Details
Creator Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist.
Title Writing the Emancipation Proclamation [graphic].
Publisher [Baltimore] : [A. J. Volck]
Publisher MD. Baltimore. 1864
Date [1864]
Physical Description 1 print : transfer lithograph ; sheet 25 x 31 cm (9.5 x 12 in.)
Description Pro-Confederacy caricature bombasting Abraham Lincoln's legal and moral authority to write the Emancipation Proclamation. Depicts a demented Lincoln writing the Proclamation seated at a table adorned with a spectral eye; ram horned African American heads, portrayed in racist caricature; and legs ending in cloven hooves. He sits upon a chair with a back decorated with the head of an ass, the "U.S. Constitution" trampled beneath his foot. Atop the table, the devil holds his inkwell before him. A liquor decanter rests upon a sidetable nearby. On the wall, framed paintings hang depicting "saintly" St. Ossawotamie (i.e., John Brown), and the "murderous" rebellion of the enslaved in the 1790s in "St. Domingo"(i.e., Haiti). Behind Lincoln, near window drapes held back by a vulture headed tie back, a statue of liberty, her liberty cap fallen over her face, rests her shield down upon the wall pedestal on which she stands.
Is referenced by Weitenkampf, p. 139
Murrell, Graphic humour, vol. 1, p. 203
Notes Inscribed upper left corner: 25.
Issued as plate 25 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.
Research file about artist available at repository.
Accessioned 1935.
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 Brown, John, 1800-1859 -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Caricatures and cartoons.
United States. President (1861-1865 : Lincoln) Emancipation Proclamation.
Devil.
Haitians -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Liberty.
Racism in popular culture.
Slave insurrections -- Haiti.
Black men -- Haiti.
Rebellions -- Haiti.
Geographic subject Confederate States of America -- History.
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865.
Genre Anti-abolition prints -- 1860-1870.
Caricatures -- 1860-1870.
Lithographs -- 1860-1870.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Volck - Sketches - Volck 25 [2990.F.10]
Accession number 2990.F.10