REMEMBERING
DICK, THE BEST OF BIRDS
RARE BOOK DEPARTMENT OF THE
PHILADELPHIA FREE LIBRARY
Perhaps you are already familiar with
Grip, Charles Dickens' beloved pet raven, now making his
taxidermied home here in the Rare Book Department. But
Grip, in all his stuffed glory, tends to overshadow the
OTHER Dickens bird we have ties to: Dick! The Best of
Birds!
This tombstone is for Dick, the pet canary of Mary, Dickens's eldest daughter. Dickens made this grave marker for him after his death at Gads Hill on October 14. When Dickens himself died in 1870, his family moved from Gads Hill and Mary took the grave marker with her. After Mary's death, the stone was inherited by her sister, Kate (DIckens) Perugini. She later presented it to Arthur Sessler, the prominent Philadelphia book dealer who eventually gifted it to the Free Library. Let's all take a moment to remember possibly the best memorialized canary to have canaried, who died #onthisday in 1866.
This tombstone is for Dick, the pet canary of Mary, Dickens's eldest daughter. Dickens made this grave marker for him after his death at Gads Hill on October 14. When Dickens himself died in 1870, his family moved from Gads Hill and Mary took the grave marker with her. After Mary's death, the stone was inherited by her sister, Kate (DIckens) Perugini. She later presented it to Arthur Sessler, the prominent Philadelphia book dealer who eventually gifted it to the Free Library. Let's all take a moment to remember possibly the best memorialized canary to have canaried, who died #onthisday in 1866.
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