Details
Creator Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher.
Contributor Hart, Sarah, publisher.
Title Life in Philadelphia. "What you tink of my new poke bonnet...?" [graphic] / Clay.
Publisher Philadelphia: Published by S. Hart, 65 So. 3d. St
Publisher PA. Philadelphia. 1830
Date 1830
Physical Description 1 print: hand-colored etching; 21 x 18 cm (8.25 x 7 in.)
Description Racist caricature depicting an African American woman trying on a bonnet in the company of her African American companion, "Frederick Augustus." Depicts the woman in profile, in front of a standing mirror tilted toward her, trying on a yellow Dunstable bonnet so large that the side of her face is obscured. Her hand rests on the side of the hat adorned with a pink ribbon. Her reflection is not visible in the mirror. She wears a yellow calico dress with a white collar that covers her shoulders, black gloves, patterned stockings, and blue slipper shoes. She asks "Frederick Augustus" what he thinks. He stands behind her with his arms crossed and looks toward the mirror. He holds a walking stick under his left upper arm. A dog with a muzzle sits behind him. He responds that he does not like the style. He wears a beard and is attired in a top hat, long green overcoat with collar, red-striped pants, white gloves, and black slipper shoes. A white woman sales clerk, wearing a large top-knot hairstyle, watches the woman from behind a counter on which another Dunstable bonnet is displayed. Pink bunting is visible above the clerk’s head. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. Their skin tone is depicted with black hand coloring.
Notes Title from item.
Date from item.
Inscribed: Plate 14.
Inscribed: Copy right secured.
Contains seven lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect above the image: What you tink of my new poke bonnet Frederick Augustus? I don’t like him no how, case dey hide you lubly face, so you can’t tell one she nigger from anoder.
Sarah Hart was a Jewish Philadelphia stationer who with her son, Abraham Hart, a future eminent Philadelphia publisher, assumed the publishing of the "Life in Philadelphia" series in 1829. She, alone, reprinted the entire series of 14 prints in 1830.
Described in Pennsylvania Inquirer, 17 June 1830, p. 2 and ‘Life in Philadelphia, No. 14. The Dunstable Bonnet’, Pennsylvania Inquirer, 17 June 1830, p. 3.
RVCDC
Description revised 2021.
Access points revised 2021.
Subject African Americans -- Caricatures and cartoons -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
African American women -- Caricatures and cartoons -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
African American men -- Caricatures and cartoons -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
African American women -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
African Americans -- Clothing & dress -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Conversation.
Middle-class -- Clothing & dress -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Millinery.
Racism in popular culture.
Shopping -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Women clerks (Retail trade) -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Genre Caricatures -- 1820-1830.
Etchings -- Hand-colored -- 1820-1830.
Printer Hart, Sarah, publisher.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [P.9701.5]
Accession number P.9701.5