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John Riley Marsh commonplace book
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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts [Contact Us]3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
John Riley Marsh was born at Staffordshire, England. Marsh had an early career in pottery at Burslem and later settled at Alvaston Grange, Alvaston, Derbyshire where he was a land owner. In 1858 he married Eliza Thornley and they had at least two children, Clive John Riley and Emiline Constance Mand Marsh.
This burgundy, leather-bound volume has gilt tooling, stamped border decorations, and a brass clasp with a key. The spine of the volume is stamped in gold with "Album." Contained inside the volume's gilt-edged leaves is the commonplace book kept by John Riley Marsh. On the endpaper verso is Marsh's signature and a stamp displaying his crest of a horse head atop a crown with Marsh's name below. It appears that the volume was written in 1829. The book consists of poems and songs with sentimental themes of love, chivalry, and remembrances. Some items have attributions followed by the date. Examples of items in the volume include "Stars" by Frederick Muller, "Meet me at sunset" by Alaric A. Watts, "Praise of love" by Ariosto, and "Tyrants and slaves" by William Kennedy. There is a song entitled "To the new year 1829" and an epigram by J. P. Meagher. Laid in the volume is a photograph of a cruise ship with passengers disembarking on shore. The handwritten poems and songs comprise the first twenty leaves of the volume; the remainder is blank. The watermark "John Hall 1828," appears throughout the volume.
Sold by Lesley Aitchison (Bristol, United Kingdom), 2015.
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
- Finding Aid Author
- Donna Brandolisio
- Finding Aid Date
- December 2015
- Access Restrictions
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This codex is available and open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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Copyright restrictions may exist. For most library holdings, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania do not hold copyright. It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce material from the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.