career choices and job searching, employer expectations, federal government career resources, and more!

For a sneak peak of the services available at WORKPLACE Wednesdays, check out the video below and watch Tracy Davidson interview me about the variety of valuable resources and services we offer!

Free Library from Tracy Davidson on Vimeo.

You can find me here next week for your first dose of WORKPLACE tips as I blog about following up on job applications and interviews. Until then, happy job hunting!

For questions, you can call the WORKPLACE at 215-686-5436.

By Paul S.

Have a Question?

Administrator — 2009-06-03T09:15:00-05:00

Need a quick answer to a question to settle that office debate? Need to know when Parkway Central Closes or when Northeast Regional Library opens? With the Free Library of Philadelphia's new text-a-librarian service, you can have your answers at your fingertips.

Simply text a message to 66746. In the message box, type “askfree” and a space, then your question. Example: askfree What are the hours at Parkway Central?

Text messages should be for quick, simple questions that can be answered in short responses. A librarian should answer within two hours and usually much, much sooner. Our average response time is under five minutes. In the orange ASK section of our home page, you can click on “Text” to see a longer explanation in the form of an FAQ.

The Free Library of Philadelphia does not charge the patron for this service, however, cell phone providers generally charge customers for sending and/or receiving text messages.

There are also other ways to communicate and ask questions. Of course, we would love for you to visit one of our many library locations, check out books, and attend a program. If you can't come in person, you can call our General Information Department at 215-686-5322 or call your local branch.

Via the internet, the library offers a 24/7 chat service @ Ask Here PA. This service is designed to provide fast answers to your questions, using information found on the internet and in databases funded by the library. You can chat with a librarian, who will send you links to websites or articles contaning the information you requested. When Free Library staff is not available, a librarian from another library in Pennsylvania or even one from as far away as California will be there to assist you! If your question involves lengthy research or relates to your library record, the librarian will get you started and Free Library staff will follow up within two business days.

More involved research questions and comments can be sent to us directly via email. A librarian will answer your question within two business days.

So text, chat, email, phone or visit! The Free Library of Philadelphia staff is waiting for all of your questions.

A burst of books, music, and inspiration for everyone!

Administrator — 2009-04-08T14:54:00-05:00

In just a week and a half, the third annual Free Library Festival will be taking over the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and the Parkway Central Library for a burst of books, music, and inspiration for everyone! During the free, two-day event, the Free Library of Philadelphia will host bestselling authors and award-winning performers, as well as feature tasty treats from Stephen Starr Events, Chaddsford Winery, and Cabot Cheese. Visit the Festival’s site for details on visiting authors and performers, as well as Library tours and Festival information.

In the meantime, check out these can’t-miss author highlights:

Kristin Chenoweth | A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith in Stages
Saturday, April 18 at 1:00 p.m.; Bank of America Main Stage

Molly O’Neill | American Food Writing: An Anthology: With Classic Recipes
Saturday, April 18 at 1:00 p.m.; Skyline Salon

John Green | Paper Towns
Saturday, April 18 at 3:30 p.m.; Target Children's Stage

Joyce Carol Oates | Dear Husband: Stories
Saturday, April 18 at 4:00 p.m.; Bank of America Main Stage

Dara Torres | Age is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life
Sunday, April 19 at 1:00 p.m.; Bank of America Main Stage

Jane Hamilton | Laura Rider's Masterpiece
Sunday, April 19 at 3:00 p.m.; Bank of America Main Stage

Vicki Myron | Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
Sunday, April 19, at 4:00 p.m.; Bank of America Main Stage

It's Not a Memoir, It's a Book

Administrator — 2007-09-24T17:49:00-05:00

It seems that Augusten Burroughs may have taken some liberties in his characterization of the Turcotte family (aka "the Finches") in his wildly popular Running with Scissors: A Memoir. But Running with Scissors: A Memoir isn't a memoir; it's a "book," at least that is according to a legal agreement reached last month between the Turcotte family and Burroughs (and his publisher, St. Martin's Press). In a 2003 interview for Bookslut, Litsa Dremousis--apparently without prescience--compares Burroughs to JT Leroy (whom she also interviewed that year), saying, "It surprises me that with so many writers, their default position is to compare you to David Sedaris . . . but your background sort of reminds me of JT LeRoy. . . . Stylistically, you guys are day and night, but the thing that you seem to have in common is that your early childhood stories are so similar, that your mothers were mentally ill, you were sexualized early . . . and clearly, you were both born to write. . . ." Apparently Burroughs was nodding along in agreement. Of course, JT Leroy was never born at all--he was a fictional persona, the elaborate figment of Laura Albert's imagination. Perhaps someday she'll publish a memoir about the whole experience. Or will it be a "book"?

Poet of the Week | William Stafford

Administrator — 2007-09-13T15:45:00-05:00

William Stafford was born in Kansas in 1914. He attended the Universities of Kansas and Iowa. He was a conscientious objector during World War II and worked in the alternative service camps. He married Dorothy Hope Frantz in 1944 and raised four children with her. Stafford taught at Lewis and Clark College from 1948 to his retirement in 1980. Traveling Through the Dark, Stafford’s first collection of poems, won the National Book Award in 1963. He was 48 years old. During his career, he wrote prolifically and published over 65 books of poetry and prose. He was the recipient of a Shelley Memorial Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Western States Lifetime Achievement Award in Poetry. In 1970, he served as the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (a position now referred to as Poet Laureate). Stafford passed away in 1993.

Passing Remark

In scenery I like flat country.
In life I don’t like much to happen.

In personalities I like mild colorless people.
And in colors I prefer gray and brown.

My wife, a vivid girl from the mountains,
says, “Then why did you choose me?”

Mildly, I lower my brown eyes--
there are so many things admirable people do not understand.

Poet of the Week | Natasha Trethewey

Administrator — 2007-09-06T16:05:00-05:00

Natasha Trethewey was born in 1966 in Gulfport, Mississippi. She earned an M.A. in English and creative writing from Hollins University, and an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Massachusetts. In 2000, her first collection of poems, Domestic Work, won the prestigious Cave Canem Poetry Prize. It also won the 2001 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Book Prize and the 2001 Lillian Smith Award for Poetry. Trethewey’s Native Guard won this year's Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Her work has appeared in many publications, including the American Poetry Review, The Best American Poetry 2000, Callaloo, Gettysburg Review, The Massachusetts Review, New England Review, North American Review, and the Southern Review. Trethewey is currently an associate professor of creative writing at Emory University.

Providence

What's left is footage: the hours before
Camille, 1969-hurricane
parties, palm trees leaning
in the wind,
fronds blown back,

a woman's hair. Then after:
the vacant lots,
boats washed ashore, a swamp

where graves had been. I recall

how we huddled all night in our small house,
moving between rooms,
emptying pots filled with rain.

The next day, our house-
on its cinderblocks-seemed to float

in the flooded yard: no foundation

beneath us, nothing I could see
tying us to the land.
In the water, our reflection
trembled,

disappeared
when I bent to touch it.

Poet of the Week | Walt Whitman

Administrator — 2007-08-31T12:01:00-05:00

Walt Whitman, one of the most famous American poets in the canon, was born in 1819. When he was 12, he started training to be a printer, which prompted him to read the works of Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare. When he was 17, he taught in a one-room schoolhouse in Long Island. He taught for five years before founding the weekly newspaper, the Long-Islander. In 1848, he took a job at the New Orleans Crescent but returned north later that year and founded a “free soil” paper, the Brooklyn Freeman. In 1855, Whitman published the opus that he would spend his life revising, Leaves of Grass. He sent a copy to Ralph Waldo Emerson--the second edition of the book featured a letter of praise from the famed poet and philosopher.

During the Civil War, Whitman worked in hospitals tending to the wounded. He worked as a clerk for the Department of the Interior but was subsequently fired when the Secretary of the Interior found out he authored the controversial Leaves of Grass. Whitman spent his last years in Camden, New Jersey working on a new edition of the book and writing his final publication, Good-Bye, My Fancy. He died in 1892 and is buried in a tomb he designed in Camden’s Harleigh Cemetery.

A Clear Midnight

This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,

Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson

done,

Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the

themes thou lovest best,

Night, sleep, death and the stars.

Poet of the Week | Jack Agüeros

Administrator — 2007-08-23T16:08:00-05:00

Jack Agüeros was born in Harlem in 1934. He became a community activist and writer, concentrating on issues surrounding immigration, specifically identifying and exploring the Puerto Rican experience in the United States. He acted as Director of El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem for eight years. His published books of poetry include Lord, Is This a Psalm? (2002), Sonnets from the Puerto Rican (1996), and Correspondence Between Stonehaulers (1991). He also translated Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos (1996). Agüeros’ work has been published in Revista Chicano-Riquena, Nuestro, Sombra, the Portable Lower East Side, and Borinquen. He has won numerous awards and still resides in New York City.

Sonnet Substantially Like the Words of F Rodriguez One Position Ahead of Me on the Unemployment Line

It happens to me all the time--business
Goes up and down but I'm the yo-yo spun
Into the high speed trick called sleeping
Such as I am fast standing in this line now.

Maybe I am also a top; they too sleep
While standing, tightly twirling in place.
I wish I could step out and listen for
The sort of music that I must make.

But this is where the state celebrates its sport.
From cushioned chairs the agents turn your ample
Time against you through a box of lines.
Your string is both your leash and lash.

The faster you spin, the stiller you look.
There's something to learn in that, but what?

Poet of the Week | Robert Penn Warren

Administrator — 2007-08-17T15:48:00-05:00

Robert Penn Warren was born in Kentucky in 1905 and became the youngest member of a group of southern poets called the Fugitives. Warren’s poetry appeared in the group’s magazine, the Fugitive, which was published from 1922 to 1925. He studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and returned to the United States in 1930, eventually teaching at Vanderbilt, Louisiana State University, the University of Minnesota, and Yale University. Although Warren was a respected poet, his legacy is most commonly associated with fiction. His novel All the King's Men won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1947. However, he continued to write poetry and won two additional Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry, one in 1958 for Promises: Poems, 1954-1956 and another in 1979 for Now and Then: Poems, 1976-1978. In 1986, Warren was named the first U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. He passed away in 1989.

Tell Me a Story

[ A ]

Long ago, in Kentucky, I, a boy, stood
By a dirt road, in first dark, and heard
The great geese hoot northward.

I could not see them, there being no moon
And the stars sparse. I heard them.

I did not know what was happening in my heart.

It was the season before the elderberry blooms,
Therefore they were going north.

The sound was passing northward.

[ B ]

Tell me a story.

In this century, and moment, of mania,
Tell me a story.

Make it a story of great distances, and starlight.

The name of the story will be Time,
But you must not pronounce its name.

Tell me a story of deep delight.