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]
[Floral watercolor]
Title
[Floral watercolor]
Description
Album page containing a drawing of a rose bud. The rose bud is depicted on a stem with a number of leaves and thorns., Probably by educator and anti-slavery activist Ada Howell Hinton, daughter of Frederick Augustus Hinton, barber, perfumer, abolitionist, and prominent member of the Philadelphia African American elite community., RVCDC, Description revised in 2022., Access points revised in 2022.
Date
[ca. 1840]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Mary Anne Dickerson album [13860.Q.69]
Fuchsia
Title
Fuchsia
Description
Album page containing a drawing of a stem of fuchsia with four flowers copied after a figure in a plate from James Andrews' Lessons in Flower Painting. A Series...(London: Charles Tilt, Fleet Street; John Menzies, Edinburgh; Thomas Wardle, Philadelphia [1836]), pl. 11. (LCP Am 1836 And, 13878.Q). The fuchsia is depicted with the blue petals, red sepals, and pink stamens of the flowers facing down. Image is also composed with the bud of a flower at the end of the stem that has multiple green leaves., Title and date from item., LCP exhibit catalogue: African American Miscellany p.45., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Douglass, was an artist, educator, community activist, and prominent Quaker member of the Philadelphia African American elite community. Mary Anne Dickerson was her pupil.
Creator
Douglass, S. M. (Sarah Mapps), 1806-1882, artist
Date
[July 15, 1846]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Mary Anne Dickerson album [13860.Q.75]
[Lily watercolor and poem]
Title
[Lily watercolor and poem]
Description
Album page containing an unattributed drawing of a purple lily above a four-line poem about friendship. Lily is depicted with green leaves., Title supplied by cataloguer., Date from item., Includes four-line poem: "The crown imperial, lillies of all kinds,/The Flower-de-luce being one. Of these I lack/To make you garlands of, and my sweet friend/To strew thee o'er and o'er., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Date
1839
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Mary Anne Dickerson album [13860.Q.26]