Details
Contributor Currier, Nathaniel, 1813-1888, printer.
Title This certifies that [blank] having paid to the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church the sum of twenty dollars, is hereby constituted a member during life conformably to the seventh article of the constitution. New York, [blank]. [Blank] chairman. [Blank] clerk. [graphic].
Publisher New York : N. Currier, lith
Publisher N.Y. New York. 1835
Date [ca. 1835]
Physical Description 1 print : lithograph ; sheet 39 x 28 cm (15.25 x 11 in.)
Description Life membership certificate containing a vignette contrasting scenes of apocalyptic doom and religious salvation. From the celestial heavens, the hand of God points to an angel trumpeting salvation and wielding the Bible; a white man missionary preaches to a large group of Native Americans; and a converted African family of a man, woman, and child, kneels and reaches toward the winged messenger of God. On the ground are broken chains and swords, and a hut and palm trees are in the background. Opposite the scenes of salvation, a cross rises from the ground, bringing forth a river of redemption too late for the lost souls of a bejeweled white woman and a skull-headed man entangled by serpents. Behind them a temple, probably the Vatican, collapses to the ground crushing a white man. The Missionary Society, officially organized in New York in 1820, worked first to convert Native Americans and enslaved people before extending their missions to the Black inhabitants of Liberia in 1823.
Notes Title from item.
Date inferred from content.
Issued to Reverend Thomas Lumption on April 9th, 1844. Signed by Joshua Soule, Chairman, and Francis Hale, Clerk.
Purchase 1971.
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.
Subject Methodist Episcopal Church. Missionary Society
Angels.
Children, Black -- Missions.
Ethnic stereotypes.
Indians of North America -- Missions.
Indigenous peoples -- Missions.
Men, Black -- Missions.
Missionaries -- United States.
Posture in worship.
Racism in popular culture.
Women, Black -- Missions.
Black children.
Black men.
Black women.
Genre Lithographs -- 1830-1840.
Membership certificates -- 1830-1840.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| *GC - Certificates [7971.F]
Accession number 7971.F