Depictions of African Americans contained within a scrapbook compiled by Philadelphia banknote printer Thomas Richardson, ca. 1855- ca. 1857.

[Print specimens depicting African Americans from the Thomas Richardson and American Bank Note Company scrapbook]
Includes predominantly banknote specimens showing enslaved, free, and possibly free African American men, women, and children. Images depict an African American man driver hauling a wagon filled with hay (p. 38); an African American man farm hand tending to horse in a farmyard (p. 38); enslaved men harvesting a field of grain (p. 45); an African American man cart driver hauling bundles up an incline (p. 50); enslaved men picking cotton juxtaposed with a townscape vista (p. 54); African American men workers collecting sap from trees under the view of a white foreman on horseback (p. 61); enslaved men, women, and children cutting and loading sugar cane onto a wagon at a “Sugar Plantation” (p. 66); an African American man driver leading “The Mule Team” on a country road (p. 67); African American men workers “Breaking Hemp” (p. 68); and a proof copy of an illustration from Susan Fenimore Cooper's "Pages and Pictures from the Writings of James Fenimore Cooper" (New York, 1861) depicting a scene by a hearth from “The Spy” with an African American male servant looking over the shoulder of a white woman housekeeper (p. 26). Majority of specimens include roadside scenery or plantation or residential buildings in the background. “Sugar Plantation” view also shows a steamboat on a river in the background., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from the active dates of the partnerships of the printers in the imprints and content., Artists include F. O. C. Darley and Louis Denoce., Printers include American Bank Note Co.; Baldwin, Bald & Cousland; and Bald, Cousland & Co., Some items contain specimen number printed in lower right corner. Includes 131, 144, and 212., RVCDC, Accessioned 2012., 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Thomas Richardson (b. ca. 1802) was a Philadelphia plate printer who served as the foreman of printing at the Philadelphia branch of the American Bank Note Company formed in 1858. He retired from the trade by 1880.
[Thomas Richardson and American Bank Note Company scrapbook]
Scrapbook compiled by Philadelphia banknote printer Thomas Richardson containing proofs of illustrations after the work of F. O. C. Darley from Susan Fenimore Cooper's "Pages and Pictures from the Writings of James Fenimore Cooper" (New York, 1861); portrait illustrations, some from J. B. Longacre's "National Portrait Gallery" (probably 1854 edition); and vignette specimens of the American Bank Note Company and their predecessor companies. Cooper illustrations depict scenes on the frontier and ship decks, with Native Americans, and of battles; deathbeds; and of informal meeting from his works The Oak Openings, The Redskins, The Chainbearer, The Pathfinder, The Red Rover, The Monikins, Deerslayer, Homeward Bound, Lionel Lincoln, The Pilot, Last of the Mohicans, The Wept Wish-ton Wish, The Spy, and Wing and Wing. Several also contain animals. Sitters in portrait illustrations include Lewis Cass, Giuseppe Garibaldi, David Ramsay, James Kent, Thomas C. Pope, John McLean, Stephen Decatur, Samuel Rogers, Rev. William Capers, John Binns, Washington Irving, and Noah Webster., Specimen subjects include portraits of prominent government officials, Civil War figures, businessmen, clergymen, royalty, and "fancy heads" of named and unnamed women and children; allegorical figures and scenes, including Bounty, Liberty, Arts, Agriculture, and Commerce; state and symbolic seals and insignia; naval and maritime imagery, including sailors, sailing vessels, and wharf and dock views; modes and venues of transportation, including steamboats, trains, streetcars, and rail stations; white and Black men artisans, laborers, and tradesmen, including drivers, farmers, sheep shearers, and furriers; industrial views of factory workers, mineworkers, and female loom workers, as well as mills and factories along canals and riverfronts; women at work feeding livestock, milking cows, and at a sewing machine; municipal buildings and storefronts; southern imagery, including enslaved people at work, palmetto trees, plantations, and ports; patriotic, historical, military, and scenic imagery; frontier views and scenes with Native Americans; and animals. Specimens with titles include Star of Empire (Princess Eugenie of Sweden) River Source, The Guardian, Locomotive, Autumn Fruit, Sheep Feeding, The Yarn, Trusty, Picking Grapes, The Sickle, The Death Blow, and Propeller Loading. Some specimens used as the backs of national currency., Title supplied by cataloger., Date based on publication date of specimens., Manuscript notes on front free end paper: Aunt Tillie Richardson (cousin Florence's aunt) in pencil; Scrapbook No. 3 in ink., Lincoln Monument Association of Philadelphia certificate pasted on inside front cover and issued to Thos. Richardson on July 4, 1865, signed C. J. Stille, Secy; Alex. Henry, Prest.; and James L. Claghorn, Cashr. Certificate number 6004 and illustrated with bust-length portrait of Lincoln. Charles J. Stillé, was a Philadelphia lawyer who served on the United States Sanitary Commission, and was later Provost of the University of Pennsylvania. Alexander Henry was the mayor of Philadelphia. James L. Claghorn was president of the Commercial National Bank in Philadelphia and an art collector., Stationer's label pasted on back cover: John Alexander, Stationer and Printer, 52 South Fourth St., Various artists, engravers, and printers including F.O.C. Darley, G. H. Cushman, J. Hamilton, Asher B. Durand, C. Schussele, John Sartain, Samuel Sartain, Jas. D. Smillie, E. Prudhomme, H. B. Hall, T. Phillibrown, R. Whitechurch, J. M. Butler, James Bannister, Charles Kennedy Burt, Louis Delnoce, W. W. Rice, American Bank Note Company, Toppan, Carpenter & Co, Baldwin, Bald & Cousland, and Bald, Cousland & Co., Several of the specimens contain a specimen number and/or title., Few of the specimens contain a copyright statement., Specimen #312 (p. 81) and specimen #280 (p. 71) after the work of Emanuel Leutze., Inventory of portrait sitters housed at repository., Identity of several of the artists and engravers supplied by Gene Hessler, The engraver's line: an encyclopedia of paper money & postage stamp art (Port Clinton, OH: BNR Press, 1993)., RVCDC, Accessioned 2012., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Thomas Richardson (b. ca. 1802) was a Philadelphia plate printer who served as the foreman of printing at the Philadelphia branch of the American Bank Note Company formed in 1858. He retired from the trade by 1880.