Details
Title The follies of the age, vive la humbug!! [graphic]
Publisher [Philadelphia] : [publisher not identified]
Date [1855?]
Physical Description 1 print : lithograph ; sheet 32 x 49 cm (12.75 x 19 in.)
Description Critique of the social climate of the year of 1855 mocking several of the year's fads, social movements, and major events, many specific to the city of Philadelphia. Depicts several individual scenes occurring on an active street lined by businesses near a river. Depictions include: a scene representing the case of Jane Johnson, an African American woman freedom seeker aided by abolitionist Passmore Williamson; a group of ragged and armed white men filibusters holding the banner "Sam" rushing off to free Central America from European control; a stand where one is "allowed to drink 48 glasses of Lager Beer" where a white man police officer tries to stop a white man drunkard; a group of white women Mormons on a cart headed to "Salt Lake City"; a white man hugging two white women as his angry wife looks on and calls them "Ceresco free-lovers" after the Utopian society that lasted until 1855; two motley groups of local militias drilling; a caricature of the popular French actress Rachel who had an inauspicious debut in Philadelphia; and groups of individuals partaking of "water cures" and "sea baths." In the background the Camden Amboy train crash of 1855 is depicted as well as the destruction by fire of the Philadelphia steamer "John Stevens."
Is referenced by Weitenkampf, p. 100
Notes Title from item.
Date inferred from content.
Accessioned 1998.
RVCDC
Description revised 2021.
Access points revised 2021.
Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Subject Johnson, Jane, 1820?- -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Rachel, 1821?-1858 -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Williamson, Passmore -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Abolitionists -- United States.
African American women -- Caricatures and cartoons.
American wit and humor, Pictorial.
Alcoholic beverages.
Disasters -- Pennsylvania. -- Philadelphia.
Fighting -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Filibusters.
Free love.
Fugitive slaves -- Pennsylvania.
Hydrotherapy.
Medicine, Popular.
Mormons.
Slaves -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Freedom seekers -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Women.
Geographic subject Philadelphia (Pa.) -- Social conditions.
United States -- Social life and customs -- 1854-1861.
Genre Lithographs -- 1850-1860.
Political cartoons -- 1850-1860.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Political Cartoons - 1855-Fol [P.9624]
Accession number P.9624