Details
Contributor Eytinge, Solomon, 1833-1905, associated name.
American Bank Note Co., printer.
Title [Series of Clarence E. Brooks & Co. Fine Coach Varnishes, cor. West & West 12th St. N.Y. racist 1880 calendar illustrations after the "Blackville" series] [graphic].
Alternate Title Blackville series.
Publisher [New York]: [American Bank Note Co.]
Publisher N.Y. New York. 1879
Date [1879]
Physical Description 12 prints : chromolithographs ; sheets 9 x 12 cm (3.5 x 4.75 in.)
Description Series of twelve captioned illustrations from the Clarence Brooks & Co. Fine Coach Varnishes 1880 calendar portraying scenes after the racist “Blackville” series drawn by Sol Eytinge for “Harper’s Weekly” in the 1870s and depicting caricatures satirizing the social mores, customs, and daily lives of African Americans of all classes. The figures are portrayed with exaggerated features and mannerisms. The attire of the figures includes long-sleeved dresses, shirtwaists and skirts, smocks, shirt, pants, jackets, and caps, and hats. Some of the attire depicted, particularly for younger figures, is worn and/or tattered. Includes scenes from the Eytinge Blackville series within a series - “the twins” (March, May, September illustrations). Scenes are titled (sometimes with text in the vernacular) and depict “The First Ulster in Blackville” (January) of a winter scene showing African American children, attired in shirts, pants, or skirts and hats or bonnets, paused from a snowball fight as an African American man in a blue ulster (an overcoat with hood), holding a cane, and smoking walks between them; “Christmas Dinner Done!” (February) showing an older African American man, attired in an overcoat, pants, and hat, and African American boy, attired in a shirt, pants, and a hat with a scarf tied around his head and chin, in a field, and watching a rabbit run away from a trap held by the boy; “Love in Blackville. The Wooing of the Twins” (March) showing African American women twins, each being courted by an African American man within an open room that has a stove and mantle as their older African American parents “watch” from a doorway;
"April-Fools Day-An Aggravated Case (April) showing an older African American woman, with an upset expression, standing in front of a row of cabins and near a basket of cabbages on a town block, and holding a dead rat within a cabbage as she is watched by two snickering African American boys, the practical jokers, standing within the opening to an alley; "The Great Social Event at Blackville. The Wed"ding of the Twins" (May) showing two African American women twin brides and their grooms within a parlor, near a table of food, being married by a reverend in front of friends and family of all ages; "The Coaching Season in Blackville._ The Grand Start" (June) showing an African American driver pulling at the reins of an unruly four-mule team coach of which African American passengers of all ages sit in and on the cab as African American towns folk wave from a line of cabins in the background and an African American boy and dog run past the wheel of the vehicle; "The 'Fourth' in Blackville" (July) showing a fenced paddock in which an African American boy holds an American flag in one hand and a gun in the other by a group of African American children and a woman who run, cover their eyes, jump the fence, and shield each other under the sight of an African American man in the window of an adjacent cabin; “Hi Abe Come Under De Brellar! Does Your Want to Sunstruck Yerself! De Fremoniter’s Gone Up Moren a Foot!” (August) showing a group of African American children of different ages, under a torn umbrella held by the tallest child, a girl, and approaching a young African American boy, “Abe,” within a fenced yard with a pond and patches of greenery and across from a cabin in which an African American man and woman, stand and sit in the doorway;
“After Doing Paris and the Rest of Europe, The Bridal Party Return to Blackville" (September) showing “the twins” on promenade with their husbands and an African American women caregiver holding their two babies as they walk on a dirt path lined by African American townsfolks of all ages who stare and also include an older woman who laughs behind a tree; "Who Struck De Futest?” (October) showing an older African American man, seated outside a cabin, and holding up a switch to two African American boys, in worn clothing, standing within the yard, near a broken object, and across from an African American girl in the cabin doorway and three boys seated and looking over a fence lining the property in the background; The “Small Breeds” Thanksgiving-Return of the First-Born from College 'Bress His Heart! Don’t he look edgecated?' ”(November) showing a young African American man portrayed in disheveled attire and manner as though drunk entering the door to his family, including a grandmother figure and a child in a high chair, at dinner around a cloth-covered table; and “No Small Breed Per Yer Uncle Abe Dis Chris'mas! Ain’t He a Cherub?” (December) showing “Uncle Abe,” an African American man holding a large, plucked turkey (with head and feet) near his chest and on a table surrounded by older women and child-aged family members who stand near a chest of drawers, a stool, and two windows with curtains visible in the background. Exterior scenes also often include a dog or cat, or a cabin or cabins, the latter marked “Clarence Brooks & Co. Fine Coach Varnishes. Cor. West & West 12th St. N.Y.” in the background; as well as fencing, groves of trees, and dirt paths. Interior scenes often include a dining table, chairs, displays of food and household items, such as a candlestick and framed prints advertising Clarence Brooks & Co. April-Fools Day image includes a cobble-stone street.
Clarence Brooks established his varnish business in 1859 as Brooks and Fitzgerald, later Clarence Brooks & Co. In the early 1880s the firm issued calendars illustrated with African American caricatures in genre scenes, often after Sol Eytinge Harper’s Weekly illustrations.
Notes Title supplied by cataloger.
Publication information inferred from image content and similar material issued by Clarence Brooks & Co. during the early 1880s.
Two of the series contains ornamented borders (P.2022.8.2 & 4).
All of the prints inscribed in pencil on the verso with the name of a month, some abbreviated, between January and December.
Image for “The First Ulster in Blackville” (P.2022.8.1) originally published in Harpers Weekly, March 18, 1876.
Image for “Love in Blackville. The Wooing of the Twins” (P.2022.8.3) originally published in Harpers Weekly, May 11, 1878.
Image for The Great Social Event at Blackville. The Wedding of the Twins (P.2022.8.5) originally published in Harpers Weekly, July 13, 1878.
Image for “The Coaching Season in Blackville._ The Grand Start” (P.2022.8.6) originally published in Harpers Weekly, September 28, 1878.
Image for “The ‘Fourth’ in Blackville” (P.2022.8.7) originally published in Harpers Weekly, July 14, 1877.
Image for “After Doing Paris and the Rest of Europe, The Bridal Party Return to Blackville” (P.2022.8.9) originally published in Harpers Weekly, October 26, 1878.
Image for “Who Struck de Futest” (P.2022.8.10) originally published in Harpers Weekly, June 13, 1874.
Image for “No Small Breed fer yer Uncle Abe….” (P.2022.8.12) originally published in Harpers Weekly, January 1, 1876.
Purchased with funds for the Visual Culture Program.
RVCDC
Subject Clarence Brooks & Co.
African Americans -- Caricatures and cartoons.
African Americans -- Domestic life.
African Americans -- Social life.
African American boys -- Caricatures and cartoons.
African American girls -- Caricatures and cartoons.
African American children -- Caricatures and cartoons.
African American families -- Caricatures and cartoons.
African American men -- Caricatures and cartoons.
African American women -- Caricatures and cartoons.
African Americans -- Clothing & dress.
African American caregivers.
April Fools' Day.
Carriages & coaches.
Christmas.
Courtship.
Eating & drinking.
Food.
Fourth of July.
Holidays.
Hunting.
Nannies (Children nurses)
Practical jokes.
Racism in popular culture.
Summer.
Thanksgiving Day.
Twins.
Varnishing industry -- New York (State) -- New York.
Walking.
Weddings.
Winter.
African Americans -- Satire.
Genre Chromolithographs -- 1870-1880.
Satires (Visual works) -- 1870-1880.
Trade cards -- 1870-1880.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| *ephemera - calendars - C [P.2022.8.1-12]
Accession number P.2022.8.1
P.2022.8.2
P.2022.8.3
P.2022.8.4
P.2022.8.5
P.2022.8.6
P.2022.8.7
P.2022.8.8
P.2022.8.9
P.2022.8.10
P.2022.8.11
P.2022.8.12