Printed card, completed to admit "Miss Hopkinson - This card is not transferable. It must be shown at the door and retained." This particular iteration of "Assemblies" was held in the foyer of The Academy of Music 1873 with Patronesses listed including Mrs. Oliver Hopkinson (1826 - 1912). From the Philadelphia Encyclopedia: "Established in the winter of 1748-49, the Dancing Assembly of Philadelphia— also known as “The Assembly” or “The Assemblies”— originated as an occasion for elite men and women to gather for social dancing in carefully matched pairs. Modeled after the English “assembly,” a type of formal social gathering most famously held in Bath and London, Philadelphia’s colonial version persisted beyond the American Revolution. Remaining an annual tradition in the twenty-first century, the Assembly became one of Philadelphia’s longest-lasting cultural institutions and the oldest continuously operating subscription dance in the United States." Also included is a large grouping of ephemera pertaining to The Assemblies. This includes letters, seating charts, printed and hand written menus, placement of menu items on tables and quantities of foods to be served. From the Francis Hopkinson Family Archives