Abolition Hall [graphic] : The evening before the conflagraton at the time more than 50,000 persons were glorifying in its destruction at Philadelphia May - 1838 / Drawn on stone by Zip Coon. | Library Company of Philadelphia Digital Collections

Details

Contributor	McAllister, John A. 1822-1896, collector.
Title	Abolition Hall [graphic] : The evening before the conflagraton at the time more than 50,000 persons were glorifying in its destruction at Philadelphia May - 1838 / Drawn on stone by Zip Coon.
Publisher	[Philadelphia]
Publisher	PA. Philadelphia. 1850
Date	[ca. 1850]
Physical Description	1 photograph : salted paper ; sheet 15 x 21 cm (6 x 8 in.)
Description	Photographic reproduction of a racist anti-abolition cartoon depicting a busy street scene with the hall being used as an interracial brothel by the second Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women on May 16, 1838. The convention, held during the week of interracial ceremonies and services celebrating the opening of the building, fulminated the racist fears of the local citizens, and on May 17th, a mob set the hall aflame, razing the building. Depicts well-dressed interracial couples, including a pair of children, strolling, kissing, and cavorting in the street and near the windows of the building. Among the couples, a Black man frolics upon a broadside referring to abolitionist David Paul Brown, a Philadelphia lawyer who spoke on May 14th, the day of dedication of the hall.
Notes	Title from item.
	Date inferred from photographic medium and content.
	Illustrated in Jean Fagan Yellin and John C. Van Horne, eds. The Abolitionist sisterhood (Ithaca: Cornell University Press in cooperation with The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1994), p. 228.
	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.
	McAllister Collection, gift, 1884.
	RVCDC
	Description revised 2021.
	Access points revised 2021.
Subject	Pennsylvania Hall (Philadelphia, Pa.)
	Anti-slavery Convention of American Women (2nd : 1838 : Philadelphia, Pa.)
	African American men -- Caricatures and cartoons.
	African American women -- Caricatures and cartoons.
	African Americans -- Caricatures and cartoons.
	Couples -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
	Interracial couples.
	Miscegenation.
	Pedestrians -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
	Racism in popular culture.
	Women abolitionists -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
	Multiracial personal relationship.
Geographic subject	Sixth Street (Philadelphia, Pa.) -- North -- 100 block.
Genre	Anti-abolition photographic prints -- 1850-1860.
	Salted paper prints -- 1850-1860.
Provenance	McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
Location	Library Company of Philadelphia\| Print Department\| photo - unidentified - Theaters & Halls - Pennsylvania Hall [(6)1332.F.113b]
Accession number	(6)1332.F.113b
	6-1332-f-113b

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Abolition Hall [graphic] : The evening before the conflagraton at the time more than 50,000 persons were glorifying in its destruction at Philadelphia May - 1838 / Drawn on stone by Zip Coon.

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