Details
Creator Summers, William, artist.
Contributor Hunt, Charles, engraver.
Isaacs, Harrison, publisher.
Title Life in Philadelphia. "How you find yourself dis hot weader Miss Chloe?" [graphic] / Engd. by Chas. Hunt.
Publisher London: Pub. by Harrison Isaacs, Charles St., Soho Sqre
Publisher ENG. London. 1831
Date [ca. 1831]
Physical Description 1 print: hand-colored aquatint; 38 x 28 cm (15 x 11 in.)
Description Racist caricature mocking the ambitions of free Blacks depicting, "Mr. Cesar," an African American dandy asking an African American belle how she finds herself in "dis hot weader?" "Miss Chloe," responds that she is doing well, but "aspires too much!" In the left, the man stands and faces the woman, in the right, and whose back is to the viewer. The man is attired in a blue waistcoat, a white vest, pink cravat, white pants, yellow gloves, and black slipper shoes. He holds a walking stick perpendicular to the ground in his right hand and a hat in his left hand. The woman is attired in a yellow, puff-sleeved, ankle-length dress, wide-brimmed yellow hat with a long veil and adorned with several pink flowers and blue ribbon, gloves, and white slipper shoes. She also wears earrings, a necklace, and a hair adornment. She holds a purse and fan in her left hand and a parasol in her right hand. The man and woman stand on a grassy knoll. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. Their skin tone is depicted with black-brown hand coloring.
Notes Title from item.
Date inferred from content and name of publisher.
After the work of Edward W. Clay.
Attributed to William Summers.
Inscribed: Pl. 3.
Contains three lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: “How you find yourself dis hot weader Miss Chloe?” “Pretty well I tank you Mr. Cesar only I aspire too much!”
Charles Hunt was a respected 19th-century London engraver who was most known for his aquatints of sporting subjects.
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.
Racism in popular culture.
Genre Caricatures -- 1830-1840.
Aquatints -- Hand-colored -- 1830-1840.
Printer Isaacs, Harrison, publisher.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9705.2]
Accession number P.9705.2