Collection of studio portraits of the multiracial descendants of the Philadelphia middle-class African American family, the Dickersons. Contains portraits of six women and girls, two boys, and a baby. Identified sitters are predominately children, including Catherine and Thomas Brown (P.9427.23), Emma R. Newlin (P.9427.17), and Wilson Newlin (P.9427.19). Also identified is Anna M. Newlin (P.9427.18)., Title supplied by cataloger., Dates inferred from presented age and attire of sitters., Accessioned 1993., Description revised 2024., Access points revised 2021., Housed in phase box with albums., 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., Various Philadelphia and Baltimore photographers, including Philadelphia photographers William Curtis Taylor, Frank W. Street, and O.M. Olsen Studio.
Date
[ca. 1885 -ca. 1910]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *albums (flat) - Dickerson Family Collection [P.9427.17-24]
Album belonging to Mary Anne Dickerson, a young middle-class African American Philadelphian, probably created as a pedagogical instrument to promote cultivated expression, with contributions dating from 1833 until 1882. Contains engraved plates depicting scenic views, and original and transcribed poems, prose, essays, and drawings on topics including friendship, motherhood, mortality, youth, death, flowers, female beauty, and refinement.
Album belonging to Martina Dickerson, a young middle-class African American Philadelphian, probably created as a pedagogical instrument to promote cultivated expression, with twenty-two contributions dating from 1840 until around 1846. Contains original and transcribed poems, prose, and essays on topics including love, friendship, sympathy, courage, and female refinement.
Portraits of unidentified members of the prominent 19th-century middle-class Philadelphia African American Dickerson family active in the African American intellectual, cultural, and civil rights community.
