Details
Contributor Hanks, Jarvis F., 1799-1853, artist.
Title [Stevens-Cogdell and Sanders-Venning family portrait collection] [graphic].
Publisher UNITED STATES. 1910-1925
Date [ca. 1830 - ca. 1940, bulk 1910-1925]
Physical Description 39 photographs : 81 gelatin silver, 11 albumen, 1 cyanotype, 1 ambrotype, 1 tintype, 1 platinum ; 11 x 14 in. or smaller.
4 items: silhouettes; 12 x 10 cm (4.5 x 3.75 in.) or smaller.
1 album (19 photographic prints): 5 albumen mounted on carte-de-visite card, 9 gelatin silver, 5 tintype; 13 x 8 cm (5 x 3 in.) or smaller.
1 drawing: charcoal; 44 x 39 cm (17 x 15 in.)
1 print: half-tone reproduction; 8 x 10 in.
Description Primarily studio portraits and snapshots of members of the Venning line of the middle-class Philadelphia African American family descended from the 19th-century white South Carolinian Richard Walpole Cogdell (1787-1866), and Sarah Martha Sanders (1815-1850), a Black enslaved woman. Includes professionally photographed group portraits depicting the family's participation in the Philadelphia African American music community of the early 20th century, including: the Mendelssohn Singing Society; Sid Stratton's Orchestra; the Treble Clef Mandolin and Guitar Club; and the Soap Box Social, a minstrel club associated with the African American political club, Citizen's Republican Club. Other formal portraiture includes the graduation portrait for the South Philadelphia High School for Girls class of 1921, including Lillie Venning and contralto Marian Anderson, and a group portrait of the Citizens Republican Club (ca. 1910). Collection also contains studio portraits and snaphots photographed during family summer excursions to Pleasantville and Atlantic City, New Jersey; portraits of family friends and family members through marriage; silhouettes of members of the Cogdell family cut by Master Hankes, i.e., Jarvis F. Hanks (ca. 1828); and an album (ca. 1860-ca. 1913) containing portraits of members of the Venning family and of unidentified sitters.
Sitters include members from the Cogdell family, the Venning family, the Capps family, and the Saunders family. Cogdell family members include: Cecilia Cogdell, wife of Richard Walpole Cogdell, and three of their sons - James Gordon Cogdell, George Burgess Cogdell, and John Walpole Cogdell. Venning family members include: Richard Cogdell and Sarah Sanders' daughter, Julia Sanders Venning, her husband Edward Y. Venning (a contractor), and his brother, Richard DeReef Venning (a government clerk). Julia Sanders Venning and Edward Y. Venning's children - Louise Sanders Venning, Miranda Cogdell Venning (a school principal), Oliver Casey Venning (family historian), George Edward Venning (postal worker), Sarah (Sallie) Venning (Holden) (substitute teacher), and her husband William B. Holden (caterer). George Edward Venning and Julia Capps Venning's children - Mary Venning, Martha Venning (Bowie), and her husband Charles Bowie. Capps family members include: Julia Capps Venning's father Augustus Capps (butler), and her siblings, Lillie Capps Adams (educator/musician), Oscar Capps (post office clerk), Adolphus Capps (an undertaker), Berkley Capps (bellman), and Meta Capps (Thomas). Other sitters include family members George Saunders; Agnes Saunders; Georgine Rex Saunders (Chew); Mary Saunders (Patterson) (soprano and music instructor of Marian Anderson); Susan Saunders (Williams); Richard Sanders Chew; and Charles Sanders Chew; and acquaintances African American bibliophile and Tribune columnist William C. Bolivar, African American undertaker Joseph Seth, and Mrs. and Dr. Perry.
Notes Title supplied by cataloger.
Date inferred from content.
Date of silhouettes inferred from active dates in Charleston, S.C. of silhouettist Jarvis F. Hanks. See Charleston Courier, March 13, 1828, 2 and "For A Few Days," Charleston Courier, March 31, 1928, 3.
Various photographers, including the following Philadelphia photographers: Bell Studio; Frederick Gutekunst; H.D. Garns & Co.; Moses S. Hagaman; Charles Hagemann & Co.; Frank W. Harris, Jr.; Miles & Foster; Parlor Gallery; Charles M. Sullivan; and Daniel Slutzky Studio.
Sitters identified by descendants, from manuscript notes on versos, and/or accompanying photographic prints.
P.9367.32, ca. 1900 pastel portrait of possibly Clara, nurse to children and grandchildren of Sarah Sanders and R. W. Cogdell, after ca. 1875 tintype photographed by J. Fenton (729 South St., Phila.), P.2012.37.1.23b, Richard DeReef Venning Album, Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning Collection.
Lib. Company. Annual Report, 1991, p. 26-31.
Gift of descendants Cordelia H. Brown, Lillie V. Dickerson, Mary Hinkson Jackson, and Georgine E. Willis in honor of Phil Lapsansky.
LCP exhibit catalogue: African American Miscellany p. 45.
Genealogical chart available at repository.
RVCDC
Description revised 2022.
Access points revised 2022.
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.
Biographical / historical note Middle-class African American family active in the Philadelphia African American political, social, educational, and cultural community from the 1850s to the 20th century. The family was involved in several prominent local African American institutions, including the St. Thomas P.E. Church, Church of the Crucifixion, Central Presbyterian Church, the Colored Institute of Youth, and the Citizens Republican Club.
Subject Chew family -- Portraits.
Cogdill family -- Portraits.
Sanders family -- Portraits.
Saunders family -- Portraits.
Stevens family -- Portraits.
Venning family -- Portraits.
Capps family -- Portraits.
Adams, Lillie Capps, 1871-1939 -- Portraits.
Anderson, Marian, 1897-1993 -- Portraits.
Bolivar, William C. 1844-1914 -- Portraits.
Bowie, Charles 1905-1877 -- Portraits.
Bowie, Martha Venning, 1899-1979 -- Portraits.
Capps, Adolphus 1886-1957 -- Portraits.
Capps, Augustus, 1849-1934 -- Portraits.
Capps, Berkley, 1888-1913 -- Portraits.
Thomas, Meta Capps, 1890-1920 -- Portraits.
Capps, Oscar, 1884-1914 -- Portraits.
Cogdell, Cecilia, -1832 -- Portraits.
Cogdell, James Gordon, ca. 1807-1832 -- Portraits.
Cogdell, George Burgess 1817-1852 -- Portraits.
Cogdell, John Walpole 1820- -- Portraits.
Holden, Sarah Sanders Venning, 1872-1959 -- Portraits.
Holden, William B., 1873-1928 -- Portraits.
Patterson, Mary Saunders 1872-, -- Portraits.
Saunders, Agnes 1868-1928, -- Portraits.
Saunders, George, approximately 1845-, -- Portraits.
Seth, Joseph approximately 1860- -- Portraits.
Venning, Edward Y., 1835-1884 -- Portraits.
Venning, George Edward, 1874-1965 -- Portraits.
Venning, Julia Capps 1873-1952 -- Portraits.
Venning, Louise Sanders, 1879-1923 -- Portraits.
Venning, Mary, 1900-1998 -- Portraits.
Venning, Miranda Cogdell, 1862-1900 -- Portraits.
Venning, Oliver Casey, 1868-1943 -- Portraits.
Venning, Richard DeReef, 1846-1929 -- Portraits.
Williams, Susan Saunders, 1871-1948, -- Portraits.
Mendelssohn Singing Society.
Sid Stratton's Orchestra.
Treble Clef Mandolin and Guitar Club.
Citizens Republican Club.
African Americans -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- Portraits.
African Americans -- Societies, etc. -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
African Americans -- Social life -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
African Americans -- Recreation -- New Jersey.
African American musicians -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
African American women musicians -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
African American women teachers -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
African American educators -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Caterers and catering -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Contractors -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Genealogists -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Opera singers -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Postal service employees -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Undertakers and undertaking -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Government employees.
African American journalists -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
African American caterers -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
African American undertakers -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Genre Albumen prints -- 1860-1890.
Ambrotypes -- 1850-1860.
Charcoal drawings -- 1900-1910.
Cyanotypes -- 1890-1900.
Gelatin silver prints -- 1900-1940.
Group portraits -- 1900-1940.
Photograph albums -- 1860-1920.
Photomechanical reproductions -- 1910-1920.
Portrait drawings -- 1900-1910.
Portrait photographs -- 1850-1940.
Silhouettes -- 1830-1840.
Tintypes -- 1880-1910.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| PRINT.| Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning Collection [P.9367.1-51]
Accession number P.9367.1-51