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Title: Life in Philadelphia. The lub letter
Description: Racist caricature depicting an African American woman reading a love letter. Depicts "Angelica” seated on a couch across from an end table on which a stationery box, ribbon, and a jar of ink rest as she reads her "billet-doux" addressed to “Miss Lillywhite, Snow Blackfriars." The couch has a wood frame and blue cushions. “Angelica” is attired in a pink cap-sleeved dress with lace details at the bust-line, blue, ankle-laced, slip-on shoes, and jewelry, including a heart-shaped pendant choker necklace, gold drop earrings, and rings. She wears her hair in a top knot and with a hair adornment. In the letter, “Augustus Octavio Whiteman” proclaims he cannot think of anything but her "classic features" and he would be "de Blackest ob villains" if he could see such "lubliness without feeling its influence." Figure of “Angelica” is portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features and her skin tone is depicted in black hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains several lines of dialogue in the vernacular in the image: Ah! A billet-doux from my Charming Augustus/ My Fairest Angelica/Dy Slender form and Classic Features hab made sich an impression on my poor heart dat I cannot tink ob anything else. Indeed I must be de Blackest of Villains if I could see sich lubliness widout feeling its Influence as de Song says_”Eye ob fire lips ob Dew” “Cheeks dat shame the roses hue”/Tremain your Adorable Lubber Augustus Octavio Whiteman., Inscribed: No. 4., Charles Hunt was a respected 19th century London engraver and etcher known mostly for his prints of sporting subjects., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Summers, William, artist
Date: [ca. 1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9710.4]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. A black charge
Description: Racist caricature depicting a courtroom scene where an African American man magistrate hears the case of an African American man detained for drunkenness and "-sulting de Fair sec." In the left, the judge who has one foot wrapped and raised on a foot rest sits at a table and holds a glass of liquid with a spoon in it near a bottle and corkscrew. He has a receding hairline, wears glasses, and is attired in a blue waistcoat, tan vest, white shirt and bowtie, black pantaloons, and a black shoe with a buckle. He states that the detainee has put a "Fair Face" on the matter, but "appearances are bery Black" against him. In the right, the hiccupping detainee, who is attired in a worn, striped shirt and blue jacket, and white patched pants is held by his jacket by an African American man constable attired in a brown robe with yellow details and black slip on shoes with buckles. He holds a staff in his right hand. The detainee explains to the judge that he is innocent and that all he did was ask to "scort a lady home." Next to the judge stands an African American man secretary, attired in a dark jacket and white shirt and bow tie. He stands with a quill in his hand in front of a ledger, ready to write down the testimony. Figures are depicted with oversize and exaggerated features. Their skin tone is depicted with black hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferrred from content and name of publisher., Contains three dialogue bubbles above the image: Please y-r Worship I hab taken up dis Nigger!! case he’s -nebriated and -sulting to de Fair sec./Well, young man, you seem to put a bery, Fair Face, on the matter. But, I can assure you, Appearances, are bery Black, against you. What hab you to say, to de Charge./It wasn’t me yr (hiccup) Honor. Dis old Black Beadle kick’d up (hiccup) all de Row case I asked bebe to scort a Lady home., Charles Hunt was a respected 19th century London engraver and etcher known mostly for his prints of sporting subjects., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Summers, William, artist
Date: [ca. 1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9710.5]

Title: Life in Philadephia [sic]. The valentine
Description: Racist caricature depicting an African American man reading a comic valentine in his bedroom as he prepares for bed. Shows the bearded man, beside a bed with a pink canopy, holding the back of a tilted chair (his waistcoat on it) with his left hand and holding up the valentine illustrated with a picture of the devil in his right hand. The man is portrayed with an angry expression and standing with his feet far apart. He wears a night cap, a blue-striped shirt, a black neck tie, brown pantaloons from which a watch fob hangs, white stockings and one red slipper. A water pitcher and boots lie near his feet. In the left, an African American woman, smiles, and stands behind the ajar bedroom door. She wears a night bonnet, neckerchief, short-sleeved shirt, blue skirt, and black slippers. A stairwell is seen behind her. Figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features and their skin tone is depicted in black hand coloring., Title from item,, Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains one bubble of dialogue in the vernacular within the image: Holl’a! What’s all dis about_. “De rose is Red de Violets blue” De Debils Black and so are You. Well dat’s bery Fair indeed., Inscribed: No. 6., Charles Hunt was a respected 19th-century London engraver and etcher known mostly for his prints of sporting subjects., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Summers, William, artist
Date: [ca. 1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9710.6]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. A black tea party
Description: Racist caricature satirizing the African American guests and the hosts, "Mr. Ludovico" and "Miss Rosabella," of a tea party. To the far right of the table, "Miss Rosabella," attired in a pink cap sleeve dress, pours steaming hot tea into a cup which tips over and spills onto a startled black cat on the floor. To her right, "Mr. Ludovico," attired in a blue waistcoat, passes a plate of sandwiches to "Miss Araminta,” attired in a pink, puff sleeved dress and who protests his taking the trouble. Next to them, a frowning, woman guest, attired in a pink puff sleeved dress asks “Miss Rosabella” for "anoder cup" of tea after she helps the other guests. An African American man servant (in the right) and the other guests (in the left), a mother holding her baby and resting her feet on an ottoman and her young son seated on a small chair, observe and comment about the spilled tea on the cat and the flirtatious behavior of "Mr. Ludovico." The man servant wears a jacket with epaulets. He holds a cloth. The mother wears a yellow dress with puffed sleeves. The boy wears a blue smock shirt and striped pants. He drinks a cup of tea. The scene is set in a parlor decorated with a carpet with an ornate pattern. Figures are depicted with oversize and exaggerated features. Their skin tone is depicted with black hand coloring. The women figures wear their hair in top knots, except the mother who wears a round, soft brimmed hat adorned with bows., Title from item., Date inferred by content and name of publisher., Inscribed: No. 7., Contains six dialogue bubbles above the image: I bery glad I ain’t the cat./I begin to see which way de cat jumps/When you have helped all de company Miss Rosabella, I’ll tank you for anoder cup/No trouble Miss Araminta none but de brave deserve de Fair/You take too mush trouble Mr. Ludovico./Mass cat tink him tea to hot., Charles Hunt was a respected London engraver who was most well known for his aquatints of sporting subjects., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Summers, William, delineator
Date: [ca. 1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | PRINT. Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9710.7]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. A black ball. La pastorelle
Description: Racist caricature ridiculing the manners and dress displayed at an African American dance ball by depicting attendees making malapropisms as they flirt with one another. A male attendee promenades with "Miss Zephyrina," on his left, dressed in a pink gown with white pantalettes and another woman dressed in a multi-colored gown on his right. He is impressed with Miss Zephyrina's "Rotations" from the poet "Joe Miller" who from which she quotes, "Grace in all he teps ... in all him action, dignity, and lub." In front of them, in the right, "Brudder Brutus" gestures toward Miss Zephyrina and states that he feels the same "Ting." Brutus, who is "cutting him capers by himself" has impressed the lady in the multi-colored dress who looks with rounded eyes upon his pointed toe. To the far right, a man depicted with bow-legs and attired in a large blue tie, and accompanied by a short-statured lady in a pink and yellow gown, is shown with his eyes looking to the left toward the "elegum Wenus in de trousers," Miss Zephrina. She makes his "heart tump about." Several other men and women attendees are seen in the background. Figures are depicted with oversize and exaggerated features. The men are depicted attired in coats with tails, pantaloons, stockings, and slipper shoes adorned with bows., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains five dialogue bubbles above the image: What a figure Broder Brutus look cutting him capers dare by himself./ What fine Rotations Miss Zephyrina make from de poets./ Grace in all he teps – heaben in he eye in all him action dignity and lub as de poet Joe Miller say/ If I didn’t feel jist de Ting how bery frit I should be afore such quizzes./ How dat elegum Wenus in de trousers make my heart tump about., Charles Hunt was a respected London engraver who was most well known for his aquatints of sporting subjects., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Summers, William, delineator
Date: [ca. 1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9710.10]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. A crier extraordinary
Description: Racist caricature of an African American town crier performing his duties in front of a storefront on a busy Philadelphia street. The crier, attired in worn clothing and a yellow straw hat, holds up his bell in his right hand and a sheet of news down with the other. He calls out the upcoming events, including sales of merchandise, a "sarmont on Temperance," and a "Colored Ball at Mrs. Johnsons." His attire includes a blue jacket, striped shirt with patches, a red cravat, white pants with patches, and black shoes. Several spectators listen, including an African American belle, attired in a striped, hooded cape over a dress with floral details; an African American street boy, attired in a worn jacket, vest, and pants and holding a broken mug; a white boy peddler, attired in a smock and boots and with his wares on a tray over his shoulder; and a white shopkeeper holding a cloth work in his hands as his stands in his store's doorway. The peddler boy walks a dog that has torn the crier's copy of the news. Drapery hangs in the store’s display window. African American figures are depicted with oversize and exaggerated features. White figures are depicted with exaggerated features.., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains five lines of dialogue in the vernacular below the image: Sale dis nite_Frying Pans_Grid Irons_Book_Oyster Knives and odder kinds of Medicines_Joe Williams will hab some fresh oysters at his stablishment_by tickler design, Mr. Hewlet will gib Imitations ober again_two or tree damaged Discussion Locks, and Rebd. Mr. P.Q. will deliver a sarmont on Temperance, half past 6 o’Clock precise, dats not all! Widout Money or Price _ de great Bull Phillip will be station at Squire S__s & dats not all nudder! dare will be a perlite & Colored Ball at Mr. Johnsons jus arter dis is bin done”_, Charles Hunt was a respected 19th-century London engraver and etcher known mostly for his prints of sporting subjects., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Summers, William, artist
Date: [ca. 1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9710.11]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. An unfair reflection
Description: Racist caricature depicting an African American man dandy, in his bedroom, grooming himself in front of a full-length mirror adorned with a candle holder and lit candle. He holds a brush up with his right hand to the top of his head of hair which is in a pompadour style. He holds a comb in his left hand that rests on his hip. He stands with his legs apart. He is attired in a green waistcoat with tails, a white shirt and cravat, yellow vest, black pants, and black shoes. A handkerchief hangs out of the back pocket of his jacket. He ponders Miss Carolina's "unfair reflection" about the "paleness" of his complexion. Scene also includes a pitcher and towel rest, a partial view of a bed with a canopy next to a bedside table on which a straightening iron rests beside a candle stick. Also shows a full-length rug on the floor. The man is depicted with oversize and exaggerated features. His skin tone is depicted with black hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains one bubble of dialogue in the vernacular within image: It was Bery unfair of Miss Carolina to Reflect on Paleness ob my Complexion. I consider dat I hab got a bery Good Color., Charles Hunt was a respected 19th-century London engraver and etcher known mostly for his prints of sporting subjects., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Summers, William, artist
Date: [ca. 1860]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9713.1]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. Romeo and Juliet
Description: Racist caricature depicting an African American man-woman couple in the characters of Romeo and Juliet during the balcony scene from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." In the right, "Romeo" wearing an Elizabethan costume including a plumed white hat, red cape, and white sash, holds his right, gloved hand over his heart and his left, ungloved hand out and holding the edge of his cape. He recites, "How silver sweet sounds Lubbers Tongues by Night, like sorpest Music to attending Ears." In the left, from the balcony, "Juliet" responds with the self-derogatory remark that as her complexion is "de mark of night" it is impossible to see that "a maiden blush bepaint" on her cheek. She is attired in a pink puffed sleeve, décolleté dress, earrings, a necklace, and hair adornment. She holds a glove and fan in her right gloved hand at her side and her left hand rests on the balustrade of the balcony. A rose vine climbs up the balcony and the tops of trees and a balustrade are visible behind “Romeo.” Figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features and their skin tone is depicted in black hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains two lines of dialogue in the vernacular below image: Romeo: How silber sweet, sounds Lubbers Tongues by Night; like sorptest Music to attending Ears./Juliet: Dou know’st de mask ob night is on my face, else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek., Signed W.S. for William Summers in lower right corner., Charles Hunt was a respected 19th century London engraver and etcher known mostly for his prints of sporting subjects., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Summers, William, artist
Date: [ca. 1860]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9713.4]

Title: [Life in Philadelphia miniatures]
Description: Five cartes-de-visite size racist and sexist social caricatures derived from the series "Life in Philadelphia," including figures in brightly colored and ornately patterned fashion. Lines of dialogue are included below the images. Depicts a scene of a white man sexually harassing a white woman, their fashion caricatured (P.9717.1); a thwarted celebration of the election of Andrew Jackson centered on an African American man and boy portrayed in caricature (P.9717.2); a discussion of hot weather between an African American man and woman portrayed in caricature (P.9717.3); a dance ball centered on an African American man and woman portrayed in caricature ((P.9717.4); and the purchase of silk stockings by an African American woman portrayed in caricature (P.9717.5). The prints are captioned respectively: "Good Evening Miss..."; "Why for you hurrah for General Jackson?"; "How you find yourself dis hot weder Miss Chloe?"; "Shall I hab de honor to dance de next quadrille...?"; and "Have you any flesh colored silk stockings...?" The scenes also contain detailed backgrounds that include cityscape, pedestrian traffic, figures at celebration, bucolic scenery, the interior of a ballroom with white attendees, and the interior of a clothing store attended by a white man clerk speaking with a French dialect. The African American figures are portrayed with exaggerated features and stances. The white woman figure is portrayed with an exaggerated silhouette because of her fashion comprised of a bell-shaped overcoat and dress., Title supplied by cataloguer., Date inferred from content., P.9717.1 contains lines of dialogue below the image: Good evening Miss, shall I have the pleasure of walking with you._ Me Sir!! for whom do you take me, Sir?_ Come that’s a good one!-for whom do I take you? Why for myself to be sure., P.9717.2 contains lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: Hurrah! Hurrah for General Jackson. Why for you hurrah for General Jackson – you black Nigger – I’ll larn you better – I’m a ministration man., P.9717.3 contains lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: How you find yourself dis hot weder Miss Chloe? Pretty well I tank you Mr. Cesar, only I aspire too much., P.9717.4 contains lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: Shall I habe de honour to dance next Quadrille wid you Miss Minta. Tank you Mr. Cato wid much pleasure only I’, engaged for de next nine Set!”, P.9717.5 contains lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: Have you any Flesh color’d Silk Stockings young Man? Oui Madame! Her is von pair of de first quality., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date: [ca. 1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London) [P.9717.1-.5]

Title: [Life in Philadelphia miniatures]
Description: Five cartes-de-visite size racist and sexist social caricatures derived from the series "Life in Philadelphia," including figures in brightly colored and ornately patterned fashion. Lines of dialogue are included below the images. Depicts a scene of a white man sexually harassing a white woman, their fashion caricatured (P.9717.1); a thwarted celebration of the election of Andrew Jackson centered on an African American man and boy portrayed in caricature (P.9717.2); a discussion of hot weather between an African American man and woman portrayed in caricature (P.9717.3); a dance ball centered on an African American man and woman portrayed in caricature ((P.9717.4); and the purchase of silk stockings by an African American woman portrayed in caricature (P.9717.5). The prints are captioned respectively: "Good Evening Miss..."; "Why for you hurrah for General Jackson?"; "How you find yourself dis hot weder Miss Chloe?"; "Shall I hab de honor to dance de next quadrille...?"; and "Have you any flesh colored silk stockings...?" The scenes also contain detailed backgrounds that include cityscape, pedestrian traffic, figures at celebration, bucolic scenery, the interior of a ballroom with white attendees, and the interior of a clothing store attended by a white man clerk speaking with a French dialect. The African American figures are portrayed with exaggerated features and stances. The white woman figure is portrayed with an exaggerated silhouette because of her fashion comprised of a bell-shaped overcoat and dress., Title supplied by cataloguer., Date inferred from content., P.9717.1 contains lines of dialogue below the image: Good evening Miss, shall I have the pleasure of walking with you._ Me Sir!! for whom do you take me, Sir?_ Come that’s a good one!-for whom do I take you? Why for myself to be sure., P.9717.2 contains lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: Hurrah! Hurrah for General Jackson. Why for you hurrah for General Jackson – you black Nigger – I’ll larn you better – I’m a ministration man., P.9717.3 contains lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: How you find yourself dis hot weder Miss Chloe? Pretty well I tank you Mr. Cesar, only I aspire too much., P.9717.4 contains lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: Shall I habe de honour to dance next Quadrille wid you Miss Minta. Tank you Mr. Cato wid much pleasure only I’, engaged for de next nine Set!”, P.9717.5 contains lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: Have you any Flesh color’d Silk Stockings young Man? Oui Madame! Her is von pair of de first quality., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date: [ca. 1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London) [P.9717.1-.5]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. The cut direct. or getting up in the world
Description: Racist caricature portraying nouveau riche African Americans as prejudiced against lower class African Americans. Depicts an African American bootblack greeting an elegantly dressed African American couple who feign ignorance of the man's acquaintance after their return from New York. The raggedly dressed bootblack, while holding his rod of boots in one hand, uses his other hand to grab the hand of "Casar." "Casar" dressed in a hat and overcoat looks suspiciously at their joined hands. He states that the bootblack has mistaken his identity as his wife, dressed in a large bonnet with feathers and a veil and a dark overcoat, confirms the mistake and adds, "we are Guinea People, you Imperdent Nigger.", Charles Ingrey was one of the premier London lithographic printers of the 1830s., Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of Jacksonian America (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 80-81. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)
Date: [ca. 1832]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) (P.9718a)

Title: Tregears black jokes. The Lady Patroness of Alblacks
Description: Racist caricature depicting a middle-class African American woman looking at herself in a full-length mirror in her well- decorated bedroom. Shows the woman, attired in a white, low décolleté underdress with puffed, cap sleeves, slightly lifting up the skirt of her dress in her left hand and her raised right hand holding a comb near her hair that is styled in a top knot. She looks at her reflection. She is portrayed with a wrinkled brow and bags under her eyes. Her reflection does not have these features. In the right, a bed with a canopy on which a wide-brimmed hat rests on a post; a table on which a pin pad, hair comb, pearl necklace, and earrings rest; and a black cat with its back raised are visible. In the left, on either side of the mirror, a pink dress rests on a clothing rack and white ankle-lace shoes lie on the carpeted floor. Scene also includes three framed picture on the wall in the background. Two are partially visible and the one fully visible shows a genre scene outside of a stone dwelling where an African American man is on his knee and holding the hand of an African American woman who stands in front of him. Figure is portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features and her skin tone is depicted in black hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Inscribed: No. 2., This caricature is similar in content to the prints from the series, "Life in Philadelphia" (London Set), and has been catalogued as a part of the series., Charles Hunt was a respected 19th century London engraver and etcher known mostly for his prints of sporting subjects., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Summers, William, delineator
Date: [ca. 1834]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia PRINT | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9719]

Title: The Philadelphia dandies. A group of fashionables. "Shoot folly as it flies."
Description: Caricature lampooning "fashionable" middle-class Philadelphians depicting two scenes of “belles” being greeted. The first scene portrays a white belle, in the right, being greeted by a white dandy, in the left, who holds up a monocle in his left hand and asks, "How do you do?" They are each bent over and face each other. The dandy is attired in a white ruffled shirt, blue waistcoat, tan pants, and grey boots with spurs. He holds down a black top hat from which a cane hangs in his right hand. The belle is attired in a large green bonnet that curves at the back of her head and that is adorned with feathers and a ribbon, a pink, long-sleeved, knee-length, belle-shaped dress, and boots. She holds a green umbrella up in her right hand toward the raised arm of the dandy and the back of her dress has risen up. A pug-like jumps up and barks at her from behind. She responds that she is “rather cold.” The second scene depicts a white belle being greeted by a "fashionable" white woman and girl whose hand she holds. The women and girl are all similarly attired in large bonnets adorned with flowers, long-sleeved, high waisted, calf-length dresses in pink or green, and boots or ankle-laced shoes. They are also portrayed with stooped postures and accentuated posteriors. The woman with the child also holds a pink purse in the same hand as that of the girl who also wears pantalettes and holds a green parasol in her left hand. A third woman wearing a mortarboard style hat adorned with feathers, a long-sleeved, calf-length, high-waisted dress with under skirt, and boots, holds a spear-shaped umbrella over her shoulder and "marches" passed them in the right. Also, shows a pug-like dog standing in the left by the women who greet each other., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Contains two bubbles of dialogue within image of first scene: How do you do? How do you do? Madam! How is it with you today? It is rather Cold, sir!-, This caricature is similar in content to the prints from the series, "Life in Philadelphia" (London Set), and has been catalogued as part of the series., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Kensett, Thomas, 1786-1829, engraver
Date: [ca. 1820-ca. 1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9720]

Title: Life in New York
Description: Collection of social caricatures lampooning the pretensions of early 19th century middle-class African American New Yorkers. Influenced by an increased fascination with American culture and a growing racism pending the abolition of slavery in England, the black characters are depicted in outlandish dress with exaggerated manners, and speaking in patois and malapropisms in an inept attempt to mimic white high society. The caricatures focus on courtship and the merchant of a steam press laundry., English reprint of the Anthony Imbert series "Life in New York" originally published around 1830. Although the American series consisted of at least eight prints, the number of prints included in the London series is unknown. LCP holds two of the series. The English prints were published in London in the early 1830s by W.H. Isaacs, H. Isaacs, and G.S. Tregear., Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of Jacksonian America (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 93-97. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)., 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.
Date: [ca. 1831]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in New York (London Set)

Title: Life in New York. The rivals
Description: Racist and sexist caricature depicting two African American dandies attempting to attain a date with "Miss Dinah" who stands between them on a New York street. In the left, "Mr. Sancho", wearing light blue pantaloons, a blue waistcoat, a high neck collar, and cravat, stands with his left foot pointed, and slightly bows, He holds his top hat in his left, ungloved hand and his removed glove in his right, gloved hand. He asks “Miss Dinah” to "squeze the brupt inbitation" and go to the Battery with him. "Miss Dinah," dressed in a yellow gown with puffed sleeves and a lace collar, a wide-brimmed hat with ribbons, feathers, and a veil, as well as gloves, has her head turned to him and informs him that she has a "privyous gagement to Mr. Romio." She also holds a closed fan in her right hand. In the right, "Mr. Romio," dressed in a black top hat, white trousers, a green waistcoat, a large blue tie, and with a monocle hanging from his neck, stands slightly bowed, and responds that as he has been standing there for three hours he hopes that she will not break her "gagemen" to him. The figures are portrayed with oversize features and their skin tone is depicted in black hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains several lines of dialogue in dialect and the vernacular below the image: Shall I hab the honour of glanting you to the battery, this afternoon, Miss Dinah? Hope you’ll squeeze the brupt inbitation/O you allready squeezed, Mr. Sancho, only, I made a privyous gagement to Mr. Romio/hope you not going to break your gagemen, to me, I hab been standing here, for three hours., Charles Ingrey was a premier London lithographic printer of the 1830s., Shane White and Graham White's Stylin': African American Expressive Culture...(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), p. 95. (LCP Ii 4, A2880.O)., 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., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Purchase 1968.
Date: [ca. 1831]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in New York (London Set) [7701.F]

Title: A bran new coon in town
Description: Racist, satiric postcard depicting an African American family (portrayed as racist stereotypes) welcoming a “new” member, a baby. Shows the grandfather standing and weighing the infant on a hand held scale, as the grandmother, attired in a head kerchief, a floral shirt, a skirt, and an apron, cradles the baby’s head. In the right, the father smiles as he stands leaning down with both hands clutching a small table. In the center, a young boy sits at the table eating as he looks up at the baby. In the left, the mother sits smiling beside a stove as she pours water from a kettle into a cup., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Copyright, 1898, and published by Knaffl & Bro., Knoxville, Tenn., Originally published in an 1898 edition of Leslie's Weekly as part of "The Blackville Gallery" series under the title "Weighing the Christmas Baby.", RVCDC, Accessioned 1999., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Digitized with funding from a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
Date: 1898
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department LCP postcards - Genre [P.9725.1]

Title: Three Black crows
Description: Racist, satiric postcard depicting three young African American boys perched from oldest to youngest on a branch as "Black crows." The boys are attired in loin clothes. The middle child is crying with his hands over his eyes and falling off the branch. In the left, the oldest boy attempts to hold him up. The youngest, a baby, pats the middle child's shoulder with his right hand., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Copyrighted, 1899., Accessioned 1999., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Digitized with funding from a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
Date: 1899
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department LCP postcards - Genre [P.9725.2]

Title: " Wish you'd hush"
Description: Racist postcard depicting an African American boy looking exasperated at the crying African American baby beside him. The children are shown from the waist up and are bare-chested. The older boy has a glistening substance around his mouth and on his cheeks. The baby holds, possibly, ice in their hands., Title from item., Publication information and date from copyright statement: Copyrighted, 1905, and published by Knaffl & Bro., Knoxville, Tenn., Accessioned 1999., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Digitized with funding from a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
Date: 1905
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department LCP postcards - Genre [P.9725.3]

Title: Die Americaner wiedersetzen sich der Stemple Acte, und verbrennen das aus England nach america Gesandte Stemple Papier zu Boston im August 1764
Description: Scene depicting a riot in the town square of Boston protesting the enactment of the Stamp Act in 1765. Cheering spectators and participants, including a woman and an African American man, surround a bonfire, and brandish farm tools, and throw stamped paper onto the flames. Others watch from building windows overlooking the square., Inscribed upper left corner: S. 61., Plate 1 from Matthias Sprengel. Historisch-genalogischer Calendar oder Jahrbuch... (Leipzig: bey Haude und Spener Von Berlin, 1783). (LCP Am 1783 Spre, Log 5059.D)., Accessioned 1982., 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., Chodowiecki was a prominent German engraver and painter who specialized in prints of historical subjects.
Creator: Chodowiecki, Daniel, 1726-1801, etcher
Date: [1783]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - American Revolution [P.8935.1]

Title: Die Einwohner von Boston wersen den englisch-ostindischen Thee ins a Meer am 18 December 1773
Description: Scene depicting the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Protestors board and dump barrels of tea from English ships as spectators watch from the shore. Among the spectators is an African American man sitting on a barrel and a Native American man smoking a pipe., Inscribed upper left corner: S.74., Plate 2 from Matthias Sprengel. Historisch-genalogischer Calendar oder Jahrbuch... (Leipzig: bey Haude und Spener von Berlin, 1783). (LCP Am 1783 Spre, Log 5059.D)., Accessioned 1982., 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., Chodowiecki was a prominent German engraver and painter who specialized in prints of historical subjects.
Creator: Chodowiecki, Daniel, 1726-1801, etcher
Date: [1783]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - American Revolution [P.8935.2]

Title: Die Hessen vom General Washington am 25ten Dec. 1776 zu Trenton uberfallen, werden als Kriegsgefangne in Philadelphia eingebracht
Description: Scene depicting General George Washington and his bodyguard on horseback marching the Hessian prisoners captured on Christmas 1776 over a Philadelphia drawbridge. Spectators line the bridge, including a woman and an African American man., Inscribed upper left corner: S.iii., Plate 6 from Matthias Sprengel. Historisch-genalogischer Calendar oder Jahrbuch... (Leipzig: bey Haude und Spener von Berlin, 1783). (LCP Am 1783 Spre, Log. 5059.D)., Accessioned 1982., 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., Chodowiecki was a prominent German engraver and painter who specialized in prints of historical subjects.
Creator: Chodowiecki, Daniel, 1726-1801, etcher
Date: [1783]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - American Revolution [P.8935.6]

Title: Writing the Emancipation Proclamation
Description: Pro-Confederacy caricature bombasting Abraham Lincoln's legal and moral authority to write the Emancipation Proclamation. Depicts a demented Lincoln writing the Proclamation seated at a table adorned with a spectral eye; ram horned African American heads, portrayed in racist caricature; and legs ending in cloven hooves. He sits upon a chair with a back decorated with the head of an ass, the "U.S. Constitution" trampled beneath his foot. Atop the table, the devil holds his inkwell before him. A liquor decanter rests upon a sidetable nearby. On the wall, framed paintings hang depicting "saintly" St. Ossawotamie (i.e., John Brown), and the "murderous" rebellion of the enslaved in the 1790s in "St. Domingo"(i.e., Haiti). Behind Lincoln, near window drapes held back by a vulture headed tie back, a statue of liberty, her liberty cap fallen over her face, rests her shield down upon the wall pedestal on which she stands., Inscribed upper left corner: 25., Issued as plate 25 in Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), a series of pro-Confederacy cartoons drawn and published by Baltimore cartoonist Adalbert John Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada. The "first issue" of 10 prints (numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24), with imprint "London, 1863" were printed as etchings. The remaining 20 prints (numbered 4, 8, 9-11, 14, 17-20, 23, 25-27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 40, 45) headed "Second and third issues of V. Blada's war sketches" and dated "London, July 30, 1864" were printed as lithographs., Title and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Research file about artist available at repository., Accessioned 1935., RVCDC, 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator: Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Volck - Sketches - Volck 25 [2990.F.10]

Title: Pennsylvania Colonization Society A view of Bassa Cove in Liberia
Description: Honorary life membership certificate containing a view of Liberia, the African American colony established by the American Colonization Society in 1822. In the left foreground, three bare-chested Black people, attired in white sarongs, stand at the West African cove across from the small village. The village is comprised of buildings and is surrounded by a fence. People and cattle stroll the grounds. The Pennsylvania Colonization Society, established in 1826, was a state chapter of the controversial American Colonization Society established in 1816 to promote Black American emigration to resolve the problem of race inequality and to end slavery., Title from item., Issued to [Tho]mas Sully, Esquire of Philadelphia on October 24, 1848 for his donation of "valuable original portraits." Signed by [Robert B.] Davidson, rec. secretary; Elliot Cresson, corresponding secretary; J.R. Ingersoll, president., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Gift of Hirschl and Adler Galleries, 1989., 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., Lehman & Duval was a Philadelphia partnership between painter, lithographer, and engraver George Lehman, and lithographer, Peter S. Duval, that lasted from 1835 until 1837.
Date: [ca. 1837]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Philadelphia Certificates [P.9261]

Title: [Rise and progress of abolition ; Instruments of bondage and torture]
Description: Abolitionist book illustration depicting a diagram of the author's "four classes of the forerunners and adjunctors" in the history of the abolition of the Transatlantic slave trade containing the names, religious and social groups, and events significant in the movement before 1787., Abolitionist book illustration depicting instruments used in the Transatlantic slave trade including handcuffs, ankle shackles, thumb screws, and a speculum orise which was used to force feed enslaved people., Title supplied by cataloger., Uncut plates from Thomas Clarkson's, The History of the Rise, Progress, & Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament. Vol. I (Philadelphia: James P. Parke, 1808). (LCP Am 1808 Clar, 1934.D)., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of Civil War portraits. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., 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.
Creator: Kneass, William, 1780-1840, engraver
Date: 1808
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Slavery [5755.F.17]

Title: Mount Vaughan Scite of Protest[an]t. Episcopal Mission, Cape Palmos, West Africa
Description: View of the lush grounds of the mission begun in the Black emigrant colony of Liberia in 1835 to educate and spread the gospel in Africa. Depicts the "mission houses," "school house," houses of a "native laborer" and "a colonist," and "native cattle broken to the yoke." A Black man guides a cattle-drawn cart on the dirt road outside of the fenced mission fields where Black laborers work. Begun under the auspices of the American Colonization Society and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the mission moved on March 4, 1837 to Mt. Vaughan, named in honor of the Missionary Society's Secretary of the Board, Rev. John Vaughan. Contains key to figures below the image., Title from item., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1969, p. 56., Purchase 1969., 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., Breton was a 19th-century Philadelphia painter, delineator, and early lithographer who specialized in views.
Creator: Breton, William L., approximately 1773-1855, artist
Date: 1838
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Views - Foreign - Africa [7821.F]

Title: Distinguished colored men
Description: Commemorative print containing a montage of portraits of eminent African American men centered around a portrait of Frederick Douglass and bordered by vignettes. Portraiture depicts: "Robert Brown Elliott, Ex-member of Congress" from South Carolina; "Blanche K. Bruce, Ex-Senator, U.S." from Mississippi; "Prof. R.T. Greener, Dean, Howard University"; "Wm. Wells Brown, M.D., author of the Rising Son"; "Henry Highland Garnett [sic], Late Minister of Liberia"; "Rt. Rev. Richard Allen, 1st Bishop of the African M.E. Church" in Philadelphia; first African American governor, "P.B.S. Pinchback, Ex-Governor of Louisiana"; "J.H. Rainey, Ex-Member of Congress"; "E.D. Bassett, Ex-Minister to Hayti"; "John Mercer Langston, Minister to Hayti". Vignettes depict a cornstalk, a twig of cotton, and scenes of romanticized images of African American home life by a waterway showing African Americans playing instruments, dancing, transporting watermelon by barge, and relaxing., Title from item., Inscribed lower right corner: Agents Wanted., Lower left corner inexpertly hand painted., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1975, p. 61., Accessioned 1975., RVCDC, 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date: 1883
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC - African American Heroes [8139.F]

Title: From the plantation to the Senate
Description: Commemorative print containing portraits of eminent 19th-century African American men above a central cotton plantation scene. In front of the plantation residence by a river, enslaved African American men and women pick and transport baskets of cotton as a well-dressed African American foreman on horseback confers with a man on the dirt road. Flanking the central portrait of "Hon. Frederick Douglass, Champion of Freedom" on a background of tropical flowers, vines, and fruits are: "Hon. Benj. S. Turner of Alabama"; "Rt. Rev. Richard Allen" of Philadelphia, "1st Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church"; "Hon. H.R. Revels of Mississippi"; "Hon. Joseph H. Rainy [sic] of South Carolina"; "Hon. Josiah T. Walls of Florida"; and "Wm. Wells Brown, M.D., Author of the Rising Sun [sic]". Also contains vignettes of romanticized images of African American home life by a river showing African Americans playing instruments and dancing, transporting watermelon by barge, and relaxing outside their home., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Copyrighted 1883 by Gaylord Watson., Watson was a New York lithographer who specialized in maps., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1974, p. 61., Purchase 1974., RVCDC, 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date: 1883
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC - African American Heroes [8091.F.275]

Title: Free negroes in the North
Description: Caustic and racist satire depicting African American life in the North as depraved, destitute, and corrupt. On "Lovely Lane," at the dilapidated house of prostitution - "Praise the Lord Bare Bones Colored Men Home" - Union soldiers and African American prostitutes carouse, fight, and are rousted by the police. A white man wearing a cross, possibly a caricature of Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, hands a "Tract on Slavery" to an older African American man beggar who sits beneath a notice of an abolitionist talk. Two African American grave diggers display and accept money for their exhumed corpse from a white man physician with the medical newspaper, "Boston Lancet," in his pocket., Inscribed upper left corner: 26., Issued as plate 26 in Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), a series of pro-Confederacy cartoons drawn and published by Baltimore cartoonist Adalbert John Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada. The "first issue" of 10 prints (numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24), with imprint "London, 1863" were printed as etchings. The remaining 20 prints (numbered 4, 8, 9-11, 14, 17-20, 23, 25-27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 40, 45) headed "Second and third issues of V. Blada's war sketches" and dated "London, July 30, 1864" were printed as lithographs., Title and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Research file about artist available at repository., RVCDC, Accessioned 1935., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator: Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Volck - Sketches - Volck 26 [2990.F.17]

Title: Free negroes in Haiti
Description: Racist satire promoting Confederate fears of a liberated enslaved society depicting Black Haitians portrayed as caricatures of cannibalistic savages. In a jungle setting, naked and bare-chested Black men and women participate in the sacrifice of a Black baby on a stone altar. The leader or shaman, attired in a feathered head piece, appears to pray to the gods over the headless body, as another holds a long stake ending with the baby's head. Some play drums with human bones, others eat human flesh in the background. In 1804, Haiti became the first free Black republic after a 13 year revolution emanating from a rebellion by the enslaved against the white enslaver plantation society., Inscribed upper left corner: 27., Issued as plate 27 in Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), a series of pro-Confederacy cartoons drawn and published by Baltimore cartoonist Adalbert John Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada. The "first issue" of 10 prints (numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24), with imprint "London, 1863" were printed as etchings. The remaining 20 prints (numbered 4, 8, 9-11, 14, 17-20, 23, 25-27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 40, 45) headed "Second and third issues of V. Blada's war sketches" and dated "London, July 30, 1864" were printed as lithographs., Title and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Research file about artist available at repository., RVCDC, Accessioned 1935., 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.
Creator: Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Volck - Sketches - Volck 27 [2990.F.18]

Title: Etching of the large engraving of Mexican news one of the six plates for the members of 1851
Description: Genre print emphasizing the influence of the press on national sentiment and consumer culture during the Mexican War. The "penny presses" drummed up public interest and support for the war by espousing the doctrine of Manifest Destiny as the justification for Westward expansion. Depicts a crowd of white men on the porch of the "American Hotel" eagerly listening to an astonished-looking man reading the news of the progress to annex Texas. An African American man and child, attired in tattered clothing, listen from the steps of the porch. In the right, a white woman leans out of the window of the hotel and strains to hear the news., Title from item., After an 1848 painting "War News from Mexico" by Robert Caton Woodville exhibited at the free gallery of the American Art-Union in 1849. In the collections of the National Gallery of Art on long-term loan., One of six etchings printed in 1851 for the members of the American Art-Union in New York., Published in Vincent Virga et al.'s Eyes of the nation: A visual history of the United States. (NY: Knopf, 1997), p.115., Gift of Clarence Wolf, 1984., 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., Alfred Jones was born in Liverpool in 1819 and traveled to America with his family. He attended the National Academy of Design in New York, and in 1839 took an apprenticeship with a banknote engraver. He returned to Europe in 1840, where he studied under London’s master engravers. After returning to America, he became one of the premier engravers in the country, eventually establishing a career in postage stamp engraving. He also engraved a number of images for the American Art-Union, including this one, which was originally engraved and sold by subscription to the union’s members in 1851.
Creator: Jones, Alfred, 1819-1900, engraver
Date: [1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - Mexican War [P.9046.18]

Title: Etching of the large engraving of Mexican news one of the six plates for the members of 1851
Description: Genre print emphasizing the influence of the press on national sentiment and consumer culture during the Mexican War. The "penny presses" drummed up public interest and support for the war by espousing the doctrine of Manifest Destiny as the justification for Westward expansion. Depicts a crowd of white men on the porch of the "American Hotel" eagerly listening to an astonished-looking man reading the news of the progress to annex Texas. An African American man and child, attired in tattered clothing, listen from the steps of the porch. In the right, a white woman leans out of the window of the hotel and strains to hear the news., Title from item., After an 1848 painting "War News from Mexico" by Robert Caton Woodville exhibited at the free gallery of the American Art-Union in 1849. In the collections of the National Gallery of Art on long-term loan., One of six etchings printed in 1851 for the members of the American Art-Union in New York., Published in Vincent Virga et al.'s Eyes of the nation: A visual history of the United States. (NY: Knopf, 1997), p.115., Gift of Clarence Wolf, 1984., 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., Alfred Jones was born in Liverpool in 1819 and traveled to America with his family. He attended the National Academy of Design in New York, and in 1839 took an apprenticeship with a banknote engraver. He returned to Europe in 1840, where he studied under London’s master engravers. After returning to America, he became one of the premier engravers in the country, eventually establishing a career in postage stamp engraving. He also engraved a number of images for the American Art-Union, including this one, which was originally engraved and sold by subscription to the union’s members in 1851.
Creator: Jones, Alfred, 1819-1900, engraver
Date: [1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - Mexican War [P.9046.18]

Title: Five Points, 1827
Description: Chaotic street scene after the 1827 painting Five Points by George Catlin depicting the early 19th-century New York City lower income area east of City Hall. Shows several white and Black men and women, individually, as couples, and in groups at the crossroads of Orange, Anthony, and Cross Streets. The streets are lined with places of "entertainment," "lodgings," and grocery stores primarily selling liquor. Amongst the melee on the streets, a large brawl and several small fights occur, people are knocked over, "couples" of men and women stroll and engage in conversation, peddlers sell their goods, a white woman pumps water, and pigs roam free., Title from item., Inscribed lower right corner: For Valentine's Manual., Plate from D.T. Valentine. Manual of the corporation of the city of New York for 1855 (New York: New York Common Council, 1855) (LCP Am 1855 New Yor Com)., Original painting in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, bequest of Mrs. Screven Lorillard (Alice Whitney), from the collection of Mrs. J. Insley Blair, 2016., Gift of Mrs. S. Marguerite Brenner, 1984., RVCDC, 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., McSpedon & Baker, the New York lithographic partnership of Thomas McSpedon and Charles W. Baker, primarily performed stationery work. Illustrative plates executed by the partnership are rare.
Date: [1855]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - Views - New York - New York City [P.9057.8]

Title: The gallant charge of the Fifty Fourth Massachusetts (Colored) Regiment On the rebel works at Fort Wagner, Morris Island near Charleston, July 18th 1863, and death of Colonel Robt. G. Shaw
Description: Commemorative print depicting the African American regiment's heralded battle at Fort Wagner at the moment of the death of their white commander, Robert Gould Shaw. Shaw, his hand on his chest from the fatal gunshot, falls back on top of the parapet. His color-bearer holding the American flag inscribed, "54th Mass." continues to charge. Gory hand-to-hand battle and bayonet fighting proceeds around them. Soldiers fall to their death. The battle at Fort Wagner fomented Union support of African American regiments and immortalized Shaw as a martyr for the cause., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress i the year 1863, by Currier & Ives, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York., LCP exhibition catalogue: Negro History, p. 50., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of Civil War views. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator: Currier & Ives
Date: 1863
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Civil War - Campaigns & battles - Fort Wagner [5779.F.38]

Title: Smoke Day's standard of the world Durham smoking tobacco
Description: Racist advertisement for J.R. Day and Brother smoking tobacco depicting a horse race between two African American men jockeys, portrayed in caricature. In the right, the jockey, attired in a blue and yellow cap and long-sleeved shirt, yellow pants, and riding boots, grimaces as he holds the reins to his white horse. The winning jockey, attired in a red and white striped cap and long-sleeved shirt, yellow pants, and riding boots, grasps the reins as his body lifts off of his brown horse. He screams, “Bound to win!” In the background, white men, all smoking pipes with "Day's Standard" tobacco, watch the race from a spectators' box behind a fence inscribed, "They all smoke it?" James R. Day left W.T. Blackwell & Co. in 1878 and applied for a patent for his smokeless tobacco in 1879., Title from item., Date inferred from operation of the advertised business., Text printed below image: Manufactured by Jas. R. Day, Late of the firm of W.T. Blackwell & Co. for J.R. Day & Bro, Durham, N.C., Gift of Carol Baldridge, 1997., RVCDC, 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.
Date: [ca. 1880]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Advertisements [P.9525]

Title: [Entry of Washington into New York, after the city was evacuated by the British in 1783, Nov. 20th]
Description: Print after the painting displayed at the National Academy of Design in New York by native Philadelphian and prolific 19th-century book illustrator, Felix Octavius Carr Daley. Depicts the historic scene at the close of the American Revolution showing General Washington, his hand on his hip and his face turned to the left, on horseback and triumphantly parading his troops through a crowded New York City street on November 25, 1783. Exuberant spectators, some running and some held back by uniformed guards, line both sides of the thoroughfare and cheer from balconies, roofs, and windows. Spectators include many parents with children. In the left foreground, an African American man servant or waiter, attired in hoop earrings, a white collared shirt, a bow tie, a jacket, breeches with white stockings, and buckled shoes, carries a serving tray under his arm and stands and peers into the street to watch Washington. Three dogs run in the foreground., Title from: Illustrated by Darley: an exhibition of original drawings..., May 4- June 18, 1978 (Delaware Art Museum. Wilmington: The Museum, 1978). (LCP Print Room Yb A2696.O)., Alternate title from 1863 artist's proof at the Museum of the City of New York., Manuscript signature of engraver in lower right corner., Gift of Dr. Anthony N.B. Garvan, 1981., 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., Ritchie, a New York painter and prolific engraver of portraits and genre scenes, produced at least three engravings after the works of F.O.C. Darley.
Creator: Ritchie, Alexander Hay, 1822-1895, engraver
Date: c1858
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC - American Revolution [P.8646.3]

Title: Uncle Tom's Cabin. On the Levee
Description: Racist scene derived from Stowe's popular abolitionist book, probably a theater advertisement for a minstrel production. Depicts enslaved African American men and women, portrayed in racist caricature with exaggerated facial features, having a hoedown on a levee. In the foreground, two women and two men dance facing the viewer. In the left, the woman, attired in a straw hat with a white ribbon tied over the hat and under her chin, a pink smock, a green skirt, black stockings, and black shoes, puts her right foot on its heel and raises her left arm up. Beside her the man, attired in a yellow collared shirt, red suspenders, gray and yellow checked pants, and brown shoes, steps back on his right leg as he raised his right arm up. Beside him, the woman, attired in a yellow headkerchief, a green collared shirt with red polka dots, a copper colored skirt with black polka dots, black stockings, and black shoes, holds her skirt with her right hand as her left hand touches her mouth. In the right, the man, attired in a yellow collared shirt with red stripes, white overalls, and black shoes, leans to the right with both hands in his pockets. Seated in the right, two men play banjos. More African American men and women, seated and standing, clap, sing, and raise their arms up. In the background are stacks of wooden crates, and the water is visible., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Copyright 1899. Courier Litho. Co. Buffalo, N.Y., Purchase 1988., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date: 1899
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC - Entertainment [P.9219]

Title: This view of the barracks Fort Charlotte and part of the Island of New Providence to the westward of the town of Nasssau taken from the top of the guard house Is respectfully inscribed to Wm. Dowdeswell Esqr. Governor General of the Bahamas. And the inhabitants of those islands by their most obedient servant, John Irving
Description: View of the two-story British barracks and fort near the coast of the Bahamas. A British barge is docked at the nearby levee. Relaxed British soldiers converse near a cannon on the lookout. A Black man leads a horse and cart loaded with coal up the roadway to the barracks., Title from item., Manuscript signature on verso: N. Franks Esq. L. Irving, Dowdeswell, a noted print collector, was appointed Governor of the Bahamas in 1797., 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.
Creator: Hubert & Stadler, engraver
Date: Jan 1st, 1802
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC - Views - Foreign - Bahamas [1879.F.2]

Title: Africa. America
Description: Abolition print juxtaposing two female allegorical figures in chariots representing Africa and America. In front of a backdrop of tropical trees and huts, "Africa," depicted as a Black woman, is attired in a feathered headpiece, an orange shawl covering one breast, and a pink sarong. She holds a flag inscribed "Slave Trade abolish'd in England 1806" and the reins of two lions pulling her chariot. In front of a waterfall, probably Niagara Falls, "America," depicted as a white woman, is dressed in Native American attire, including a feathered headpiece, a breast plate, an orange cape, a pink and blue sari, and an axe strapped to her back. She holds the American flag, decorated with a portrait of George Washington, and the reins of two tigers pulling her chariot. Near the wheels of her chariot, a rattlesnake is coiled., Title from item., Date inferred by content and medium., Name of publisher illegible., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1969, p. 56., Purchase 1969., RVCDC, 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.
Date: [ca. 1808]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC-Allegories [7812.F]

Title: L' Amerique
Description: Allegorical print depicting the Americas as a Black woman and boy. The woman dressed in a bejeweled feather head piece, pearls, and shawl has a black parrot perched on her hand and overlooks the shoulder of a reclining boy. The boy, draped in a blue cloth and holding a bow, his cache of arrows beneath him, wears a feather armband and gold collar. He returns the glance of the woman. A palm tree stands behind them., Title from item., Date inferred from content., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Purchase 1971., 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., Haid was a Bavarian engraver, portraitist, and book illustrator.
Creator: Haid, Johann Jacob, 1704-1767, artist
Date: [ca. 1755]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC-Allegories [7993.F.3]

Title: Columbia trading with all the world
Description: Allegorical print depicting "Columbia" (i.e., the United States) as a white woman with brown hair, on the deck of a ship. She holds a caduceus and disperses treasures from a horn of plenty held by "Wisdom," who is portrayed as a white woman attired in a helmet, armor, a skirt, and sandals. Wisdom holds a spear in her left hand and gives the treasures to three male figures representing the country's international trade partners. Figures depicted are: Africa as a Black man attired in a headpiece shaped like an elephant's head and leaning on a tusk of ivory; Asia as a bearded man with a light-brown color skin tone attired in a turban; and South America as a man in a feathered headpiece carrying a bow., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Possibly published in London and not the United States., Revised state. Previous title and imprint faintly visible and illegible below image., Gift of Dr. Mary DeWitt Pettit, 1965., RVCDC, 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.
Date: [ca. 1789-ca. 1800]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Allegories [7737.F]

Title: United States soldiers at Camp "William Penn" Philadelphia, PA "Rally round the flag, boys! Rally once again, shouting the battle cry of freedom"
Description: Recruitment print depicting members of an African American regiment posed with their white commander at Camp William Penn, Cheltenham Township. The troop members, including the drummer boy, attired in military uniforms, are gathered on an open green near a tent. One soldier holds the flagpole with the American flag. Begun in 1863 with the support of the Union League, eleven regiments were formed at Camp William Penn, the first Pennsylvania camp for volunteer African American regiments. William Penn was the largest Civil War camp for the training of officers to lead African American troops., Title from item., Date inferred from content., LCP exhibition catalog: Negro history,, Edwin Wolf's Philadelphia: portrait of an American city. (Philadelphia: Camino Books, 1990), p. 217., Probably originally part of a McAllister scrapbook., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator: P.S. Duval & Son, lithographer
Date: [1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Civil War - Military Camps - Penn [P.9177.17]

Title: The colored volunteer Marching into Dixie
Description: Portrait of an African American man Union soldier, attired in a uniform, a "U.S." belt buckle, and a cap. He holds his rifle over his right shoulder and carries a sleeping mat on his back., Inscribed under title: 843., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Originally part of a McAllister, Hart, Phillips Civil War scrapbook. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator: Currier & Ives
Date: [1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC-Civil War-Soldiers [(9)1540.F]

Title: This certifies that [blank] having paid to the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church the sum of twenty dollars, is hereby constituted a member during life conformably to the seventh article of the constitution. New York, [blank]. [Blank] chairman. [Blank] clerk
Description: Life membership certificate containing a vignette contrasting scenes of apocalyptic doom and religious salvation. From the celestial heavens, the hand of God points to an angel trumpeting salvation and wielding the Bible; a white man missionary preaches to a large group of Native Americans; and a converted African family of a man, woman, and child, kneels and reaches toward the winged messenger of God. On the ground are broken chains and swords, and a hut and palm trees are in the background. Opposite the scenes of salvation, a cross rises from the ground, bringing forth a river of redemption too late for the lost souls of a bejeweled white woman and a skull-headed man entangled by serpents. Behind them a temple, probably the Vatican, collapses to the ground crushing a white man. The Missionary Society, officially organized in New York in 1820, worked first to convert Native Americans and enslaved people before extending their missions to the Black inhabitants of Liberia in 1823., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Issued to Reverend Thomas Lumption on April 9th, 1844. Signed by Joshua Soule, Chairman, and Francis Hale, Clerk., Purchase 1971., RVCDC, 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.
Date: [ca. 1835]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Certificates [7971.F]

Title: [Migrating African Americans emancipated from enslavement]
Description: Drawing by Alexander Kitzmiller, a 24-year-old Pennsylvania German, prisoner Number 4780 at Eastern State Penitentiary. Depicts two African American families of freedom seekers emancipated from enslavement, portrayed in racist caricature, migrating on horseback and on foot. In the left, an African American man, barefoot and attired in a yellow hat, a blue collared shirt, and orange and white patterned pants, rides on a mule with his son and daughter. Behind him walking on foot is a boy, attired in a soldier’s cap, a red collared shirt with a red tie, and blue pants with suspenders and the African American mother, attired in a red head kerchief, hoop earrings, a yellow dress, and yellow and black shoes, who holds the arm of her daughter. The young girl, attired in a blue hat and a red and white striped dress, carries a Black doll. In the right, another family walks, including an African American man, attired in a yellow hat, a red and white striped collared shirt with a brown tie, white pants, and black boots, who carries a bundle on a stick; an African American woman, attired in a white head kerchief, hoop earrings, a red dress, and yellow and black shoes, who carries a baby on her shoulder, and a boy, attired in a soldier’s cap, an orange collared shirt, blue pants with suspenders, and brown shoes, who has his hand in his pants pocket. Adaption of Francis B. Schell's illustration, "Arrival at Chicksaw Bayou of the negro slaves of Jefferson Davis, from his plantation on the Mississippi," published in Frank Leslie's Illustrated newspaper on August 8, 1863., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content and tenure dates of S.W. Woodhouse as physician at Eastern State Penitentiary., Manuscript note on verso: Presented to me by a German prisoner in the State Penitentiary of Pennsylvania during my residency there. S.W. Woodhouse, M.D., Woodhouse was a Philadelphia surgeon, naturalist, and pioneer ornithologist who served as resident physician at the Eastern State Penitentiary from 1862 to 1863., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1997, p. 37., Purchase 1997., RVCDC, 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator: Kitzmiller, Alexander, approximately 1839-, artist
Date: [1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Drawings & Watercolors - Kitzmiller [P.9547]

Title: Jim Crow and his poney [sic] never fail to please
Description: Racist print, possibly a performance handbill, depicting a simian equestrian rider attired in a military uniform and a hat. He holds an American flag while standing atop a horse galloping in a circus ring past a row of smiling and cheering white men, women, and children spectators., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Print pasted on back of ledger page with manuscript notes., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1997, p. 35-36., Purchase 1997., RVCDC, 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.
Date: [ca. 1835]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - Entertainment [P.9557.2a]

Title: [Simian circus rider atop a galloping horse]
Description: Racist print, possibly a performance handbill, depicting a simian rider attired in a military uniform and a plumed hat. He holds an American flag as he stands on top of the horse's saddle, which gallops in a circus ring., Title supplied by cataloger., Print pasted on back of ledger page with manuscript notes., Possibly by engraver Samuel Anness who resided in Philadelphia in 1818., Purchase 1997., RVCDC, 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.
Date: [ca. 1835]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - Entertainment [P.9557.2b]

Title: U.S. Custom House (formerly U.S. Bank)
Description: Constructed 1818-24 as the U.S. Bank (i.e. Second Bank of the United States) based on the designs of Philadelphia architect William Strickland. Served as custom house 1844-1935. Street scene in front depicts white men, women, and children pedestrians. In the street, there is a carriage containing a white man and woman as passengers driven by an African American coachman, a white man on horseback, and a dog., Plate 12 of a series of fifty-four views published by Goupil, Vibert & Company from 1848 to 1851 that were drawn by Kollner and lithographed by Deroy, and later bound under the title "Views of American Cities.", Title from item., Date inferred from content., Not in Wainwright., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 763, Free Library of Philadelphia: Philadelphiana - Streets - Chestnut - 4th-5th, Accessioned 1982., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Deroy, Laurent, 1797-1886, artist
Date: [1848]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department BW - Banks [P.2283.19]

Title: A line shot - the recoil
Description: Comic print using racist stereotypes to satirize the gunmanship of African Americans. Shows an older African American couple, portrayed in racist caricature with exaggerated features and mannerisms, in the aftermath of the husband firing a shot in their backyard. Shows, in the left, the husband, attired in blue coat tails and striped pants, jumping a fence, his gun powder horn flying above his head, and his rifle and hunter's hat lying on the ground behind him. He is accompanied by his dogs, a bony brown dog climbing over the fence with him, and a pit-bull like dog who holds his owner's torn pants seat in his jaws as he prepares to follow him. In the right, his wife, attired in a yellow bonnet, a blue top, a red skirt, and white pantaloons, topples over in a wicker basket of laundry. Her shoes fly off her feet. The clothesline pole lands on her head as her bare-footed legs are knocked into the air. Pieces of clothing, including a gunshot white shirt with clothes pins at the shoulders fly about her. A log house with a chimney and a dog house are visible in the background. The Darktown series of over 100 prints was issued mid 1870s-1890s. Thomas Worth was the artist of several of the prints in the reported popular and profitable series., Title printed below image., Issued as part of the "Darktown" comics series., Date from copyright statement: Copyright 1881 By Currier & Ives, N. Y., Gift of David Maxey, 2015., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Currier & Ives
Date: 1881
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Genre - Line [P.2015.52.1]

Title: [Thomas H. Wilkinson watercolor views of Philadelphia]
Description: Series of watercolors by British-born, Canadian artist Thomas H. Wilkinson showing views of historic and prominent landmarks, sites, and residences in Philadelphia, including the Roxborough and Germantown neighborhoods. Many of the sites are historically significant in relation to the American Revolution. Includes “Arnold Mansion,” i.e., Mount Pleasant (built 1761) in East Fairmount Park where British General James Agnew died after being wounded in the Battle of Germantown (P.2017.8.2); Cannon Ball House (built ca. 1715) also known as Blakely House on Mud Island through which a cannonball went during the largest British bombardment of the Revolution in 1777; Dunkards Church (built 1770) also known as Church of the Brethren, 6613 Germantown Avenue; Gloria Dei (built 1698-1700) also known as Old Swedes Church, 929 South Water Street; Haines House, i.e., Wyck (originally built ca. 1690), the ancestral family home of the Wister-Haines families, 6026 Germantown Avenue; Johnson House (built 1765-8 and used as a stop on the Underground Railroad), 6306 Germantown Avenue (P.2017.8.7); The Jolly Post (built ca. 1680), a colonial inn on Main Street, Frankford where the American Army rested on its march to capture Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781; Market House at Second and Pine Streets, i.e the Newmarket or Head House Square Market (originally built 1745) from the Northwest; Mennonite Church, Germantown (built 1770), 6119 Germantown Avenue and used as a hospital during the American Revolution;, "Morris House" also known as the Deshler-Morris House (built 1772) and used as the summer residence of President George Washington 1793 and 1794; "Old Fort Mifflin" (built ca. 1772-98) on Mud Island; Penrose Ferry Hotel near the Penrose Ferry Bridge in Kingsessing; St. Peter’s Church at Third and Pine Streets (built 1758-61); Smith Mansion on Queen Lane, Germantown also known as Carlton built ca. 1780 and owned by Cornelius S. Smith ca. 1840-ca. 1880s; Wagner House also known as Mechlin-Wagner House (built 1747), 4840 Germantown Avenue and used as a hospital during the American Revolution; and "Wister House, Germantown" (built 1744) also known as Grumplethorpe, 5267 Germantown Avenue. Most of the views include the surrounding property and/or adjacent buildings and residences. Some of the views also show street and pedestrian traffic, including persons in conversation, market visitors, and a street car. Some of the church views show the church’s graveyard as well. Penrose Ferry Hotel view includes chickens in the side yard., Mount Pleasant Mansion was built 1761-1765 for Captain John Macpherson after the designs of Thomas Nevil in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pa. Macpherson, a privateer during the Seven Years’ War, purchased the estate with profits from these operations. Free white and Black laborers, indentured servants, and at least four enslaved people of African descent, whose names are unknown, worked on the plantation. In 1779, General Benedict Arnold purchased Mount Pleasant for his wife Peggy Shippen, but they never occupied the house. In 1792, General Jonathan Williams purchased the mansion. The City of Philadelphia purchased the property from the Williams family in 1869. On behalf of the city, the Philadelphia Museum of Art restored the house in 1926., The Johnson House was built 1765-1768 by master builder Jacob Knor at 6306 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA. John Johnson resided in the house during the Battle of Germantown. The dwelling sustained damage including a hole in the parlor door caused by a cannon ball and a chipped corner. It served as a station on the Underground Railroad. The Johnson family owned the house until 1908. The Woman's Club of Germantown purchased the house in 1917, and in 1980, gifted the house and its contents to the Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust to operate as a house museum. In 2002, the deed of ownership was transferred to the Johnson House Historic Site, Inc., Title supplied by cataloger., Watercolors signed by the artist in lower left or right corner: T.H. Wilkinson., Small number of the drawings include a title in the lower left corner., Accompanied by label: The Historical Collection of the late Samuel Castner, Jr. of Philadelphia., Gift of David Doret and Linda G. Mitchell., LCP also holds glass plate negatives in the Marriott C. Morris Collection showing a variant ca. 1893 watercolor view of the Morris-Deshler house by Thomas H. Wilkinson [*P.9895.6.3 and *P.9895.11.18]., New items acquired for and housed with collection after 2017., See Lib. Company. Annual report, 2017, p. 62-64., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Thomas H. Wilkinson (1847-1929) was a British-born artist who specialized in landscape views. Although he settled in Canada in the later 19th century, he traveled the United States through the 20th century to execute his art works. During the 1890s, he created several watercolor views of Philadelphia. He died while a well-known local artist and resident of Hamilton, Ontario.
Creator: Wilkinson, Thomas H., 1847-1929, artist
Date: [ca. 1890-ca. 1895]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Doret and Mitchell Collection - Watercolors and Drawings - Wilkinson [P.2017.8.2-18]

Title: [Thomas H. Wilkinson watercolor views of Philadelphia]
Description: Series of watercolors by British-born, Canadian artist Thomas H. Wilkinson showing views of historic and prominent landmarks, sites, and residences in Philadelphia, including the Roxborough and Germantown neighborhoods. Many of the sites are historically significant in relation to the American Revolution. Includes “Arnold Mansion,” i.e., Mount Pleasant (built 1761) in East Fairmount Park where British General James Agnew died after being wounded in the Battle of Germantown (P.2017.8.2); Cannon Ball House (built ca. 1715) also known as Blakely House on Mud Island through which a cannonball went during the largest British bombardment of the Revolution in 1777; Dunkards Church (built 1770) also known as Church of the Brethren, 6613 Germantown Avenue; Gloria Dei (built 1698-1700) also known as Old Swedes Church, 929 South Water Street; Haines House, i.e., Wyck (originally built ca. 1690), the ancestral family home of the Wister-Haines families, 6026 Germantown Avenue; Johnson House (built 1765-8 and used as a stop on the Underground Railroad), 6306 Germantown Avenue (P.2017.8.7); The Jolly Post (built ca. 1680), a colonial inn on Main Street, Frankford where the American Army rested on its march to capture Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781; Market House at Second and Pine Streets, i.e the Newmarket or Head House Square Market (originally built 1745) from the Northwest; Mennonite Church, Germantown (built 1770), 6119 Germantown Avenue and used as a hospital during the American Revolution;, "Morris House" also known as the Deshler-Morris House (built 1772) and used as the summer residence of President George Washington 1793 and 1794; "Old Fort Mifflin" (built ca. 1772-98) on Mud Island; Penrose Ferry Hotel near the Penrose Ferry Bridge in Kingsessing; St. Peter’s Church at Third and Pine Streets (built 1758-61); Smith Mansion on Queen Lane, Germantown also known as Carlton built ca. 1780 and owned by Cornelius S. Smith ca. 1840-ca. 1880s; Wagner House also known as Mechlin-Wagner House (built 1747), 4840 Germantown Avenue and used as a hospital during the American Revolution; and "Wister House, Germantown" (built 1744) also known as Grumplethorpe, 5267 Germantown Avenue. Most of the views include the surrounding property and/or adjacent buildings and residences. Some of the views also show street and pedestrian traffic, including persons in conversation, market visitors, and a street car. Some of the church views show the church’s graveyard as well. Penrose Ferry Hotel view includes chickens in the side yard., Mount Pleasant Mansion was built 1761-1765 for Captain John Macpherson after the designs of Thomas Nevil in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pa. Macpherson, a privateer during the Seven Years’ War, purchased the estate with profits from these operations. Free white and Black laborers, indentured servants, and at least four enslaved people of African descent, whose names are unknown, worked on the plantation. In 1779, General Benedict Arnold purchased Mount Pleasant for his wife Peggy Shippen, but they never occupied the house. In 1792, General Jonathan Williams purchased the mansion. The City of Philadelphia purchased the property from the Williams family in 1869. On behalf of the city, the Philadelphia Museum of Art restored the house in 1926., The Johnson House was built 1765-1768 by master builder Jacob Knor at 6306 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA. John Johnson resided in the house during the Battle of Germantown. The dwelling sustained damage including a hole in the parlor door caused by a cannon ball and a chipped corner. It served as a station on the Underground Railroad. The Johnson family owned the house until 1908. The Woman's Club of Germantown purchased the house in 1917, and in 1980, gifted the house and its contents to the Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust to operate as a house museum. In 2002, the deed of ownership was transferred to the Johnson House Historic Site, Inc., Title supplied by cataloger., Watercolors signed by the artist in lower left or right corner: T.H. Wilkinson., Small number of the drawings include a title in the lower left corner., Accompanied by label: The Historical Collection of the late Samuel Castner, Jr. of Philadelphia., Gift of David Doret and Linda G. Mitchell., LCP also holds glass plate negatives in the Marriott C. Morris Collection showing a variant ca. 1893 watercolor view of the Morris-Deshler house by Thomas H. Wilkinson [*P.9895.6.3 and *P.9895.11.18]., New items acquired for and housed with collection after 2017., See Lib. Company. Annual report, 2017, p. 62-64., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Thomas H. Wilkinson (1847-1929) was a British-born artist who specialized in landscape views. Although he settled in Canada in the later 19th century, he traveled the United States through the 20th century to execute his art works. During the 1890s, he created several watercolor views of Philadelphia. He died while a well-known local artist and resident of Hamilton, Ontario.
Creator: Wilkinson, Thomas H., 1847-1929, artist
Date: [ca. 1890-ca. 1895]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Doret and Mitchell Collection - Watercolors and Drawings - Wilkinson [P.2017.8.2-18]

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