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- A strike! A strike! [graphic] / C.
- Anti-labor union cartoon satirizing the several New York workers' strikes for higher wages in early 1836 during a harsh winter; a period of severe inflation, including exorbitant market prices; and an era of property speculation. Depicts livestock on strike for a higher market value near fish peddlers attired in winter garb, including two African American shellfish vendors. Animals include a Tom turkey ordering a turkey hen not to sell her young ones because "gobblers will bring twenty shillings and hens fifteen"; hens refusing to lay eggs for "less than four pence a piece"; a pig holding a banner inscribed "Hams 15 cents per lb exclaiming "I shall Jew them out of a shilling a pound"; an indignant lamb and calf conferring about their deserved increased prices per pound; and a confident steer exhorting the range of high prices for ordinary beef, corn fed beef, and beef shins. In the foreground, two African American men vendors get advice from two African American marketers, portrayed in racist caricature and speaking in the vernacular, about oysters unable to "strike for de frost" and that "gemmen" will not buy open mouthed clams. A white man fish peddler hawks his bass at "whole for two shilling de pound" and cut at "tree shillin" to a white gentleman inquiring about fresh fish. In the right, a barking dog sits on his "House to let. Inquire No. 48 Courtlandt St." (address of publisher) and comments "I feel like a savage! this is all contrary to law," probably an allusion to the "Geneva ruling" of 1835 by the New York state supreme court, which proclaimed unions and strikes forbidden by law., Title from item., Artist's initial lower left corner., Publication information from Weitenkampf., Copyright statement printed on recto: Entered according to act of Congress in the Year 1836, by H.R. Robinson, in the clerk's office of the District Court of the United States of the Southern District of New York., Described in Nancy Reynolds Davison's "E.W. Clay: American political caricaturist of the Jacksonian era" (PhD diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 164-165., Purchase 2003., 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
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- Sunday laws : Hanging the cat on Monday for killing the mouse on Sunday. [graphic]
- Cartoon mocking Philadelphia's Sunday Laws depicting the moment before "Thomas" the cat will be hanged for his murder of a mouse on the Sabbath. In the center, shows the gallows surrounded by a line of white policemen, attired in uniforms and caps. In the left, three white hangmen, attired in suits, hold onto the rope and pull on the unlooped end of the noose. Two of the men smile sinisterly, while the third man wipes his tears with a handkerchief as he says, “Alas poor Tom!” To the right, an African American man, portrayed in racist caricature with exaggerated features, carries the "Blood Tub." Under the noose, a white man, possibly Philadelphia Mayor Alexander Henry, stands holding an execution order that reads, “Mayor Public Execution Tom” and the cat by the scruff of its neck. Before him stands a minister, resembling John Chambers, a champion of the Sunday Laws. He holds the dead mouse in this right hand and an open book in his left hand as he sentences the cat to death for murder. Behind the minister, an elderly white man, attired in a suit with a white bowtie, stands slightly hunched down holding an ear trumpet to his right ear. He comments, “I can’t hear a word the minister says on account of them cars,” a reference to the contested Sunday Law against the running of streetcars. A black dog runs in the left foreground., Title from item., Date from manuscript note written on recto: Aug. 1859., Place of publication inferred from content., Text printed on recto, below image: In the Dark Ages, long ago, One Horne was flogged on Monday; What for? That’s what I want you to know, He danced a horn-pipe Sunday! That was all! He but danced a horn-pipe Sunday, But he danced to the horsewhip Monday. By the roundheads, too, when Cromwell reigned, We read there was a hung on Monday, A cat who “the Sabbath day (?) profaned” By cat-ching a mouse on Sunday? Understand: She played with him first on Sunday, ‘Twas for that she was hung on Monday! And by America’s Puritan men, Mrs. Hotchkiss was punished on Monday; Cotton Mather forbade her, but once and again, She had kissed her babe on Sunday; A blow for a kiss. For so many kisses on Sunday, She got so many blows on Monday. So, too, in Brooklyn, the other day, Meyerbeer was tried on Monday; The complaint against him thus did say “He has sold lager beer on Sunday” And he had! But the jury said, on Monday! A good drink might be sold Sunday! And in the West’s “Queen city,” too, One Rudolph’s just ‘quitted on Monday; He would drive his ‘bus the whole week through And accommodate people on Sunday: And the Court, Gave the very Pruden-t decision on Monday, That “there’s more than ‘one thing needful’ on Sunday:” And so the “good time” is “coming” boys When a thing that is good on Monday—A drink, or a drive, or a joyful noise—Will be thought not bad on Sunday! Everywhere When wrong will be wrong on Monday, And right will be right on Sunday!, Accessioned 1893., 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
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- The times. [graphic] / Clay fecit.
- Satire depicting the economic depression and social misery of the working class following the Panic of 1837. Depicts a figure symbolizing President Jackson composed of a hat, spectacles, and pipe called "Glory" overlooking a city street. Lining the street is a hotel for sale; a Custom House doing no business; "The Mechanics Bank" during a run; the pawn shop of "Shylock Graspall"; a liquor store in front of which an African American shoe shiner greets another African American man; the Sheriff's office doing an active business; and attorney "Peter Pillage" being collected by his horse drawn carriage. In the foreground peaches and flour are for sale at exorbitant prices; several white men laborers sit and stand idle including a mason, sailor, carpenter, and driver; a widowed white mother and child beg a banker for money; and reminiscent of Hogarth's "Gin Lane," a white woman and a child lay on a straw mat next to a white man drunkard and seated militiaman. Visible in the background are an almshouse, "Bridewell" Debtor Prison, an idle wharf, and a deflating balloon marked "Safety Fund" symbolizing Van Buren's failed New Bank insurance program., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1837, by H.R. Robinson in the clerk's office of the District Court of the United States of the Southern District of New York., LCP exhibition catalogue: Made in America #52., Originally part of American political caricatures, likely a scrapbook, accessioned 1899. Collection primarily comprised of gifts from Samuel Breck, John A. McAllister, and James Rush., 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Clay, born in Philadelphia, was a prominent caricaturist, engraver, and lithographer.
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- The travelled monkey - wiser & sadder. [graphic] / JML.
- Cartoon depicting two unidentified white men, attired in suits, on the balcony of the "Cleveland Hotel" in front of a hostile crowd calling out "Traitor" and "You be Damned." The speaker clutches a handkerchief and the bannister of the balcony as he tries to placate the crowd by stating it is their "Congress that is trying to break up the Government." The man beside him in the left smugly comments that he hopes the mayor is in town. An African American man in the crowd, portrayed in racist caricature, taunts the speaker, "How about that $400 Gold watch.", Title from item., Date inferred from content., Originally part of American political caricatures, likely a scrapbook, accessioned 1899. Collection primarily comprised of gifts from Samuel Breck, John A. McAllister, and James Rush., 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.
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- The triumph. [graphic]
- Print predicting the Union's triumph over the Confederacy using an allegory of "Humanitas" (i.e., Humanity) depicted as a white woman holding a child astride an eagle, reaching to save a shackled African American held on the ground by the evil "King Cotton." From a break in the clouds an apparition appears behind "Humanitas," including "Freedom" depicted as a woman wearing a crown of feathers holding a large American flag and a Liberty cap; "Christianity" depicted as a white woman holding a bible; "Justitia" depicted as a white woman holding scales; George Washington; Thomas Jefferson; and Benjamin Franklin. The oppressed enslaved person reaches up as "King Cotton," portrayed with an alligator head with a body composed of a bale of cotton with a holster of pistols, raises his hands in horror as the eagle clutches his cloak and shoots lightning bolts at his throne. To his right a column labeled "Lecompton", "Fugitive Slave," and "Missouri Compromise" is set aflame from the lightning. In the left, the "Hydra of Discord" accompanied by a hound "Fugitive Slave Law," a group of white men enslavers, and a Spaniard, who drops a package marked "Cuba $50,000,000," flee from the vision to the sea where a boat of enslaved African American men are docked. Contains eighteen lines of verse from Lord Byron's 1813 poem "The Giaour" below the image., Title from item., Date of publication supplied by Reilly., Per Reilly, published key to print exists., Copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1861 by M. H. Traubel, in the Clerks Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Penna., Accessioned 1999., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War., 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.
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- The two platforms. [graphic]
- Racist poster attacking radical Republican support of African American suffrage by comparing the platforms of Democratic candidate and white supremacist Heister Clymer and radical Republican candidate John White Geary during the 1866 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election. Depicts the side-by-side bust portraits of a white man titled "Clymer's Platform is for the White Man" and an African American man, portrayed in racist caricature with grotesque features, titled "Geary's Platform is for the Negro." Contains three lines of text above the image which reference the other "Radical" Republican candidates who support "Negro Suffrage" and two lines below which declares "Read the Platforms. Congress says, the Negro must be allowed to vote, or the states be punished.", Title from item., Date of publication supplied by Reilly., RVCDC, Purchase 1998., 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.
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- Views of slavery : [graphic] / Does the slaveholder admit the slave to be a human being? If so we would ask his interpretation of the following sentiment "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do you even so to them."
- Abolitionist print containing six scenes depicting the inhumanity of slavery. Scenes include enslaved African American children crying while their mothers work and a white man enslaver whips an enslaved man in a sugar plantation field; the punishment of enslaved people by flogging, whipping, and binding by white men overseers in a shack; an auction of enslaved people; a free African American woman with a child watching the destruction of her free papers as she is kidnapped from the street; an anguished enslaved mother being separated from her children by a white man involved in the slave trade; and the shipping of enslaved people to New Orleans from a Baltimore dock. Also contains an excerpt about the rights of human beings from William Ellery Channing's abolitionist text, "On Slavery," below the image., Title from item., Advertised in the New York American Anti-Slavery Society newspaper, Emancipator (March 1836), p.3., Purchase 2003., 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Lib. Company. Annual report, 2003, p. 45-46.
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- West India fashionables. [graphic] : On a visit in style. Taking a ride. / J.F.
- Satiric print mocking the decadent state of West Indian plantation society containing two views depicting enslaved people performing gratuitous tasks for traveling white enslavers. "On a Visit in Style" shows an enslaver, his wife, and her white lady's maid seated in the cab and rear of a horse-drawn gig. The gig displays a crest comprised of a goblet and whips. One enslaved man guides and another steers the horse that is adorned in netting to protect it from flies. An enslaved man and woman follow the carriage. They carry the enslaver's trunks on their heads. Also shows a windmill and sugar refinery in the background. "Taking a Ride" shows a white couple riding on horses, which are adorned with protective netting, past a sugar refinery and enslaved men and women working in a field. The white woman wears a huge bonnet obscuring her face. An enslaved man guides her horse while another holds its tail and uses a branch to fend off flies. The white man who wears an extremely wide-brimmed hat also has an enslaved man fending away flies from his horse's tail. George suggests that the enslaved people are to be assumed as the progeny of the enslaver as they all have the same unusually shaped nose., Publisher's advertisement printed below image: Of Mr. Holland may be had the following West India Prints, Johnny Newcome in the Island of Jamaica_ A Grand Jamaica Ball_ Martial Law in Jamaica_The Blessings of Jamaica_and a Segar Smoking Society in Jamaica. 5s each_A large portrait of Rachel Pringle of Barbadoes 7s. 6_Likewise Gillray's sale of English Beauties in the East Indies 7s 6d., 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., Purchase 2005., RVCDC., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Lib. Company. Annual report, 2005, p. 62-65.
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- West India luxury!! [graphic] / J.F.
- Satiric print mocking the decadent state of West Indian plantation society containing five vignettes, one with text, depicting slothful white enslavers being lavishly catered to by Black and multiracial enslaved people. Vignettes include: "A West India Nabob" (i.e., man of wealth) as he lounges on his couch, attired in a wide brimmed hat, surrounded by his entourage of enslaved women; enslaved men being used as a "Portable Boot Jack" by their white man enslaver; the white women enslaver showing "Creolean Patience" as she waits for her enslaved marketing person to be told by her enslaved attendant to pick up her nearby fallen needle; the white women enslaver telling "Quashebah come and take my Head in again" from her open window; and a white man enslaver enjoying "One of the Luxuries" of slavery as enslaved women simultaneously comb his hair, wash his feet, fan him, and serve him goblets of wine., Title from item., Described in David Kunzle's The Early comic strip: Narrative strips and picture stories in the European broad sheet from c. 1450 to 1825 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973), p. 374-5., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 2000, p. 37-38., Purchase 2000., 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
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- A West India sportsman. [graphic] : Make haste with the sangaree Quashie and tell Quaco to drive the birds up to me - I'm ready. / J.F.
- Satiric print mocking the decadent state of West Indian plantation society showing enslaved people catering to a white enslaver on a hunting trip. Shows the white man, seated under an umbrella, his feet up, his gun in his hand, as he is fanned by a long-sleeved shirt and sarong-clad enslaved man behind him. Other enslaved people (a woman, young men, and a child) keep flies away from platters of meat displayed on a table and a basket of tropical fruit; butler a large glass of sangaree; and drive birds from a field. Also shows jugs of liquor, including royal punch, sangaree, and rum, lined near the grinning "sportsman." The rum jug has toppled over near empty bottles strewn on the ground near a broken jug of water. In the distance, another white enslaver holds a gun and lies on a settee while an enslaved woman holds an umbrella over him. All the figures are depicted with exaggerated features., Publisher's advertisement printed below image: Of Mr. Holland may be had the following West India Prints, Johnny Newcome in the Island of Jamaica_ A Grand Jamaica Ball_ Martial Law in Jamaica_The Blessings of Jamaica_and a Segar Smoking Society in Jamaica. 5s each_A large portrait of Rachel Pringle of Barbadoes 7s. 6_Likewise Gillray's sale of English Beauties in the East Indies 7s 6d., Title from item., 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., RVCDC., Purchase 2005., Lib. Company. Annual report, 2005, p. 62-65., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
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- Where's my thunder? [graphic].
- Cartoon comparing the Senate chamber with a courtroom to satirize the Senate's response to Henry Clay's controversial and long-debated Compromise of 1850. Depicts Webster stealing the "Fugitive Slave Act" out of the pocket of Clay, who snoozes at his desk in the Senate (an allusion to the Senate's predominately positive reception of abolitionist Senator Webster's controversial support of the Act). In the background, Senators scowl, nap, and look on in anguish, including Lewis Cass of Michigan and Henry S. Foote of Mississippi. Cass, proponent of popular sovereignty and the extension of slavery, exclaims "Ain't tha man done yet." Foote, who proposed a special committee to revise Clay's omnibus bill, brandishes a club (probably an allusion to his violent confrontation with rival Thomas Hart Benton over his proposal). Contains several lines of text describing the larceny trial of "Defendent" Webster and "Complainant" Clay, including "loud applause" during Webster's departure of the "Court-room" compared to Clay's scarcely noticed exit. Also contains note: "(See Police Report in the Daily Screamer).", Title from item., Date inferred from content., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., 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., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
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- Whig equestrian exercises - ground and lofty tumbling. [graphic].
- Cartoon mocking 1852 Whig Presidential candidate General Winfield Scott, his abolitionist supporters, and the antithetical party platform. Shows the candidate and his supporters as performers at a horse circus. In the right, Scott, in uniform, struggles to straddle the horse "Slavery Compromise" (i.e., the Fugitive Slave Act) and "Tariff Free Soil" (i.e., prohibition of the extension of slavery) as his exclaims, “If the Southern horse don’t moderate his pace, I shall be down presently and break all my bones! Whoa! Whoa!" Nearby, abolitionist and New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley, fearing he will not "strike on his feet this time" flips head-long into a "Tribune Dung Heap of Abuse and 'isms" next to the "Tribune Building" adorned with signs that promote Scott for president and "No journeyman cut throats." In the background, the "Higher Law Vaulters," advocates of New York Senator William Seward's 1850 quote that a higher law than the Constitution should exist in regard to slavery, jump over the horse "Constitution." Vaulters include Whig political boss Thurlow Weed, Seward, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, and abolitionist Wendell Phillips. Also shows in the left foreground, New York Times editor and Scott supporter Henry J. Raymond depicted as a harlequin brandishing a billboard announcing the acts., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Purchase 2006., 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.
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- Worship of the North. [graphic]
- Graphic cartoon steeped in Confederate bitterness toward the "Republican" North depicting a scene of Northern idolatry of the African American. Worshippers near a mound of skulls surround a blood-stained altar upon which lies the shackled sacrificed body of American youth. The altar, with a bust of Lincoln dressed as a clown overhead, is constructed from Northern principles such as "Puritanism," "Free Love," and "Negro Worship." Behind the altar an African American man idol, barefoot and bare-chested and portrayed in racist caricature, sits upon the "Chicago Platform." Near the idol stands the statue of "St. Ossawattomi" (i.e., John Brown). The worshippers include General Scott, General Halleck and a loot-laden General Butler, as well as Secretary Edwin Stanton, John Fremont, a knife wielding Henry Ward Beecher, a torch carrying Charles Sumner, Horace Greeley with a censer, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, praying and kneeling atop a volume of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Printed in the top corners is "Ego.", Published in: Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), pl. 1., Issued as plate 1 in Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), a series of pro-Confederacy cartoons drawn and published by Baltimore cartoonist Adalbert John Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada. The "first issue" of 10 prints (numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24), with imprint "London, 1863" were printed as etchings. The remaining 20 prints (numbered 4, 8, 9-11, 14, 17-20, 23, 25-27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 40, 45) headed "Second and third issues of V. Blada's war sketches" and dated "London, July 30, 1864" were printed as lithographs., Title and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Accessioned 1979., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War., 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., Aldabert Volck (1828-1912), i.e., V. Blada, was a prominent Southern cartoonist from Baltimore who is best known for his 1863 work "Sketches from the Civil War," later republished circa 1886 by Porter & Coates in Philadelphia under the title "Confederate War Etchings."
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- "Your plan and mine." [graphic]
- Racist satire criticizing the 1864 presidential candidates, Democrat General George McClellan's and incumbent Abraham Lincoln's, divergent peace policies depicting each in a scene with Jefferson Davis and an African American Union soldier. The first scene depicts McClellan offering an olive branch, a frightened kneeling African American soldier, and a promise of non-interference to a scowling, armed Jefferson Davis, attired in torn and worn clothing. Davis acknowledges the branch, accepts the soldier, and expresses his satisfaction about the renewed ability for Southern domination of the government. The soldier, whose head Davis clutches, questions with horror McClellan's proposition to send him back to slavery after his service to the Union. The opposite scene depicts Lincoln pointing a bayonet at a cowering Davis who begs for readmission to the Union. Lincoln, on behalf of the nation, demands unconditional surrender and declares the end of slavery. The observing African American soldier replies in the vernacular that Davis will not have anything to do with him anymore., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress A.D. 1864, by Currier & Ives, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of N.Y., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of materials related to George McClellan and Abraham Lincoln. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War., 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.
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