[Print specimens depicting African Americans from the Thomas Richardson and American Bank Note Company scrapbook]
Title
[Print specimens depicting African Americans from the Thomas Richardson and American Bank Note Company scrapbook]
Description
Includes predominantly banknote specimens showing enslaved, free, and possibly free African American men, women, and children. Images depict an African American man driver hauling a wagon filled with hay (p. 38); an African American man farm hand tending to horse in a farmyard (p. 38); enslaved men harvesting a field of grain (p. 45); an African American man cart driver hauling bundles up an incline (p. 50); enslaved men picking cotton juxtaposed with a townscape vista (p. 54); African American men workers collecting sap from trees under the view of a white foreman on horseback (p. 61); enslaved men, women, and children cutting and loading sugar cane onto a wagon at a “Sugar Plantation” (p. 66); an African American man driver leading “The Mule Team” on a country road (p. 67); African American men workers “Breaking Hemp” (p. 68); and a proof copy of an illustration from Susan Fenimore Cooper's "Pages and Pictures from the Writings of James Fenimore Cooper" (New York, 1861) depicting a scene by a hearth from “The Spy” with an African American male servant looking over the shoulder of a white woman housekeeper (p. 26). Majority of specimens include roadside scenery or plantation or residential buildings in the background. “Sugar Plantation” view also shows a steamboat on a river in the background., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from the active dates of the partnerships of the printers in the imprints and content., Artists include F. O. C. Darley and Louis Denoce., Printers include American Bank Note Co.; Baldwin, Bald & Cousland; and Bald, Cousland & Co., Some items contain specimen number printed in lower right corner. Includes 131, 144, and 212., RVCDC, Accessioned 2012., 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., Thomas Richardson (b. ca. 1802) was a Philadelphia plate printer who served as the foreman of printing at the Philadelphia branch of the American Bank Note Company formed in 1858. He retired from the trade by 1880.
Date
[ca. 1855-ca. 1857]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *albums (flat) [P.2012.6]
[Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning family photograph album]
Title
[Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning family photograph album]
Description
Album compiled by a member of the African American middle-class Stevens-Cogdell and Sanders-Venning family containing portrait photographs of family and friends. Majority of contents are unidentified and include professionally photographed cabinet cards, cartes de visite, and tintypes, as well as snapshots. Several of the professional photographs also show props, including a baby's swing, fur rug, wicker chairs and stools. Other portraits include women dressed in early 20th-century beach attire, a ca. 1920's photo of a woman with a ukulele; and two men posed in front of an entryway draped in an American flag. Album also contains a reproduction of an unidentified painted portrait photograph; ca. 1828 silhouettes of Richard C. Cogdell and his brother Charles S. Cogdell (sons of Richard and Cecilia Cogdell) stamped on verso cut by Master Hankes, i.e., Jarvis F. Hanks; and a clipped periodical illustration depicting Maria Walpole, Countess of Waldegrave., Sitters include Cordelia Chew Hinkson and her daughter Cordelia Hinkson Brown as a baby (inside cover & insert before p. 32); Lillie Dickerson (p. 8); George Venning (insert before p. 10); Florence I. Warwick as a child and adult (insert before p. 10 & 24); Richard DeReef Venning (insert before p. 18 & 36); Louise Sanders Venning (insert before p. 32); and possibly Cordelia Chew (p. 36)., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content., Some loose photographs contain identity of sitter and date inscribed on verso. Some inscriptions barely legible., Twelve ca. 1920s 2x3 snapshots showing vacation portraiture pasted on inside front cover., Two photographs inserted in slot on p. 8., 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 Philadelphia photographers Baumgardner & Hebling; H. D. Garns (& Co.); L. Blaul; Kuebler; Swain & Bridle; M. Herbert Bridle; 1XL Gallery; Larkin Gallery; F. S. Keeler; Bell Studio; and Henrici & Garns., See 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., See LCP exhibit catalogue: African American Miscellany p. 45., Genealogical charts available at repository., 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., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Date
[ca. 1860 - ca. 1925]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning Collection [P.2012.37.2]
Original & selected poetry &c. [graphic] / Amy Matilda Cassey.
Title
Original & selected poetry &c
Description
Friendship album of Amy Matilda Cassey, a middle-class African American woman active in the antislavery movement and African American cultural community, containing contributions dating from 1833 until 1856. Contains original and transcribed poems, prose, and essays on topics including slavery, womanhood, religion, friendship, female refinement, death, and love. Also contains drawings, watercolors, and gouaches of flowers and a rustic, residential scene, possibly in New York. Contributors, including many women from the antebellum African American elite community, are prestigious reformers and abolitionists active in the anti-slavery, scholarly, educational, and cultural community of the antebellum North, including Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Baltimore., Contains the following contributions: entry by African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, dated Philadelphia 1850, about his "coarse" contribution in an album of "refined" entries; an original sonnet, "Fallen Bird," and essay, "The Abolition Cause," by anti-slavery activist, author, and editor, William Lloyd Garrison, dated Philadelphia 1833; floral watercolors and calligraphed poems by Philadelphia Quaker activist, educator, and artist Sarah Mapps Douglass; essay, "Moral Reform," dated Philadelphia 1834, by Harrisburg businessman and activist William Whipper; calligraphed version of Washington Irving's poem, "The Wife," by New York African American engraver Patrick Henry Reason dated New York 1839; poem about "Friendship" dated 1837 by anti-slavery activist Robert Purvis; prose on faith penned in 1853 by women right's activist and abolitionist Lucy Stone;, floral watercolors, poems and prose on friendship, womanhood, abolition, and remembrance by Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society associates Rebecca Buffum, Susan C. Wright, and sisters Hannah L. Stickney and Mary T. Stickney, and sisters Mary Forten (p.10), Margaretta Forten, and Sarah Forten Purvis, as well as their sister-in-law Mary Virginia Wood Forten (p.22); memorials to his deceased wife and daughter by Baltimore African Methodist Episcopal Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne written in 1849; and an essay by abolitionist Reverend Isiah George DeGrasse dated Bridgewater 1836. Additional contributions by Baltimore anti-slavery activist Emily Willson; anti-slavery activists Ann Warren Weston and Elizabeth Le Brun (Stickney) Gunn; Philadelphia barber and activist John Chew; abolitionist James Miller M'Kim; University of Glasgow trained activist James McCune Smith; Boston reformer Wendell Phillips; C.L.R., possibly Charles L. Reason, abolitionist and brother of engraver Patrick Henry Reason; A.W.H., possibly Quaker abolitionist Anna W. Hopper, and E.G., possibly Quaker abolitionist Elizabeth Garrigues., Also includes sketches and a poem by probably Lydia A. Bustill and unattributed watercolors and sketches possibly by Amy Matilda Cassey., Title from item., Inclusive range of dates inferred from entries inscribed with dates., Embossed and gilt morocco binding with blue moiré silk doublures., Lib. Company Annual Report 1998, p. 25-35., Research file available at repository., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Cassey, an abolitionist, temperance and civil rights activist and founding member of the multiracial Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society and the African American literary and science society, Gilbert Lyceum, was the daughter of New York black community leader, Reverend Peter Williams. She was the wife of Philadelphia businessman and civil rights activist Joseph Cassey, and later married Boston anti-slavery lecturer Charles Lenox Remond.
Creator
Cassey, Amy Matilda, 1808-1856
Date
[ca. 1833-ca. 1856]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Amy Matilda Cassey album [P.9764]
Original & selected poetry &c. [graphic] / Martina Dickerson.
Title
Original & selected poetry &c
Description
Album belonging to Martina Dickerson, a young middle-class African American Philadelphian, probably created as a pedagogical exercise, 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. Also includes drawings, primarily of flowers. Identified contributors are mainly Black elite scholars active in the African American anti-slavery and cultural community of mid-19th century Philadelphia., Contains the following contributions: calligraphed title page by abolitionist James Forten, Jr.; prose on "Literature," "The Album," and "The Year" by entrepeneur and abolitionist James Forten, Sr. or his son, James, Jr.; prose entitled "Perserverance" by tailor, abolitionist, and civil rights activist John C. Bowers; prose, sketches, and watercolors by Quaker abolitionist, educator, and artist, Sarah Mapps Douglass; watercolor and transcribed poem, "The First Steamboat on the Missouri," by Sarah's brother, artist, community activist, and abolitionist, Robert Douglass; essay entitled "Sympathy" by William Douglass, pastor and historian of the St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Philadelphia; transcription from Wordsworth's "Excursion" by educator and anti-slavery activist Charles L. Reason; gouache of a bunch of flowers by A.H.H., probably Ada Howell Hinton, an African American educator and anti-slavery activist; and prose, poems, and gouache by Mary M. MacFarland, V.E. Macarty, Y.J. Grice, Rebecca F. Peterson, H.D. Shorter, C.D.R., and J.F.V., Title from item., Inclusive range of dates inferred from entries inscribed with dates., Embossed and gilt morocco binding., Lithograph title page, "Flowers," containing flower illustration hand-colored with gouache and watercolor., Blank album published in London by Wm. & Hy. Rock., Lib. Company. Annual Report 1993, p. 17-25., Research file available at repository., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Dickerson, a pupil of African American educator Sarah Mapps Douglass, was the daughter of African American activists, Martin and Adelia Dickerson, and step-father Samuel Van Brackle.
Creator
Dickerson, Martina, 1829-1905
Date
[ca. 1840-ca. 1846]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Martina Dickerson album [13859.Q]
Album [graphic].
Title
[Album]
Description
Album belonging to Mary Anne Dickerson, a young middle-class African American Philadelphian, possibly created as a pedagogical exercise, 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. Also contains a one page record of family deaths, marriages, and births with entries up to the birth of Mary Anne's grandson in 1882. Identified contributors are mainly Black elite scholars active in the African American anti-slavery and cultural communities of mid-19th century Philadelphia, New York, and Boston., Contains the following contributions: "The Mother's Joy," a poem by C.F., possibly by abolitionist and second wife of entrepreneur James Forten, Charlotte Vandine Forten; illustration after "The Boroom Slave" and the poem, "To the Album," by artist and activist Robert Douglass; prose, "To Mary Ann", about living a happy life by Philadelphian anti-slavery activist Amy Matilda Cassey; a memorial, "To My Dear Willie," by Mary Anne to her deceased son, William Jones; poem, "The Night of Death," by J.A.J., Mary Anne's husband, John A. Jones; Boston author and civil rights activist William C. Nell's transcription of the poem, "The Rights of Women"; allegorical prose on the meaning of life by New York abolitionist Harriet Forten Purvis; transcription of the poem, "The Pearl Diver," by white Philadelphian anti-slavery activist Arnold Buffum; prose to "Mary Annie" about remembrance by Ada, possibly by anti-slavery activist Sarah Forten Purvis or educator and anti-slavery activist Ada Howell Hinton; floral drawing by A.H.H., probably by Ada Howell Hinton; prose and floral watercolors by educator, abolitionist, and Quaker Sarah Mapps Douglass, the sister of Robert Douglass; "Lines Addressed to a Wreath of Flowers Designed on a Present for Mary Ann" by E.S. Webb, possibly Elizabeth Susan Webb, sister of novelist Frank J. Webb; and prose by Mary Anne about mortality. Additional entries of prose and poetry by John G. Dutton, E.S. Webb, Lydia A.B., Henrietta, W.F.P, and S.L.C., unattributed entry, "To Esther," and unattributed entry of a floral watercolor. Also contains engraved plates by A.B. Durand, C. Fielding, C.G. Childs, Robert Walter Weir, James Smillie and Thomas Cole entitled respectively, "Falls of the Sawkill"; "Italy, The Bay of Naples"; "Weehawken"; "Delaware Water Gap"; "Catskill Mountains"; "Fort Putnam"; and "Winnipiseogee Lake"., Title supplied by cataloguer., Inclusive range of dates inferred from entries inscribed with dates., Contains engraved illustrated title page: Album. The Mother's Joy., Blank album published in New York in 1833 by J.C. Ricker., Embossed and gilt morocco binding., Release of Dower document dated 1838 giving the Dickerson home to the surviving children, contemporary unidentified newspaper clippings, manuscript poetry transcriptions, contemporary greeting cards, trade card, and other miscellaneous loose items removed and housed separately., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 1993, p. 17-25., Research file available at repository., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Dickerson, a pupil of African American educator Sarah Mapps Douglass, was the daughter of African American activists, Martin and Adelia Dickerson, and step-father Samuel Van Brackle.
Creator
Dickerson, Mary Anne, 1822-1858
Date
[ca. 1833-ca. 1882]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Mary Anne Dickerson album [13860.Q]
[Deborah Passmore Gillingham scrapbook of prints, drawings, and specimens] [graphic].
Title
[Deborah Passmore Gillingham scrapbook of prints, drawings, and specimens]
Description
Scrapbook of chiefly engravings, drawings, and specimens compiled starting in 1847 by Quaker amateur artist Deborah P. Gillingham. Contains several circa 1810s-1850s book and periodical illustrations, including from "Godey’s Lady’s Book," the "Union Magazine", and the "Literary Souvenir" (London), that depict genre, sentimental, historical, European, and literary scenes and views, as well as portraits of prominent American and European literary, religious, and political figures, particularly abolitionists. Titles of illustrations include "Cinderella"; "Harvest Wagon"; "Bolton Abbey, Wharfdale"; "Lockport, Erie Canal"; "Bit"; "The Sisters Clio"; "Steps to Ruin"; "The Rescue"; "Warming the Mitten"; "Going to School"; "Queen Henrietta Interceding for the King"; "France, Lyon"; and "Fall of Terni." Many of the "Union Magazine" illustrations are after the work of artist Tompkins H. Matteson and depict scenes with children, women, families and/or couples. Illustrations also include the 1848 comic plate "The Lost Glove" depicting an African American servant and a dandy ("Union Magazine," April 1848) and an 1838? portrait of "Joanna," the enslaved woman with whom British–Dutch colonial soldier and author of "The Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam" (1796, reprinted 1838) John Gabriel Stedman had a relationship. Portrait sitters include Lucretia Mott, Gerrit Smith, Elias Hicks, Thomas Clarkson, Thomas Moore, Daniel O’Connell, Alice B. Neale, and Benjamin Lundy. Illustrations also depict Philadelphia landmarks, including Franklin Institute, Schuylkill Water Works, and Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Philadelphia views also include a separately-issued lithograph depicting Clermont Academy printed by Childs & Inman after George Lehman., A number of pencil works and ink drawings comprise the scrapbook with many captioned and depicting dwelling, landscape, and landmark views of Switzerland and Great Britain. Includes pencil sketch "from memory" of "Jungfrau, Switzerland" (Alps) by "E.B.E"; pencil drawing "The House in which Shakespeare was born. Henley Street. Strafford Upon Avon"; gouache and watercolors of "Chinese Fish"; pencil drawings with Chinese white captioned "Austin's Farm at Supiston Suffolk. The early residence of Robert Bloomfield" and "Mill at Bannockburn in which James 3rd was killed"; a pencil drawing of Friends Bank Meeting House inscribed "Mary Young"; pencil drawing of "Residence of George Fox" inscribed "John Young"; and two landscape watercolors by English Quaker social reformer and anti-slavery activist Elizabeth Heyrick., Scrapbook also contains several labeled botanical and material specimens from historical, Biblical, literary, and cultural landmarks and sites, as well as "Specimens of sea moss (i.e. algae) from Cape May May 1848" (one arranged in the letters "D.G.") and the hair of "E.M. Chandler." Often placed in folded sheets of paper with inscribed labels, specimens include "From the scene of Grays Elegy by Mantle Tower That Yew Tree shade"; "From the grave of Cromwell"; "Waterloo"; "Piece of South Sea Island Cloth"; "Mummy cloth unrolled by Gliddon 1851"(Egyptologist George Robbins Gliddon publically unwrapped mummies as performances in Boston and Philadelphia, 1851-1852); and "Pompei.", Additional items of note include a pencil sketch by Gillingham of "East Mount. The residence of John Pease England"; etchings depicting Suffolk landmarks by Henry Davy; the anti-slavery manuscript poem "America" signed and dated by British Quaker novelist, poet, and abolitionist Amelia Opie (Norwich 1846); the anti-slavery manuscript poem "Do as thou wouldst be done by"… signed and dated by British Quaker poet Bernard Barton (Woodbridge September 19, 1846); and circa 1847 calling cards by Chinese writing specialist Tsow Chaoong (Philadelphia 1847-1849) handwritten in English and Chinese characters “D.P. Gillingham” and "Y. M. Gillingham." A small number of circa 1900s clippings and photomechanical prints of portraits and landscapes also comprise the contents., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content., Inscribed on p. [1]: Deborah P. Gillingham 10 mo 20. 1847., Marbled paper binding., Several pages contain tissue paper overlays., Incomplete pencil sketch of dwellings on verso of drawing of "The River Side of Earlham" on p. [10]., Various artists, engravers, printers, and publishers include Childs & Inman; John Collins; Henry Davy; A. L. Dick; George Lehman; Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green; Tompkins H. Matteson; Henry Sadd; John Sartain; and Thomas Sinclair., RVCDC, Access points revised 2022., Housed in phase box., Number of items missing or removed from pages., Page numbers added by cataloger lower right corner., Loose pages and inserts of gold paper removed, placed in enclosure, and housed with scrapbook in phase book., Deborah Passmore Gillingham (1820-1877), cousin of professional botanical illustrator Deborah Griscom Passmore (1840-1911), was an amateur botanical illustrator. Disowned from the Orthodox Philadelphia Meeting, Northern District in 1842, Passmore became a member of the Hicksite Green Street Meeting. She married Philadelphia wool merchant Yeamans Moon Gillingham (1817-1885) in 1844 and relocated with him to Moorestown, N.J. in 1850 following his retirement. The couple had a son Aubrey Howard Gillingham (1850-1885). In 1855 the family was recommended by the Green Street Meeting for the Eversham Monthly Meeting, N.J. At her death, Gillingham was a member of the Moorestown Monthly Meeting. Among her bequests were funds to endow beds at the Philadelphia Orthopedic Hospital and Dispensary and the Women’s Hospital.
Creator
Gillingham, Deborah Passmore, 1820-1877, compiler
Date
[ca. 1810-ca. 1910, bulk 1830-1850]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums [P.2019.6]
[Thomas Richardson and American Bank Note Company scrapbook]
Title
[Thomas Richardson and American Bank Note Company scrapbook]
Description
Scrapbook compiled by Philadelphia banknote printer Thomas Richardson containing proofs of illustrations after the work of F. O. C. Darley from Susan Fenimore Cooper's "Pages and Pictures from the Writings of James Fenimore Cooper" (New York, 1861); portrait illustrations, some from J. B. Longacre's "National Portrait Gallery" (probably 1854 edition); and vignette specimens of the American Bank Note Company and their predecessor companies. Cooper illustrations depict scenes on the frontier and ship decks, with Native Americans, and of battles; deathbeds; and of informal meeting from his works The Oak Openings, The Redskins, The Chainbearer, The Pathfinder, The Red Rover, The Monikins, Deerslayer, Homeward Bound, Lionel Lincoln, The Pilot, Last of the Mohicans, The Wept Wish-ton Wish, The Spy, and Wing and Wing. Several also contain animals. Sitters in portrait illustrations include Lewis Cass, Giuseppe Garibaldi, David Ramsay, James Kent, Thomas C. Pope, John McLean, Stephen Decatur, Samuel Rogers, Rev. William Capers, John Binns, Washington Irving, and Noah Webster., Specimen subjects include portraits of prominent government officials, Civil War figures, businessmen, clergymen, royalty, and "fancy heads" of named and unnamed women and children; allegorical figures and scenes, including Bounty, Liberty, Arts, Agriculture, and Commerce; state and symbolic seals and insignia; naval and maritime imagery, including sailors, sailing vessels, and wharf and dock views; modes and venues of transportation, including steamboats, trains, streetcars, and rail stations; white and Black men artisans, laborers, and tradesmen, including drivers, farmers, sheep shearers, and furriers; industrial views of factory workers, mineworkers, and female loom workers, as well as mills and factories along canals and riverfronts; women at work feeding livestock, milking cows, and at a sewing machine; municipal buildings and storefronts; southern imagery, including enslaved people at work, palmetto trees, plantations, and ports; patriotic, historical, military, and scenic imagery; frontier views and scenes with Native Americans; and animals. Specimens with titles include Star of Empire (Princess Eugenie of Sweden) River Source, The Guardian, Locomotive, Autumn Fruit, Sheep Feeding, The Yarn, Trusty, Picking Grapes, The Sickle, The Death Blow, and Propeller Loading. Some specimens used as the backs of national currency., Title supplied by cataloger., Date based on publication date of specimens., Manuscript notes on front free end paper: Aunt Tillie Richardson (cousin Florence's aunt) in pencil; Scrapbook No. 3 in ink., Lincoln Monument Association of Philadelphia certificate pasted on inside front cover and issued to Thos. Richardson on July 4, 1865, signed C. J. Stille, Secy; Alex. Henry, Prest.; and James L. Claghorn, Cashr. Certificate number 6004 and illustrated with bust-length portrait of Lincoln. Charles J. Stillé, was a Philadelphia lawyer who served on the United States Sanitary Commission, and was later Provost of the University of Pennsylvania. Alexander Henry was the mayor of Philadelphia. James L. Claghorn was president of the Commercial National Bank in Philadelphia and an art collector., Stationer's label pasted on back cover: John Alexander, Stationer and Printer, 52 South Fourth St., Various artists, engravers, and printers including F.O.C. Darley, G. H. Cushman, J. Hamilton, Asher B. Durand, C. Schussele, John Sartain, Samuel Sartain, Jas. D. Smillie, E. Prudhomme, H. B. Hall, T. Phillibrown, R. Whitechurch, J. M. Butler, James Bannister, Charles Kennedy Burt, Louis Delnoce, W. W. Rice, American Bank Note Company, Toppan, Carpenter & Co, Baldwin, Bald & Cousland, and Bald, Cousland & Co., Several of the specimens contain a specimen number and/or title., Few of the specimens contain a copyright statement., Specimen #312 (p. 81) and specimen #280 (p. 71) after the work of Emanuel Leutze., Inventory of portrait sitters housed at repository., Identity of several of the artists and engravers supplied by Gene Hessler, The engraver's line: an encyclopedia of paper money & postage stamp art (Port Clinton, OH: BNR Press, 1993)., RVCDC, Accessioned 2012., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., 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., Thomas Richardson (b. ca. 1802) was a Philadelphia plate printer who served as the foreman of printing at the Philadelphia branch of the American Bank Note Company formed in 1858. He retired from the trade by 1880.
Creator
Richardson, Thomas, 1802-approximately 1881
Date
[ca. 1854-ca. 1861]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *albums (flat) [P.2012.6]
[Album of Richard DeReef Venning] [graphic].
Title
[Album of Richard DeReef Venning]
Description
Photograph album of African American government worker Richard DeReef Venning, a member of the African American middle-class Stevens-Cogdell and Sanders-Venning family, and containing predominantly unidentified portraits of African American and white men, women, and children, including family and friends. Contains bust, half and full-length portraits, often studio portraits. Several of the female sitters wear ornate hairstyles and many sitters also wear crosses. Also contains a carte de visite reproduction of a painted portrait of possibly George Cogdell (p.16) and a carte de visite inscribed “Pete” and “Sam” showing two men in checkered patterned jumper costumes, wigs, hats, and full-face masks (p.18). Identified sitters include Samuel Le Count Cook (p.2, photograph dated 7/4/[18]90 and imprint of DC photographer Rice on verso, ), Edward W. Venning (p.13, photograph dated 1869 and imprint of Philadelphia photographer G.W. Cheston on verso), Sarah Venning (p.13 &14, imprint of Philadelphia photographer Larkin on the verso), Richard DeReef Venning (p.13, photograph dated 12/7/[18]74 on recto and imprint of Philadelphia photographer Henrici & Garns on verso), Sarah Ann Sanders, daughter of Sarah Sanders (p.14, lower right, ca. 1865, inscribed on recto: S.A.S.; imprint of Philadelphia photographer B.F. Reimer and "property of ed. y.v." inscribed on verso), Cordelia Chew Hinkson (p.35), and Cordelia Hinkson Brown as a baby (p.35). Other sitters may possibly be William H. Chew (p.1), Addie Howard (p.3) and George Washington Musgrave (group portrait, p.19)., Album also contains a portrait signed "Ellie" (p. 22, photograph dated 11/16/[1875] and imprint of NY photographer G.H. Johnson on verso) and an unidentified portrait that is likely Cordelia Sanders (Chew) and her sons Richard and Charles Chew (p.15, lower left, imprint of Philadelphia photographer Miles & Foster on verso). Another unidentified portrait is likely Jacob C. White, co-founder of the Pythians, Philadelphia's first African American baseball club (p. 27, upper left, imprint of Philadelphia photographer Gutekunst). Also contained are inserted portraits (rehoused on boards and with album), including one of a Black man inscribed "H.S.S." and Jan. 11/82 on the recto and verso of the mount (L.W. Cook, Boston, photographer) and one of a Black woman inscribed "Respects of Marie" on the verso (J.P. Silver, photographer)., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content., Contains title page: Album. Page illustrated with ornamental border., Contains several loose portraits., Various photographers, including Philadelphia photographers H. D. Garns & Co., G. W. Chesterton, African American photographer Gallo Cheston, Larkin Gallery, O. B. DeMorat, C. Hagemann & Co., Henrici & Garns, B. F. Reimer, H. D. Garns & Co., Miles & Foster, Broadbent & Phillips, M. S. Hagaman, Lothrop’s Ferrotype Gallery, Germon, J. Fenton, J. P. Silver, Parlor Galleries, as well as Washington, D.C. photographers Kets Kemethy and Rice, Norfolk photographer J. A. Faber, Trenton photographer J. Bainbridge, Charleston photographer Jesse E. Bolles, Boston photographer L. W. Cook, Salem photographer Smith & Bousley, and New York photographer G. H. Johnson., Inscription on front free end paper: R.D. Reef Venning, June 12/84, Washington, D.C., Some of the photographs contain inscriptions, including dates, identifications, and valedictions, on the versos., Label pasted on back cover: No. 464 Gately & Haskell, booksellers, Hoen building, Baltimore, MD., Ca. 1900 pastel portrait of possibly Clara, nurse to children and grandchildren of Sarah Sanders and R. W. Cogdell (P.9367.32, Stevens-Cogdell/ Sanders-Venning Collection) after ca. 1875 tintype photographed by J. Fenton (729 South St., Phila) P.2012.37.1.23b originally inserted in album and housed with album., See 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., See LCP exhibit catalogue: African American Miscellany p. 45., Genealogical charts available at repository., Some photographs dated during conservation treatment in July 2021. Conservation notes in collection research file at repository (Graphic Arts Department)., 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., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Richard DeReef Venning (1846-1929), born in Philadelphia, was son of seamstress Elizabeth and carpenter Edward W. Venning. Venning worked as a grocer in Philadelphia before being appointed as a clerk to the Eastern Division of the Pension Office in 1881. He resided in Washington, D.C. from the early 1880s to early 1900s, and boarded with the African American Presbyterian minister Francis Grimké and his brother, lawyer and diplomat Archibald Grimké for several years. In 1914, Venning returned to Philadelphia and lived with his nephew George E. Venning's family who referred to him as "Dah." The family was active in the Philadelphia African American political, social, educational, and cultural community from the 1850s to the 20th century, including the St. Thomas P.E. Church, Church of the Crucifixion, Central Presbyterian Church, the Colored Institute of Youth, and the Citizens Republican Club.
Creator
Venning, Richard DeReef, 1846-1929
Date
[ca. 1865 - ca. 1922]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning Collection [P.2012.37.1]