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- Title
- Rev. C.M. Tanner, Philadelphia, Pa., April 17, 1896
- Description
- Bust-length portrait of Carlton Miller Tanner (ca. 1869-1933), the African Methodist Episcopal clergyman, missionary, author, and brother of artist Henry Ossawa Tanner. Depicts Tanner, his head turned slightly right, attired in a white clerical collar; dark-colored, button-down vest; and dark-colored jacket with notched lapels. His hair is cropped short and he wears a mustache. Tanner, born in Philadelphia, was a graduate of the Institute of Colored Youth and Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Holding a Doctor of Divinity from Wilberforce University, Payne Theological Seminary, Tanner began work as a pastor about 1893 and presided over the A.M.E. churches Big Bethel Church (Atlanta, Ga.) in the early 1900s and Metropolitan Church A.M.E. (Washington D.C.) between 1917 and 1922. Tanner also established the South African Christian Recorder in 1902 and wrote a "Manual of the A.M.E. Church." He passed away while a resident of Chicago, IL., Title and date from manuscript note on verso., Photographer's imprint blindstamped on mount., Description reviewed 2022., Access points reviewed 2022.
- Creator
- Kuebler, William J., photographer
- Date
- [April 17, 1896]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Swayne Collection [P.2018.66.4]
- Title
- [African American woman playing tambourine]
- Description
- Snapshot photograph showing an African American woman outside and playing a tambourine between two white women who play guitars. The white woman in the left is partially removed from the view and the white woman in the right is partially obscured by the woman playing tambourine. The tambourine player has her hair pulled back and wears a silk shawl and long, ruffled, tiered skirt. Spectators, including an African American boy attired in overalls, and white men attired in summer suits stand near and behind the women. Wooden warehouse and barn-like structures, including one with signage reading "Sterline," are visible in the background., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from format of photograph and attire of sitters., Gift of Ivan Jurin, 2019., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
- Date
- [ca. 1925]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department portrait photographs - misc. - sitter - female [P.2019.2.1]
- Title
- Future rulers of Florida U.S.A
- Description
- Racist scene showing an African American family of a mother, father, and four children seated on the porch to a wooden dwelling. In the left, the mother breastfeeds her youngest child, a baby. She is seated next to her three older, but young children. The father sits to the right on the other side of the children who sit and stand. He has his arm behind the next to youngest child. The mother is attired in a kerchief, plain shirtwaist, and long, plain skirt. The father wears a vest, shirt sleeves, pants, and work boots. The children are attired in worn shirts and the oldest also in worn pants., Title printed on negative., Yellow mount with curved corners., Date inferred from format of stereograph., Gift of Ivan Jurin., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - unid. photo - Portraits & Genre [P.2019.2.2]
- Title
- [Looking east on the 1600 block of Market Street, Philadelphia]
- Description
- View showing street construction by the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company of the Market Street Subway across from the Broad Street Station (built 1879-1882). In the foreground, a number of African American construction workers stand in a pit. In the background is another pit with more construction workers. Pedestrians and spectators look on at the scene. Several businesses on the south side of the 1600 block of Market Street, including "Cronin's," are visible. Also shows several horse-drawn wagons traveling past the rail station, and theater advertisements adorning construction equipment., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from a closely-numbered photograph in the series with an inscribed date., Inscribed in negative: 555., Gift of Steven Dorfman, 2013., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
- Date
- [1904]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - unidentified - Construction [P.2013.6.5]
- Title
- [Looking east on the 2100 block of Market Street, Philadelphia]
- Description
- View showing street construction by the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company of the Market Street Subway in a large, deep pit on the 2100 block of Market Street. The construction workers include white and African American men. Shows men spectators looking down at the pit. Men fill horse-drawn carts with dirt, and theater advertisements for the "Famous Ithaca Band" at Willow Grove Park adorn construction equipment., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inscribed in negative: 9-17-04., Inscribed in negative: 579., Gift of Steven Dorfman, 2013., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
- Date
- [September 17, 1904]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - unidentified - Construction [P.2013.6.9]
- Title
- [Looking west on the 2100 block of Market Street, Philadelphia]
- Description
- View showing street construction by the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company of the Market Street Subway in a shallow pit on the 2100 block of Market Street. The construction workers include white and African American men. Also shows cityscape, trollies traveling in the street, spectators, and construction equipment., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inscribed in negative: 7-22-04., Inscribed in negative: 563., Gift of Steven Dorfman, 2013., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
- Date
- [July 22, 1904]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - unidentified - Construction [P.2013.6.7]
- Title
- Before Girard Bank on Broad & Chestnut
- Description
- View looking north from the east side of Broad and Chestnut Streets showing part of the 000 block of Broad Street and City Hall. Shows in the left, the West End Trust & Safety Deposit Co. skyscraper building built 1898 after the designs of Furness, Evans & Co. at 1404 South Penn Square. Adjacent buildings on Broad Street include one adorned with "For Rent. B. F. Teller & Bro. 606 Chestnut St." signage. View also includes street and pedestrian traffic. In the left foreground, an African American man, attired in a bowler hat and jacket, walks with a bundle under his right arm. In the background, men and women, some as couples walk on the sidewalk near a utility pole and a horse-drawn carriage parked in the street. City Hall is visible in the far background., Title from manuscript note on verso., Date inferred from attire of pedestrian traffic documented in image., Description reviewed 2022., Access points reviewed 2022.
- Date
- [ca. 1900]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Robert Swayne Collection [P.2017.88.61]
- Title
- Art exhibit at Rittenhouse Square - 1937
- Description
- View showing a young African American man looking at a display of art works from the "Clothesline Show" in Rittenhouse Square. The man stands to the right of the display composed of two, parallel rows of art hung on clothes lines strung between two trees. A collection of painted canvases rest under the lines in the left. The man stands near the opening to a pathway. A bed of flowers near a lawn of grass is visible in the foreground. The "Clothesline Show," later the Rittenhouse Square Fine art show began in June 1932 with the exhibition of art works within the square by arts students in the Arts Student League. In the following years, professional artists began to display their work as well and in 1976 the show was renamed the Rittenhouse Square Fine Arts Annual. In 2004 the show moved to the outside of the park. In 2005 it was renamed Rittenhouse Square Fine Art Show., Date and title from manuscript note on recto., Part of a number of views of the "Clothelines Show" [P.2017.88.76.5-11] taken by Fetters within a series of his work in the Swayne Collection [P.2017.88.76.1-52]. Most of the views include spectators and two views include the "Lion Crushing the Serpent" statue after the designs of Antoine-Louis Barye., Description reviewed 2022., Access points reviewed 2022.
- Creator
- Fetters, H.
- Date
- [1937]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Robert Swayne Collection [P.2017.88.76.9]
- Title
- [African American man sitting near a building, probably in Philadelphia]
- Description
- View showing an African American man sitting on an enbankment next to a stairwell to a building adorned with ornamental ironwork. The man hangs his head down, his hands together, and his elbows on his knees. He is attired in a cap, jacket, pants and laced shoes. A jagged cobblestone walkway is visible in the foreground., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from date inscribed on other photographs in the series., Part of a number of views taken by Fetters within a series of his work in the Swayne Collection [P.2017.88.76.1-52]., Description reviewed 2022., Access points reviewed 2022.
- Creator
- Fetters, H.
- Date
- [ca. 1937]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Robert Swayne Collection [P.2017.88.76.38]
- Title
- [Group portrait with Captain William Wallace Rogers, 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry, at military encampment in unidentified location]
- Description
- Group portrait of Captain William Wallace Rogers, 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry, and seven individuals, including white military officers, a white boy, and an African American man posed in front of tents at an unidentified military encampment. In the center, Rogers, wearing a mustache and attired in a Union uniform and hat, stands with his right hand on his hip and his left hand on the back of a chair. Two Union officers sit in the left, one holding a sword. In the right, a bearded man sits, attired in shirtsleeves and with a pipe in his mouth and another man sits attired in uniform. To the right of Rogers, a man, attired in uniform, stands holding a flag on a pole. In the right, a boy, possibly a messenger or scout, attired in cap, shirtsleeves, and pants, stands with his left leg crossed over his right. In front of the men, an African American man, probably a camp laborer/servant and possibly an enslaved freedom seeker, lies on the ground on his side, propped up on his left elbow, and looks at the viewer. He wears shirtsleeves and pants. The tops of trees are visible in the background. William Wallace Rogers (1832-1890) served in the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry during the Civil War and served in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, including the Battle of Gettysburg, where he was wounded in July 1863. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1865 and retired from service in 1889., Title supplied by cataloger from information provided by donor, descendent of William Wallace Rogers., Date inferred from content and information provided by donor., Pad: Red velvet with a decorative scroll in the center surrounded by an ornamental border with flowers and leaves., Mat: Nonpareil., Case: Leather. Geometric design of a scroll in the center surrounded by vases of flowers and leaves. Same design on verso., Gift of John J. Nesbitt III, 2016.
- Date
- [ca. 1863]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Cased photos – sitter – Rogers [P.2016.78.1]
- Title
- [Group portrait photograph of fourteen African American nurses and nursing students outside of Dr. J. H. Mudgett’s Private Hospital and Training School for Nurses, 2030 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia]
- Description
- Group portrait depicts the women, including Helen Waller, posed in three rows on the steps outside the entryway to the hospital and training school. Five woman stand in a line in the top and bottom rows and four women stand in a line in the middle row. The women hold their arms to their sides or behind them and have plain expressions. The women in the bottom row wear white, ankle-length dresses with long sleeves and collars, white stockings, and white shoes with heels. They also wear nurses caps with the one of the woman in the middle trimmed with a thin black stripe along the edge, possibly “Miss Harris, super-intendant of the nurses.” The women in the upper rows wear white, long-sleeved shirts, white apron dresses, and nurses caps. The sign naming the hospital and school adorning the building is partially visible in the right. The figure who is Helen Waller, a 1919 graduate of the hospital is not known, but likely one of the women in the first row., Dr. J. H. Mudgett’s Private Hospital and Training School for Nurses was established by New Hampshire-born white (per census records) physician John H. Mudgett and chartered in 1919. Mudgett served as the medical director of surgery. In 1921, the school was one of a number of nursing schools advertised in the “Evening Public Ledger” as offering “Free Tuition, Board, Lodging, and a Nominal Fee” to be trained as a nurse. Mudgett, graduated Dartmouth Medical School in 1896 and resided in Philadelphia as a physician by circa 1905. By 1925, he was listed as only a physician with no listing for the training school. Mudgett, a member of the First African Baptist Church, died in 1945. At the time of his death he was in a multiracial marriage with Adeline Mudgett (1889-1958), a former dressmaker. His race on his death certificate had been altered from white to “colored.” Helen Waller (1897-1925) was one of the first nurse graduates of Mudgett’s Hospital in 1919. By 1924, she worked as a child hygiene nurse before her death in 1925 from tuberculosis., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from article about “Mudgett’s Hospital Has Its First Commencement,” Philadelphia Tribune, July 19, 1919., Name of photographer from photographer's stamp on verso., Manuscript note on verso: Helen Waller, 2020 Turner Street., See also complementary group portrait photographs - Education - M [P.2022.5.2 & 3].
- Creator
- Paul, Dan E., photographer
- Date
- [1919]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *group portrait photographs - education - Mudgett's Hospital [P.2022.5.1]
- Title
- [Group portrait photograph of Dr. Mudgett and four African American physicians outside of Dr. J. H. Mudgett’s Private Hospital and Training School for Nurses, 2030 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia]
- Description
- Group portrait depicts Dr. John Herbert Mudgett and four African American physicians, posed, standing and seated, on the steps outside the entryway to the hospital and training school. In the right, two physicians, attired in dark-colored suits and ties, stand next to Mudgett and the other men seated on the stairs. One of the physicians also wears a mustache. They look past the photographer. In the center, Mudgett, grey-haired, wearing glasses, and attired in a white suit with bow tie, sits on the outer edge of the middle stair. He looks past the photographer and his hands are clasped and rest in his lap. To his right, another two physicians sit next to him on the stairs. They are attired in dark-colored suits with either a tie or bow tie. One physician wears glasses. They rest their hands and/or arms on the upper part of their bent legs. They look at the photographer. The visible shoes of the men are shined, except Mudgett’s which are scuffed. View also shows a boot scraper near the foot of Mudgett, at the base of the steps, and in the right, the sign reading "Dr. Mudgett’s Private Hospital" adorning the wall of the building., Dr. J. H. Mudgett’s Private Hospital and Training School for Nurses was established by New Hampshire-born white (per census records) physician John H. Mudgett and chartered in 1919. Mudgett served as the medical director of surgery. In 1921, the school was one of a number of nursing schools advertised in the "Evening Public Ledger" as offering "Free Tuition, Board, Lodging, and a Nominal Fee" to be trained as a nurse. Mudgett, graduated Dartmouth Medical School in 1896 and resided in Philadelphia as a physician by circa 1905. By 1925, he was listed as only a physician with no listing for the training school. Mudgett, a member of the First African Baptist Church, died in 1945. At the time of his death he was in a multiracial marriage with Adeline Mudgett (1889-1958), a former dressmaker. His race on his death certificate had been altered from white to “colored.”, Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from photograph with complementary content and article about “Mudgett’s Hospital Has Its First Commencement,” Philadelphia Tribune, July 19, 1919., Name of photographer from photographer's stamp on verso., Manuscript note on verso: Helen Waller. Helen Waller (1897-1925) was one of the first nurse graduates of Mudgett’s Hospital in 1919. By 1924, she worked as a child hygiene nurse before her death in 1925 from tuberculosis., See also complementary group portrait photographs - Education - M [P.2022.5.2 & 3].
- Creator
- Paul, Dan E., photographer
- Date
- [1919]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *group portrait photographs - education - Mudgett's Hospital [P.2022.5.2]
- Title
- [View of operating room with Dr. J.H. Mudgett and African American men physicians and African American women nurses at a surgical procedure at Dr. J. H. Mudgett’s Private Hospital and Training School for Nurses, 2030 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia]
- Description
- View shows Dr. John Herbert Mudgett and African American physicians and nurses surrounding an African American person lying on a surgical gurney and covered in surgical drapes in an operating room. Mudgett, center and looking at the camera, and attired in a surgical cap and gown, rests his hands on the patient. To his right stands a nurse, attired in a cap and a white surgical gown who looks with a side glance at the camera. To her right, a man anesthesiologist, in right profile, is seated, and holds his hands above the face of the patient. In the right foreground, two men physicians, attired in surgical caps and gowns stand over and have their hands on the patient. One man looks at the patient and the other man looks at the camera. In the left, center background, possibly Miss Harris, super-intendant of the nurses, attired in a striped, nurse's cap looks over the shoulder of Mudgett. In the far right background, a nurse attired in a surgical cap and gown looks, with a slight frown, at the camera. The face and head of another nurse wearing a surgical cap is seen behind her. View also includes two uncovered windows in the background., Dr. J. H. Mudgett’s Private Hospital and Training School for Nurses was established by New Hampshire-born white (per census records) physician John H. Mudgett and chartered in 1919. Mudgett served as the medical director of surgery. In 1921, the school was one of a number of nursing schools advertised in the “Evening Public Ledger” as offering "Free Tuition, Board, Lodging, and a Nominal Fee" to be trained as a nurse. Mudgett, graduated Dartmouth Medical School in 1896 and resided in Philadelphia as a physician by circa 1905. By 1925, he was listed as only a physician with no listing for the training school. Mudgett, a member of the First African Baptist Church, died in 1945. At the time of his death he was in a multiracial marriage with Adeline Mudgett (1889-1958), a former dressmaker. His race on his death certificate had been altered from white to "colored.", Title supplied by cataloger., Name of attributed photographer from complementary photographs., Date inferred from photographs with complementary content and article about "Mudgett’s Hospital Has Its First Commencement," Philadelphia Tribune, July 19, 1919., See also complementary group portrait photographs - Education - M [P.2022.5.1 & 2].
- Creator
- Paul, Dan E., photographer
- Date
- [1919]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *group portrait photographs - education - Mudgett's Hospital [P.2022.5.3]
- Title
- Freedman's National Monument
- Description
- Interior view showing the plaster model for the proposed design of the Freedman's Memorial to Lincoln by expatriate sculptor Harriet Hosmer when on display in the Boston Athenaeum, likely statuary gallery, in 1866. Shows, from an oblique angle, the model on top of a draped table and in front of two archways. The model of the Memorial design was composed of mutiple tiers on the top of which lied a figure of Lincoln in a sarcophagus within an open temple. An edited version of the words of the Emancipation Proclamation adorned the temple which stood on a base with a frieze designed with thirty-six female allegories representing the states of the Union during Lincoln's presidency. On the base below the temple was a sculptural cycle of African American history to that period. Four standing Black male figures on pedestals surrounded the base at each corner. The figures portrayed included a seminude, enslaved man, with his head down, and his wrists manacled; a soldier in uniform with a forward gaze and a bayonetted rifle in his hands that was pointed to the ground; an enslaved man who rests on a hoe with his head bowed down; and a soldier, looking ahead, and holding a gun. On the four outside corners were "Mourning Victories" with their trumpets reversed. The angle of the image shows a view of the model that includes the Lincoln figure, three of the African American men figures, and three of the "Mourning Victories.", Hosmer designed the Memorial in response to a monument project sponsored by the Western Sanitary Commission of St. Louis after formerly enslaved Charlotte Scott of Marietta, OH pledged $5 for a monument to Abraham Lincoln following his assassination in 1865. Donations from formerly enslaved persons grew to $20,000 within months of Scott's original donation. Hosmer later altered the design and an engraving of her new proposal appeared in the Art Journal (London), January 1, 1868. Hosmer's model, purported to cost over $100,000 to be executed, was never sculpted. After years of competing projects, designs, and sponsoring agencies, on April 14, 1876, a sculpture by Thomas Ball, "Emancipation," designed without the input of the formerly enslaved donors was erected in Lincoln Square, Washington, D.C. on an eastern edge of Capitol Hill., Title printed on mount., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by Harriet G. Hosmer, in the clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts., Harriet Hosmer (1830-1908) was a lesbian, expatriate neoclassical sculptor, who was one of the most famous artists of her time. Hosmer had her own studio and her work often focused on idealized mythological female figures associated with strength and courage. Hosmer was also a women's rights activist and an inventor., Purchased with the Louise Marshall Kelly fund., See Kirk Savage, Standing soldiers, kneeling slaves: Race, war, and monument in nineteenth-century America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), p.89-128., John B. Heywood (d. 1870) operated a photographic studio in Boston circa 1858-circa 1870, when he then appears to have relocated to Chicago per 1870 census records. He may also be the J.B. Heywood who advertised a photographic studio in New Bern, N.C. in 1866. Between 1869 and 1870, he is listed in Boston at 25 Winter, the address of photographer and publisher Frank Rowell, who established a branch of his photographic studio in Chicago in 1867.
- Creator
- Heywood, John B., -1870, photographer
- Date
- 1866
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv - Heywood - Monuments & statues [P.2022.28.1]
- Title
- [Group portrait of women minstrel performers in Blackface and costumes]
- Description
- Group portrait of twenty-two women posed in three rows while wearing Blackface and comical costumes for the racist entertainmentof minstrelsy. The women in the front row are seated and the women in the back two rows stand. The female minstrel entertainers wear black curly haired wigs, black face paint, and different-styled hats, jackets, skirts, and/or dresses. Costumes include ruffled and wrinkled skirts, rumpled jackets, ties and bowties, bowler hats, top hats, and a large, wide-rimmed Edwardian picture hat. Several women hold stenciled or hand-written signs (with malapropisms) identifying their "character," often a government or civil employee. Signs, in various shapes and designs, read: "Sheriff"; "Ise De Librarian"; "Ise de [Post]master"; "Colletor [sic] Ob De Mon[ey]"; "Justice Ob De Peace"; "Street Commissioner and Alderman"; and "Ise De State Legislture." A backdrop is visible in the background and fabric runners are tied in a central bow above the women's heads. A piano is partially visible in the left of the image. Blackface minstrelsy is a popular entertainment form, originating in the United States in the mid-19th century and remaining in American life through the 20th century. The form is based around stereotypical and racist portrayals of African Americans, including mocking dialect, parodic lyrics, and the application of black face paint; all designed to portray African Americans as othered subjects of humor and disrespect. Blackface was a dominant form for theatrical and musical performances for decades, both on stage and in private homes. By the 1870s nearly a dozen all-female minstrel troupes had been organized. Many of the troupes eventually evolved into burlesque reviews., Title supplied by cataloger., Description of Blackface minstrelsy from Dorothy Berry, Descriptive Equity and Clarity around Blackface Minstrelsy in H(arvard) T(heater) C(ollection) Collections, 2021., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
- Date
- [ca. 1910]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *group portrait photographs - women - minstrel [P.2017.11]
- Title
- [Portrait of five African American men attired in uniforms, probably band uniforms]
- Description
- Full-length portrait depicting the five young African American men, standing in a row, in a studio setting. The men on either end are slightly angled toward the man in the middle. The men have short-cropped hair, some with it parted in the middle. One man also has a mustache. The men are attired in white high collar shirts; bow ties; three-buttoned, dark jackets with flourishes across the chest and on the arms; and dark pants. One man (second from right) wears a black bow tie, while the others wear white ones. The man in the middle wears his jacket unbuttoned, while the others have theirs buttoned. Setting includes a palatial backdrop, a balustrade covered in drapery (in left), the edge of a platform (in right), and a fur rug on which the men stand., Title supplied by cataloger., Photographer's imprint with insignia printed on mount. Insignia composed of H.W. monogram with flourishes., Date inferred from years (1888-1892) photographer operated at address listed in imprint., Printed on verso: Harry A. Webb, art photographer, 112 and 114 N. 9th St., Philadelphia. Instantaneous process used exclusively. All negatives preserved. Duplicates, enlargements, or lockets. Can be furnished without resitting. Text surrounded by and within pictorial details. Details resemble pine needles, banners, and a circular ornament. The text and pictorial elements are within an ornamented border composed with bark-like details and ornate cornices adorned with floral twigs., Description reviewed 2022., Access points revised 2022., Harry A. Webb, born in England, worked in Philadelphia as a photographer by 1880. He continued in the profession through 1900. By the time of his death in 1927, he worked as a clerk for William H. Horstmann, a dress trimmings, military and regalia manufactory.
- Creator
- Webb, Harry A., 1847-1927, photographer
- Date
- [ca. 1890]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cabinet card portraits - photographer - Webb [P.2017.40]
- Title
- Eminent women Mary A. Livermore. Sara Jewett. Grace A. Oliver. Helen Hunt. Nora Perry. Lucy Larcom. Frances Hodgson Burnett. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. Louise Chandler Moulton. Louisa M. Alcott. Julia Ward Howe. Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Description
- Composite photograph created through the "paste-up" technique of cut-up negatives that are arranged, pasted together, and then rephotographed to present a realistic scene. Depicts a group of eminent Victorian women, including authors, writers, and women's rights, temperance, and abolitionist movements advocates, "posed" in the Montreal residence of railway financier George Stephens. Sitters (left to right), in the background, and standing, include: Mary A. Livermore; Sara Jewett; Grace A. Oliver; Helen Hunt; Nora Perry; Lucy Larcom; and Frances Hodgson Burnett. Sitters (left to right), in the foreground, and seated, include: Elizabeth Stuart Phelps; Louise Chandler Moulton; Louisa M. Alcott; Julia Ward Howe; and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Backdrop interior imagery shows parts of the reception hall, drawing room, stairwell, and conservatory of the Stephens' residence. Vases, a mantel, light fixtures, drapery, and a fountain are included in the backdrop. Pictorial details of foliage and a pond surround the portrait within a circular frame. Canadian photographer William Notman created the original portrait negatives used in the composite created by L'Africain. Notman was known for his innovative photography and his studio specialized in composite photographs by the 1870s. This image was also distributed "compliments" of the Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford, CT., Title from item., Date in negative in lower right corner., Name of photographer and publisher from imprint in negative and printed on mount and verso., Name of artist in negative in right corner., Sitter's names in title depicted with a single dot between first, middle, and last names and with double dots between full names., Copyrighted., Photographer and publisher's illustrated imprint printed on verso: W. Notman. The Notman Photographic Co. Limited. 3 Park Street, Boston, Mass. Also at 48 North Pearl St. Albany, N. Y. Saratoga, N. Y. Newport, R. I. Illustration depicts an objet d'art composed of a crown, foliage, banners, scrolls, coat of arms, and exhibition medals, including from the Centennial Exhibition of 1876. Image also contains text, including: "Honi Soit Qui Mal [Y Pens]e. Photographer to Her Majesty. Montreal." Imprint surrounded by ornately-designed border including lavishly-ornamented cornices., Purchased with the Davida T. Deutsch Women’s History Fund., Lib. Company. Annual report, 2016, p. 64-66., Description reviewed 2022., Access points reviewed 2022.
- Creator
- Notman Photo Co. (Boston, Mass.)
- Date
- 1884
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cabinet card portraits - photo - Notman [P.2016.73]
- Title
- Mrs. Amanda Smith
- Description
- Three-quarter length portrait of the African American Methodist evangelist preacher, missionary, and temperance advocate who was born to enslaved parents in Maryland. Shows Smith, standing, slightly turned to her right, and attired in medium-colored, Quaker-like garb including a shawl, shirtwaist with an upright lace collar adorned with a pendant, skirt, and scoop bonnet. She holds a book, possibly a Bible, in her right hand, top edge down, and with her fingers interspersed between a few pages. A chair is partially visible in the right of the image and dark-colored drapery serves as the backdrop. Smith, her freedom bought by her father when a child, entered preaching in 1869. Known as a compelling speaker and singer, she preached at Methodist Episcopal churches throughout the East and Midwest, including Philadelphia. In 1878 she felt called to travel to Keswick, England for a Methodist convention and remained in the country to minister and then worked as a missionary in India (1879-1881) and West Africa (1882-1890). In 1890 she returned to the United States and settled in Chicago where she was also a prominent member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (Smith joined in the 1870s). In 1893 her "Autobiography" was published, from which she began to raise funds for an orphanage for African American children. 1n 1899 the Amanda Smith Orphan's Home, later the Amanda Smith Industrial Home opened in Harvey, Il. The home was razed by fire in 1918., Title from manuscript note on verso., Photographer's imprint printed on mount., Publisher's imprint printed on verso. Also includes a vignette depicting the British coat of arms., Mount designer's imprint printed on verso., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 2018, p. 59 - 60., RVCDC, Description reviewed 2022., Access points revised 2022.
- Creator
- Pettitt, Alfred, -1880
- Date
- [1878]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits - sitter - Smith [P.2018.13]
- Title
- A " corner in cotton."
- Description
- Racist scene showing a young, African American couple (Ephraim and Dinah) seated next to each other, and flirting, in a small clearing in a cotton field. The couple, their legs outstretched, leans back on two large baskets of picked cotton. The man and woman smile at each other. The woman's head is tilted to her left and she uses the index finger of her right hand to touch the chin of the man. The man is attired in a collarless, long-sleeve, light-color shirt, light-color pants, and worn boots. The pants have frayed edges. The woman wears a light-colored, long sleeve shift dress, and heeled shoes. They each wear wide-brimmed hats. A mass of cotton plants is visible in the background., Date from copyright statement: Copyright 1898, by B. L. Singley., Title from item., Title printed in five different languages, including Italian, French, and German, on verso., Text printed on verso: Here it is in black and white. The negro and the cotton are as inseparable as the darky and the 'possum. Colored labor clothes half the world, and half the world never gives it a thought nor a thank-you. But what care Ephraim and Dinah what the world says or doesn't say? "In all ages every human heart is human." A corner in cotton is as palatial as a corner in Windsor Castle or the White House, if love is there. Now, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, you negro writer of sparling verse, here is a subject made to your hand., Curved buff mount with rounded corners., Gift of David Long., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Keystone View Company was founded in 1892 by B.L. Singley, an amateur photographer from Meadville, Pennsylvania. Keystone View Company was the leader in promoting stereographs for educational purposes. In 1912 the company purchased rights to some Underwood & Underwood negatives for use in educational sets, and in 1922 purchased the remaining stock of Underwood materials. The company remained in business until 1970.
- Creator
- Keystone View Company
- Date
- 1898
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - Keystone View Company - Portraits & Genre [P.2018.16.1]
- Title
- " We's done all dis s'mornin'."
- Description
- Racist scene showing, in the foreground, a young, African American girl and boy standing behind a large basket of cotton in a cotton field. The girl faces the camera and the boy looks behind him and with his head turned away. The girl wears a bonnet, dark-color, long-sleeved shirt, and a light-color skirt. The boy wears a long-sleeve, light-color, smock-like shirt. In the background, African American men, women, boys, and girls work in the field or are posed to stand and face the camera. One man sits, high up, on bales., Dates from copyright statements on recto and verso: Copyright 1899, by B. L. Singley. Made in U.S.A. and Copyright, 1913, by the Keystone View Company., Title from recto of item., Title printed in five different languages, including Italian, French, and German, on verso., Variant title on verso: 9506-"We'se done all dis's mornin',"-Picking cotton on a Mississippi plantation., Several lines of text printed on verso, often describing in racist terms, the culture, conditions, and economics of the cotton industry in the South., Curved grey mount with rounded corners., Gift of David Long., RVCDC, Description reviewed 2022., Access points revised 2022., Keystone View Company was founded in 1892 by B.L. Singley, an amateur photographer from Meadville, Pennsylvania. Keystone View Company was the leader in promoting stereographs for educational purposes. In 1912 the company purchased rights to some Underwood & Underwood negatives for use in educational sets, and in 1922 purchased the remaining stock of Underwood materials. The company remained in business until 1970.
- Creator
- Keystone View Company
- Date
- 1899, ([printed] 1913)
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - Keystone View Company - Work [P.2018.16.3]
- Title
- "Deed Child's, I's didn't know you was dare."
- Description
- Racist, comic genre scene showing a young African American woman emerging from a cellar and accidentally knocking two children off the cellar doors. Depicts the woman standing out from the cellar and opening the cellar doors with both her hands. A young white girl has rolled off the door in the left and a young white boy lies on the edge of the door in the right. The girl, lies on her side, her head toward the viewer, her dress tousled, and her hands over her eyes. The boy, attired in a romper ensemble, sucks his thumb, and lies on his right side. The woman, smiles, and looks toward the boy. She is attired in a wide-brimmed hat, a shirt waist, and a skirt. The image also shows the outer wall of a stone dwelling and a window in which the figure of a man is visible. The window, adorned with drapery, is over the cellar., Curved buff mount with rounded corners., Title printed on mount., Date and name of photographer from copyright statement: Copyrighted 1898, by T.W. Ingersoll., Printed on mount: High Grade Original Views. Sold only by Subscription., Gift of George R. Allen, 2022., RVCDC
- Creator
- Ingersoll, T. W. (Truman Ward), 1862-1922
- Date
- 1898
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - Miscellaneous - Ingersoll [P.2022.42.19]
- Title
- "D em brats done gone and stole dat melon."
- Description
- Racist, genre stereograph depicting an African American man coming upon three African American boys sitting next to each other and eating large slices of watermelon at the entrance to a stone root cellar. Shows an outdoor setting in which the man, holding a switch, peers around the stone, curved structure at the boys who sit with their legs crossed, or bent at the knees, or to the side, before the open entryway. Each holds a slice of watermelon toward their mouth. Half a watermelon with a knife in it and two other slices of the melon lie near the boys. View also show a grassy hillside in the background and a patch of greenry near the cellar. The man is attired in a soft-brimmed hat, shirtsleeves, a vest, and slacks. The children wear shirts and shorts., Title from item., Date inferred from active dates of publisher and content., Name of photographer and publisher from copyright statement: Copyright Griffith & Griffith., Curved grey mount with rounded corners., Griffith & Griffith, established in Philadelphia in 1896, expanded in 1908 to included offices in St. Louis and Liverpool. The non-Philadelphia offices were relocated in 1910., RVCDC, Gift of George R. Allen, 2022.
- Creator
- Griffith & Griffith
- Date
- [ca. 1900]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - Griffith & Griffith - Portraits & Genre [P.2022.42.18]
- Title
- [Full-length studio portrait photograph of an unidentified, young African American man, seated]
- Description
- Shows the man, posed slightly to the left, seated on a wooden chair, and his left leg crossed over his right. He looks toward the photographer. His left hand rests in his lap and his right hand rests on the fore edge of the right arm of the chair. He wears a dark-colored suit, white shirt, neck tie, and laced up boots. Image also includes a backdrop and decorated flooring., Title supplied by cataloger., Photographer's imprint and insignia blindstamped on mount., Paper cover is embossed with floral pictorial details., Gift of J. Murray Atkins Library., Benjamin W. Fowler operated from 238 N. Eighth St., Philadelphia between 1889 and 1917.
- Creator
- Fowler, Benjamin W., photographer
- Date
- [ca. 1915]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department portrait photographs - photographer - Fowler [P.2022.54]
- Title
- [Series of photographs of children in North Carolina]
- Description
- Series of primarily captioned photographs depicting white children, a number also including a Black woman caregiver. Images also depict a goat and goat cart. Captions include: "An Important Conference"; "Back yard scenery in N.C."; "Summer"; "Showing the effect of not closing the mouth properly";"Rear view of 'my youngest'"; "Mistaking the shadow for the substance"; "Benjamin My youngest!"; "Master C.M. Gibbon - at 2 yrs"; and "'The 'non-adventurous Billie.', Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from the attire of the sitters., Gift of Marjorie G. Battles.
- Date
- [ca. 1900]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photos - 5 x 7 - unidentified - Recreation [P.8502.115-125]
- Title
- [Photographs of Andalusia, probably Pennsylvania]
- Description
- Captioned photographs depicting a pair of men by a tree and two women, one older, and a boy near a kettle in a back yard. Captions, one with racist text, include: "Pleasant thoughts of the Penn- Andalusia August 1898. Love from [Laute]?" and "Rollin like a [seener?] in the darkey quarters - Andalusia August 1898, Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from the attire of the sitters., Gift of Marjorie G. Battles., RVCDC
- Date
- [1898]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photos - 5 x 7 - unidentified - Recreation [P.8502.19 & 21]
- Title
- Some of our brave colored boys who helped free Cuba
- Description
- Stereoview depicting a lineup of African American soldiers in an exterior beach setting during the Spanish American War, 1898. The men, attired in the uniform of campaign hat, button down jacket, trousers, bullet belts, and leggings, stand at attention, and with their rifles held to the sandy ground. Most of the men look straight ahead with a few looking toward the viewer. In the background, an American flag at the end of the line of men and a military encampment with tents and soldiers is visible. The Spanish American War was the conflict between Spain and the United State originating with the Cuban War of Independence. Cuba gained independence and the United States acquired the territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine Islands from Spain. The regular army's four Black troops (9th and10th Cavalry and 24th and 25th Infantry) and thousands of Black men volunteers served during the war. AFrican American troop's service during the war caused controversy within the African American community which still did not have equal civil rights as citizens of the United States., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Copyright 1899 by J. F. Jarvis., Distributor's imprint printed on mount: Sold by Underwood & Underwood. New York, London, Toronto-Canada, Ottowa-Kansas., Semi-legible maunscript note on verso: Deliver to Mr. [Heyburn?] ... with ..., J.F. Jarvis was the largest manufacturer of stereoviews in Washington D.C. during the late 19th century. He published his own trade list and numerous views of government surveys., RVCDC
- Creator
- Jarvis, J. F. (John Fillis), 1849-1931
- Date
- [1899]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereos - misc. photo - Jarvis [P.2023.6]
- Title
- [Mary Ann C. Shadd?, Washington, D.C.]
- Description
- Bust-length portrait of an African American woman, possibly American-Canadian anti-slavery activist, journalist, publisher, teacher, and lawyer Mary Ann Shadd Cary. Sitter faces right and wears her long hair back and in a chignon and top knot. A head band with an ornament adorns her hair. She is attired in a dark-colored, V-neck garment with a white ruffled collar and dark-colored lace neckerchief. She also wears a cross necklace and drop earrings. Shad Cary, was born free in Delaware to parents active in the Underground Railroad, before relocating to Pennsylvania, then Canada in 1853. In later years, following the Civil War, Shad Cary resided in Washington, D.C. where she died in 1893. During her life, she founded a school for Black children in Pennsylvania and a racially integrated school in Ontario, Canada; was the first Black woman publisher in North America when she founded, in 1853, and edited the anti-slavery and civil rights advocacy newspaper "The Provincial Freeman,"; was the second Black woman to attend law school (Howard University) in the United States; and founded, in 1880, the women's rights advocacy organization the Colored Women's Progressive Franchise. Shad Cary also wrote for multiple newspapers, such as the National Era, served as a Civil War recruiter, and was the first African American woman to vote in a national election., Title from manuscript note on verso: Mariann [sic] C. Shadd, Washington, D.C., Photographer's imprint stamped on verso., Date inferred from active dates of photographer at address listed in imprint., Henrici & Garns operated from 709 South Second Street between 1874 and 1876.
- Creator
- Henrici & Garns, photographer
- Date
- [ca. 1875]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits - sitter - Cary [P.2023.4]
- Title
- Go way white trash, dis chile dance yer blind
- Description
- Reproduction of a sketch by G. W. Leonard depicting an African American shoeshine boy dancing to the musical accompaniment of a white boy and girl, while a white boy mocks him in the background. The smiling African American boy, portrayed in racist caricature with exaggerated features, is in the center of the image. He is attired in a white, long-sleeved open neck shirt, baggy striped pants with suspenders, and a hat with turned up brims, his hands at his side, and mid step. To his right, stand a white boy playing a concertina and a white girl playing the violin. The boy is attired in a newsboy's cap, a jacket, and pants with patches at the knees. The girl is attired in a short-sleeved, calf-length, light-colored dress, with a sash draped over her right shoulder (the one on which she plays the violin). A shoeshine box marked (with the letter s's backwards), "t. Smith. Boss Shine, 5 cts.," rests near the feet of the trio of children. In the background, a white boy, attired in torn and worn clothes and with mop-like hair, appears in a clomping stance with his arms raised to his shoulders, his back leg bent at the knee, and his other leg kicked out. His hat lays on the ground near him., Date from copyright statement: Copyright 1877, by J. P. Soule., John P. Soule was a Boston photographer who also published stereographs and cartes de visite. He served in the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts at the end of the Civil War., Purchased with the Davida T. Deutsch African American History Fund and funds for the Visual Culture Program., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
- Date
- [1877]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv - misc. - caricatures and cartoons - G [P.2015.63]
- Title
- [Copy photograph of African American woman caregiver with her young white charges]
- Description
- Copy photograph of a circa 1860 three-quarter length portrait of a young African American woman caregiver, seated, and with a white baby on her lap and a young white boy standing to her left. The caregiver has her right hand resting on the head of the baby and her left arm wrapped around his/her waist. The baby wears a medium-colored dress, which their nanny's hand has slightly tugged up. The baby has their left hand in their mouth. The nanny wears her long, wavy dark hair, parted in the center, and pulled away from her face. She is attired in a patterned shirt waist and dark satin skirt with crinoline underneath. The boy to her left wears a dark-colored, mandarin-style jacket and dark pants. All the sitters look straight at the viewer., Title supplied by cataloger., Date based on type of mount and address of photographer., Photographer's imprint stamped on mount and verso. Imprint on verso includes decorative insignia composed of an ornamented letter "G" with a coat of arms in its interior. The coat of arms includes a lion and bird., Inscribed in pencil on verso: 100801., Purchased with funds for the Visual Culture Program (Junto 2015)., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
- Creator
- Gutekunst, Frederick, 1831-1917, photographer
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cabinet card portraits - photo - Gutekunst [P.2016.17.2]
- Title
- Lucretia Mott's home
- Description
- View showing Roadside, the three-story stone residence with an ivy-covered porch of Quaker abolitionist and reformer Lucretia Mott, in Cheltenham Township. Mott sits in a chair on the front lawn. A woman, attired in a dark-colored dress, possibly her daughter Marie Mott Davis or Elizabeth Mott Cavender, stands to her right and touches the back of her chair. Another woman, possibly her daugher Marie Mott Davis or Elizabeth Mott Cavender, attired in a dark-colored dress sits on the grass to her left. A child sits to the left of the seated woman. A child's hand cart lies in the grass next to them. Trees, mostly free of foliage, line the property. Mott and her husband James moved from their Philadelphia city residence to Roadside in 1857. The residence was used for the Underground Railroad and was part of an estate acquired by Mott's daughter Marie and her real estate developer husband Edward M. Davis known as Old Farm. Old Farm comprised land between Old York Road, Penrose Avenue, Cheltenham Avenue (City Line Avenue), and Beech Avenue. Mott's daughter Elizabeth lived at Roadside in 1865 before passing away from cancer., Title from manuscript note on verso., Photographer's imprint printed on verso. Illustrated with an ornament shaped as a circular frame and surrounding the imprint. Garland and ribbon adorns the outer edge of the frame., Date inferred from format, active dates of photographer, and attire of sitters., Description and access points reviewed 2022., John W. Hurn (182-1887) was born in England and worked as a book keeper in upstate New York by 1850. A radical abolitionist, he worked as a photographer in Philadelphia by 1860 and operated a studio at 1319 Chestnut Street through the 1870s.
- Creator
- Hurn, J. W. (John White), d. 1887
- Date
- [ca. 1865]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv - Hurn - Residences [P.2016.22.5]
- Title
- [Mount Pleasant mansion, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia]
- Description
- View shows Mount Pleasant mansion in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia flanked by outbuildings. The view is somewhat obscured by trees. The Middle-Georgian country house was built 1761-1765 for Captain John Macpherson after the designs of Thomas Nevil on Mount Pleasant Drive 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., Title inferred from manuscript note on verso., Date inferred from type of mount., Yellow mount with rounded corners., Gift of Raymond Holstein, 2011., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
- Date
- [ca. 1870]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Holstein stereo - Fairmount Park [P.2011.47.954]
- Title
- Wrestling for a bride, Dahomey, Africa
- Description
- Stereoview depicting a tableau vivant with a racialized tone in a studio setting in which two Black men attired in sarongs, face each other, and are in lunged stances. Behind them, to the left, three Black men, attired in sarongs, stand in front of a hut and palm trees, and watch the "wrestling" men. The kingdom of Dahomey established about 1600 by the Fon people became the independent country Republic of Dahomey, and was renamed Benin in 1975., Title from item., Date inferred from series title printed below title., Distributor's imprint printed on mount: Sold by Underwood & Underwood. New York, Liverpool, Toronto-Canada, Ottowa, Kansas., Title printed on verso in six different languages., J.F. Jarvis was the largest manufacturer of stereoviews in Washington D.C. during the late 19th century. He published his own trade list and numerous views of government surveys., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
- Creator
- Jarvis, J. F. (John Fillis), 1849-1931
- Date
- [1894]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereos - - misc. photo - Jarvis [P.2016.13.38]
- Title
- [Early model for Freedmen's Memorial by Thomas Ball]
- Description
- Front and oblique views with a dark background, likely photographed in Thomas Ball's studio, showing his model for a design later proposed and adapted for the Freedman's Memorial to Lincoln (erected 1876, Washington, D.C.) that was first discussed as a Lincoln monument in the later 1860s. Shows the model composed of a figure of Abraham Lincoln (left) and a kneeling, emancipated, enslaved Black man figure (right). The Black man figure, is portrayed in left profile, looking out toward the vista, and with his left knee to the ground and his right knee bent. His left foot is arched up from the ground. He holds his left hand with his knuckles to the ground and his right hand across his waist and resting on the inner elbow of his left arm. The figure has curly hair and wears a Liberty cap and a loin cloth. Broken shackles adorn his wrists. The Lincoln figure, attired in a suit with a long coat, stands, looks down on the Black man figure, and holds out his left hand above the kneeling man, while his right hand holds the Emancipation Proclamation (semi-rolled) on a plinth decorated with patriotic symbols. Symbols include a profile portrait of George Washington, the fasces of the U.S. Republic, and a shield adorned with the stars and stripes. The base of the plinth is inscribed "T. Ball 1865." The figures rest on a base marked "And upon this act-I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favour of Almighty God.", A national monument project sponsored by the Western Sanitary Commission of St. Louis was initiated after formerly enslaved Charlotte Scott of Marietta, OH pledged $5 for a monument to Abraham Lincoln following his assassination in 1865. Donations from formerly enslaved persons grew to $20,000 within months of Scott's original donation. After years of competing projects, designs, and sponsoring agencies, on April 14, 1876, Ball's sculpture adapted from the model depicted, the "Emancipation Memorial," and designed without the input of the formerly enslaved donors was erected in Lincoln Square, Washington, D.C. on an eastern edge of Capitol Hill., Title supplied by cataloger., Photographer's imprint stamped on mount., Manuscript note on verso of verso of P.2023.32.1: Florence March 15th 1872. Emancipation Proclamation. T. Ball of Boston., Manuscript note on verso of verso of P.2023.32.1: Florence March 15th 1872. Emancipation Proclamation. T. Ball of Boston. Sculptor in Florence., Date from manuscript note on verso., Thomas Ball (1819-1911), sculptor, focused his career on the portrayal of statesmen and historical figures. He located to Florence to study sculpture in 1854. Between 1857 and 1865, he worked in Boston before returning to Florence until 1897. Ball was part of an expatriate community of artists and sculptors, including Hiram Powers, father of Longsworth Powers., See Kirk Savage, Standing soldiers, kneeling slaves: Race, war, and monument in nineteenth-century America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), p.77-83 and 114-123., RVCDC, Longsworth Powers (1835-1904), son of sculptor Hiram Powers, lived in Florence with his family in the 1830s and returned in 1860 and began a career as a sculptor and photographer. Powers photographed prominent men and women in the city.
- Creator
- Powers, Longsworth, 1835-1904, photographer
- Date
- [1872]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - Powers [P.2023.32.1-2]
- Title
- 2 headed girl, Millie Crissie
- Description
- Full-length portrait of the African American women conjoined twins and performers known as the "two-headed nightingale" and "Carolina twins." The twins wear their hair in chin-length pin curls and are attired in an off-the shoulder, short-sleeved, light-colored, calf-lengthed dress, black boots, and crown-shaped headpieces adorned with stars. Millie (left) holds a newpaper to her side in her left hand. Christine (right) holds a book in her hands in front of her. They stand, looking toward the viewer, and posed in front of a backdrop depicting a window view. The feet of a posing stand are visible behind their feet. Millie and Christine were born in Whiteville, North Carolina on July 11, 1851, to Jacob and Monemia McKoy who were enslaved to Jabez McKay. Various enslavers and managers exhibited the twins nationally and internationally. In 1870, the sisters traveled and performed throughout the midwest., Title from item., Photographer's imprint printed on verso., Contains semi-legible printed ink transfer in upper edge of image., See History and medical description of the two-headed girl:...(Buffalo, N.Y.: Warren, Johnson, & Co., 1869). (LCP Am 1869 Hist, 70318.D)., RVCDC, John H. Fitzgibbon was a St. Louis photographer who began as a daguerreotypist. He operated from 116 North Fourth Street between 1866 and 1876 before founding the journal, "The St. Louis Practical Photographer and Illustrated Monthly Journal."
- Creator
- Fitzgibbon, John H., 1816?-1882, photographer
- Date
- [ca. 1870]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits - sitter - Millie [P.2023.28]
- Title
- Scene at polling place in Wilmington, Del. Local option election, Nov. 5 1907
- Description
- Documentary view taken by Delaware news photographer A.N. Sanborn showing African American men voters outside of Buck's Chemical Co., a Wilmington, Delaware polling place. Depicts the men standing on the edge of the sidewalk, some conversing, one holding papers in his hand, in front of the brick building of the chemical company adorned in signage reading "Incorporated 1900. Bucks Chemical Co., 1201 & 1203 French St. J.C. Buck[? ], Pres. Wm C. [?], Secy. & Treas. Other men stand near the building by the sign and an entryway with the frame marked "Laundry." To the left, a group of white men stand in a huddle, across from a partially visible entry way, and next to two white girls who look toward the photographer. All the men are attired in suits. To the right, a group of African American and white children crowd together and look toward the photographer. Behind them, in the background, the Black church, the Union American Methodist Episcopal Church, is visible. View also includes two lines of ropes and poles that extend into the empty street from the partially visible entryway and create a cordoned passage. In 1901, the Delaware State General Assembly took actions to dismantle laws that impeded voting by the Black community, as well as had finally symbolically ratified the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. The November 1907 local option election ballot was on the question of whether state licenses should be granted to outlets to serve alcohol. Wilmington voters voted in favor of licenses., Title and date from manuscript note on mount., Name of photographer from imprint blindstamped on mount., Manuscript note on verso: 5th Dis of 6th Ward. 2nd Ref Dis. Cor 12th & French, Wil Del., Partially purchased with funds for the Visual Culture Program., RVCDC
- Creator
- Sanborn, A.N. (Arthur N.), 1869-1959, photographer
- Date
- [November 5, 1907]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - Sanborn [P.2023.17.2]
- Title
- Girls passing Mansion House, [Hampton Institute, Va.]
- Description
- Shows a group of women students, attired in white dresses, marching in lines across a lawn at the Hampton Institute. Walking in front of the women are four African American men, attired in uniforms and caps, two of which carry an American and a "H.I." flag. They march past the Mansion House, with its columned portico. In the left background, several women walk on the grass. The Hampton Institute, originally the Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, was founded in 1868 by the American Missionary Association to provide education for freed Black citizens after the Civil War. It was built on the grounds of a former plantation, known as Little Scotland. The school was legally chartered in 1870 and accredited as a university in 1984. Notable graduates include Booker T. Washington. The Mansion House was the original residence of the plantation built in 1828., Photograph from negative number 2013.13.465., Purchase 2001., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Digitization and cataloging has been made possible through the generosity of David Marriott Morris, Eleanor Rhoads Morris Cox, and William Perot Morris in memory of Marriott Canby Morris and his children: Elliston Perot Morris, Marriott Canby Morris Jr., and Janet Morris and in acknowledgment of his grandchildren: William Perot Morris, Eleanor Rhoads Morris Cox, Jonathan White Morris, and David Marriott Morris., Edited.
- Creator
- Morris, Marriott Canby, 1863-1948, photographer
- Date
- April 24, 1912
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Marriott C. Morris Collection [P.9895.2121]
- Title
- Mason's challenge blacking Philadelphia
- Description
- Photographic reproduction of a racist and whimsically absurd advertisement, including an African American shoe shiner, to promote the premier manufactory of blacking established in 1832 by James S. Mason. Depicts the shoe-shiner "blacking" a boot near a white shoe-shine boy with a puppet and a dog. The shoe-shiner, portrayed with grotesque features, holds a brush overhead in his right hand and a boot over the hand of his other arm. He wears a button-down shirt with an open collar, suspenders, and breeches. To his right, is an oversize boot on which the boy has a propped a puppet. The puppet is an African American dandy-like character. The puppet attired in a jacket and high collar shirt holds an umbrella above his head. A dog, as he looks behind, flees from the puppet. The dog's face is reflected in the foot of the boot. The young shoe-shiner, attired in a cap, jacket, and breeches, smiles and points toward the dog. Scene also includes an oversize opened tin of blacking in the foreground. Following the death of Mason in 1888, his son Richard assumed the business which was in operation into the 20th century., Date inferred from address of engraving firm., Advertising text printed on verso: July 15th, Reduced prices Mason's Challenge Blacking. Net prices, ornamental cases, adapted for display in retail stores, or shipping, without re-packing, holding three dozen each. No. 1, or Small Size, per doz. 25 cts. " 2, or N. Medium Size, " 30 ." " 4, or Large Size, "50." To obtain this Blacking in the original Show Cases, not less than three dozen of a kind should be ordered. The American News Company, New York.
- Date
- [ca. 1877]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv - unid. photo. - Advertisements - M [P.2016.65]
- Title
- [Mount Pleasant mansion, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.]
- Description
- Exterior view of the front of Mount Pleasant Mansion (i.e. Arnold Mansion) main house built 1761-1765 for Captain John Macpherson after the designs of Thomas Nevil in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pa. View shows wildflowers in bloom on the front lawn and benches lining the front walk. 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., Date inferred from type of mount., Orange mount with rounded corners., Series title printed on mount., Title supplied by cataloger., Title printed on mount erroneously identifies site as Washington's Headquarters - Fairmount Park., Gift of Raymond Holstein, 2011., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Holstein stereo - Fairmount Park [P.2011.47.1013]
- Title
- The trombone soloist
- Description
- Genre portrait with a racist tone showing an African American boy, seated on a stool, and holding a trombone by the braces and down toward his left knee. He is attired in a neutral-color, buttoned jacket; short pants; white, collared shirt; and a black top hat. The boy is posed at a three-quarter angle, right profile. His head is tilted slightly to his left., Title printed on negative., Name of publisher/distributor stamped on mount., Curved grey mount with rounded corners., Gift of David Long., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
- Creator
- Rau, William Herman, 1855-1920, photographer
- Date
- [ca. 1896]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - Rau - Portraits & Genre [P.2018.16.4]
- Title
- Customer. "Rather cool weather Pete, for a close crop like that." Pete. "Can't help it Boss---the proprietor says long hairs gits in de wittles."
- Description
- Reproduction of a drawing of a racist, comic scene showing an African American waiter serving a bearded, white man seated at a restaurant table. The African American waiter is depicted with exaggerated features, including an oblong-shaped head. He wears a black suit, a white shirt with a high collar, and an apron around his waist. The waiter stands beside the table that is covered in a tablecloth. He rests his left hand on it and holds a bowl of soup on a saucer in his right. The customer, attired in a tuxedo, rests his left arm near a pitcher, glass, napkin and condiment display on the table. In the background, a bald man, sits and eats at a nearby table. Paneling adorns the walls of the restaurant on which the morphed shadow of the waiter is visible., Title printed on negative., Yellow mount with curved corners., Date inferred from attire of depicted figures., Gift of David Long., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - unid. photo - Portraits & Genre [P.2018.16.8]
- Title
- Rapid transit in Southern Mississippi
- Description
- Racist scene showing an African American family comprised of the parents and eleven children traveling in an open wagon pulled by two oxen. The parents, each holding a baby, sit on the cab as the older children stand in the bed of the wagon. A wood shack, with three small windows, a door, and dilapidated fencing stands in the background. Two African American women, each holding a baby, stand in front of the building. The women and girls wear cotton shirtwaists, skirts, or smock dresses, and kerchiefs or a wide-brimmed hat. The man and boys wear long-sleeved shirts, pants, and hats or caps., Date from copyright statement: Copyright 1895, by Strohmeyer & Wyman., Title from item., Title printed in six different languages, including French, German, and Spanish on verso., Gift of David Long., RVCDC, Description reviewed 2022., Access points revised 2022., In 1912 Keystone View Company purchased rights to some Underwood & Underwood negatives for use in educational sets, and in 1922 purchased the remaining stock of Underwood materials. Keystone remained in business until 1970.
- Creator
- Underwood & Underwood
- Date
- 1895
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - Underwood & Underwood - Portraits & Genre [P.2018.16.9]
- Title
- Midsummer dinner
- Description
- Racist, genre scene showing an African American boy eating watermelon for his dinner. He smiles, sits cross-legged on a wooden crate and has his right hand plunged into the flesh of one half of a watermelon. He looks slightly toward his right and wears a pork pie hat; long-sleeve, collarless shirt; and ragged pants. Seeds run along the side of his slightly outstretched right foot. The untouched second half of the watermelon rests next to him to his right. The crate contains writing that reads: #888/Stmp/Handle Carefully/Keeb Dry. A backdrop depicting panel molding along the bottom of a wall is visible in the background., Title from list of 70 titles printed on verso by printer E. Perry., Name of photographer printed on mount., Date inferred from style of mount and active dates of photographer/publisher., Printed on mount: Charleston & Vicinity., Yellow mount with rounded corners., Manuscript note written on verso, upper edge: Lukin., Gift of David Long., Frank A. Nowell began work as a photographer in Charleston in 1870. In 1880, he purchased the Charleston negatives and studio of Civil War photographer George N. Barnard. Nowell was active until 1890.
- Creator
- Nowell, F. A.
- Date
- [ca. 1870]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - misc. photo. - Nowell [P.2018.16.10]
- Title
- Fifteenth amendment. Bringing his crop to town
- Description
- Racist, vignetted view showing an African American man, attired in worn clothes, hauling a loaded cart pulled by a thin, horned cow. The man, attired in a wide-brimmed hat, jacket, and pants, rides the cow. His right hand holds the reigns of the yoke and his left hand holds up a stick in a striking motion. A pile of thatch fills the cart. A bag of cotton rests atop of the thatch. Townscape is visible in the background. View racistly satirizes African American civil rights and the right to vote granted to African American men in 1870 by the Fifteenth Amendment., Title and series number printed on verso., Name of photographer printed on verso., Photographer inferred to also be publisher., Date inferred from style of mount and active dates of photographer., Printed on mount: Charleston & Vicinity., Orange mount with rounded corners., Gift of David Long., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Jerome N. Wilson (1827-1897), a New-York born photographer, relocated his photography business to Savannah Georgia in 1865. He produced multiple genres of photographs, including cartes de visite and stereographs. His studio was enlarged and improved in 1871.
- Creator
- Wilson, J. N.
- Date
- [ca. 1870]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - misc. photo. - Wilson [P.2018.16.11]
- Title
- Uncle Ned's school
- Description
- View, photographed with a black background, showing a small narrative plaster after the John Rogers' bronze sculpture patented in 1866. Sculpture is comprised of the figure of an African American girl, an older African American cobbler, an African American boy, and a ramshackle cabinet. All the figures are barefoot. In the left, the young female charge of the cobbler stands, holds a book, and points to a page that she has been reading. In the center, the cobbler, his hair receded, leans over, and looks at the book as he has one leg swung over a rickety cabinet and the other behind it. He holds a shoe buffer in his right hand that rests on the book and a boot over his left hand and forearm that rests on his hip. A second boot stands at the base of the cabinet near the girl's feet. In the right, the cobbler's male charge reclines next to the cabinet. He has his left hand behind him and his left leg outstretched, as his right hand touches the base of the foot of the hanging leg of the cobbler. An open book rests in the boy's lap. The girl is attired in a straight neck, off-the-shoulder dress that is cinched at the waist. The cobbler wears rolled-up shirt sleeves, pants, and an apron at his waist. The boy wears shirt sleeves and pants with a hole at the knee. Rogers' original sculpture "Uncle Ned's School" was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1866. Rogers mass produced and sold tens of thousands of plaster sculptures after his bronzes 1859-1893., Title from title carved in base of depicted sculpture., Date inferred from style of mount and 1866 patent of sculpture., Yellow mount with rounded corners., John Rogers (1829-1904), a New York sculptor and artist, specialized in sculpted narrative group scenes beginning in the late 1850s. He established a workshop for the mass production of his sculptures at affordable prices that were marketed as "Rogers' Groups." Rogers retired in 1893., Gift of David Long., RVCDC, Description and access points reviewed 2022.
- Date
- [ca. 1868]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - unid. photo. - Monuments and Statues [P.2018.16.12]
- Title
- " How do debble does dey make a bicycle?" = Como diablos se hacen los bicírculos?
- Description
- Racist, genre scene showing an African American boy, seated on his knees, in a room with a dirt floor and strewn rubbish. His right hand is raised to his head, and he holds a tire pump and broken bicycle tire in his left hand. The boy, attired in a long-sleeved shirt, pants, and suspenders looks down with a look of anguish at the rubber tire pulled off of its hub. Behind the boy is a cot covered with haphazard-placed mounds of bedding. To his left, a cat stands in front of a wooden chair on which an empty glass bottle rests. Scene also includes a wooden storage cabinet in the right., Date from copyright statement: Copyright 1891 by Stohmeyer & Wyman., Curved buff mount with rounded corners., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Gift of David Long.
- Creator
- Strohmeyer & Wyman
- Date
- 1891
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - misc. photo. - Strohmeyer & Wyman [P.2018.16.5]
- Title
- Cotton is king. Plantation scene, Georgia, U.S.A
- Description
- Scene showing an African American girl, women, and men picking cotton in a cotton field. In the foreground, a girl picks cotton near a large basket filled with the fiber. Behind her, a number of women and men, some hunched over and with large cloth bags hung over their shoulders, pick cotton from the rows of plants. One man holds a large basket of cotton with his hands over his head and the basket on his back. The women wear long-sleeve, checkered cotton dresses and kerchiefs. The mean wear long sleeve shirts and pants. Most wear wide-brimmed hats, except the man carrying the basket, who wears no hat. In the background, a white man, attired in a suit and on horseback, oversees the cotton pickers., Date from copyright statement: Copyright 1895, by Strohmeyer & Wyman., Title from item., Curved grey mount with rounded corners., Title printed in six different languages, including French, German, and Spanish on verso., Several lines of text printed on verso about the cotton industry, the "world-problem of clothing," the cultivation of cotton, including "picking is usually done by negro laborers, as here, though experiments with harvesting machines are meeting with some success," and suggested further reading, including encyclopedia article subjects and Carrol D. Wright's "Industrial Development of the United States." Text begins: This beautiful field "white unto the harvest," is a sense to delight a painter, and at the same time, it is a condensed cyclopaedia of one of the greatest industries of the whole world., Gift of David Long., Title variant of P.2017.121.2., RVCDC, Description reviewed 2022., Access points revised 2022., In 1912 Keystone View Company purchased rights to some Underwood & Underwood negatives for use in educational sets, and in 1922 purchased the remaining stock of Underwood materials. Keystone remained in business until 1970.
- Creator
- Underwood & Underwood
- Date
- 1895
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - Underwood & Underwood - Work [P.2018.16.6]
- Title
- [Portrait of Millie and Christine McCoy]
- Description
- Full-length portrait of the African American co-joined twins and performers. The women are attired in striped-patterned shirtwaists, a white ankle-length skirt with a black lace overlay, and black high-heeled boots with white stripes. Each wears a white neckerchief, and an adornment in her pulled back hair. Millie (on the left) holds a white fan in her hands. A backdrop and ornate, wooden pedestal with a book resting on it are visible in the background. The end of a drape partially covers the book. In the left, another wooden prop is partially visible. The twins, born enslaved, were exhibited nationally and internationally under various owners and managers. By the end of the 1880s the twins retired to a farm in their home state of North Carolina., Title supplied by cataloger., Photographer's imprint printed on mount., Date inferred from age of sitters and active dates of photographer in New York., Printed on verso: I was born in the State of North Carolina, Columbus Co., Anno Domini, 1851. And pronounced by scientists to be the 8th wonder of the world. / 'Tis not modest of one's self to speak,/ Buts, daily scanned from head to feet,/ I freely talk of everything,/ Sometimes to persons wondering./ Some people say I must be two!/The doctors say it is not true,/Some cry out humbug, till they see,/ And then exclaim, "great mystery."/ Two heads, four arms, four feet,/ All in one perfect body meet./I am most wonderfully made, /All scientific men have said./ None like me since the days of Eve,/ None such perhaps shall ever live./ If marvel to myself am I,/Why not to all pass me by?/ I am happy too, because content;/ For some wise purpose I was sent./ Our maker knows what he has done,/ Whether I'm created two or one./ Respectfully, Millie Christine. The Carolina twin, surnamed the 2-headed Nightingale., Mount trimmed., See History and Medical Description of the Two-Headed Girl:...(Buffalo, N.Y.: Warren, Johnson, & Co., 1869). (LCP Am 1869 Hist, 70318.D)., See LCP AR (Annual Report) 2015, p.42-43., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 2018, p. 61., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Horace Ollivier operated a New York studio beginning around 1881 at 779 Broadway.
- Creator
- Ollivier, Horace, photographer
- Date
- [ca. 1881]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits - sitter - Millie [P.2018.28]
- Title
- Camp of 2d Penna. Infantry, "Anthony Wayne." Clifton Heights, Delaware Co. Pa. August 1889. (Major Porters tent) Lt. Col. O. C. Bosbyshell; Major Jno. Bieldles? [porter?]; George Brown (Colored.)
- Description
- Group portrait showing Lt. Col. Bosbyshell (right), Major John Bieldles? (left), and George Brown (center right) posed in front of the tent of Maj. J. Biddle Porter at the Pennsylvania National Guard Second Regiment encampment in Clifton Heights, August 4-10, 1889. The Lt. Col. and Major, attired in their uniforms of dark-colored jackets and white pants, sit on folding chairs, their legs crossed. Bieldles (left), with cropped dark hair and a mustache, holds a book in his right hand and points a finger on his left hand upwards. Brown, an African American man, possibly a porter, with cropped dark hair and attired in a white, long sleeve shirt, and dark-colored trousers, lies on his side, in front of Bosbyshell (right). Bosbyshell wears glasses and has grey hair and a goatee. He rests his right arm on the back of his chair. The flaps to the tent, marked "N.G.P.," are open. Shelving, pails, and a steamer trunk are visible inside. The men sit and lie under an awning pitched in front of the tent. A wooden water tower, shed, shelter, and crates, near a row of trees, are visible in the background. An African man stands next to the shed, and the head of a seated African American man is visible in the shelter. Bosbyshell was a coiner at the Philadelphia mint 1875-1885 and superintendent 1889-1894. The Pennsylvania National Guard encampment included drills, a dress parade, receptions, and inspections by Adjunct-General Daniel H. Hastings and Governor James A. Beaver. The camp adjoined the grounds of "Mr. Bishop.", Title from manuscript note on verso., Date from manuscript note on verso., Mount is black with gold edges., See Philadelphia Inquirer, August 5-6, 1889 and August 9, 1889., RVCDC, Description reviewed 2022., Access points reviewed 2022.
- Date
- [August 1889]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department group portrait photographs - military - Second Pennsylvania Infantry [P.2018.36]
- Title
- Cotton is king. Plantation scene, Georgia, U.S.A
- Description
- Scene showing an African American girl, women, and men picking cotton in a cotton field. In the foreground, a girl picks cotton near a large basket filled with the fiber. Behind her, a number of women and men, some hunched over and with large cloth bags hung over their shoulders, pick cotton from the rows of plants. One man holds a large basket of cotton with his hands over his head and the basket on his back. The women wear long-sleeve, checkered cotton dresses and kerchiefs. The mean wear long sleeve shirts and pants. Most wear wide-brimmed hats, except the man carrying the basket, who wears no hat. In the background, a white man, attired in a suit and on horseback, oversees the cotton pickers., Date from copyright statement: Copyright 1895, by Strohmeyer & Wyman., Title from item., Curved grey mount with rounded corners., Title printed in six different languages, including French, German, and Spanish on verso., Several lines of text printed on verso about the cotton industry, the "world-problem of clothing," the cultivation of cotton, including "picking is usually done by negro laborers, as here, though experiments with harvesting machines are meeting with some success," and suggested further reading, including encyclopedia article subjects and Carrol D. Wright's "Industrial Development of the United States." Text begins: This beautiful field "white unto the harvest," is a sense to delight a painter, and at the same time, it is a condensed cyclopaedia of one of the greatest industries of the whole world., Gift of George Allen., Title variant of P.2018.16.6., RVCDC, Description reviewed 2022., Access points revised 2022., In 1912 Keystone View Company purchased rights to some Underwood & Underwood negatives for use in educational sets, and in 1922 purchased the remaining stock of Underwood materials. Keystone remained in business until 1970.
- Creator
- Underwood & Underwood
- Date
- 1895
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereos - Underwood & Underwood - Work [P.2017.121.2]
- Title
- The colored band
- Description
- Photographic reproduction of a print drawn by Helen M. Colburn, daughter of New Jersey artist Rembrandt Lockwood, depicting African American women and girl spectators reacting to a passing African American marching band. The figures are drawn with racist and caricatured features and mannerisms. Shows in the foreground, two girls and a younger and an older woman, running next to and toward the band, mimicking the band leader, and dancing. The girls and women are barefoot and wear shift dresses of either calf or ankle lengths. The older, running woman (in right) also wears a kerchief. The mimicking girl who stomps and raises her left arm in front of the band leader wears short-cropped hair and is attired in a dress with wornout sleeves (center). The young woman dancing (center) and the running girl (left) wear their hair full and wavy. In the center foreground, the band leader looks past the girl in front of him. He wears a mustache and is attired in a tall, round-top shako with plume and a uniform. The uniform has tassels at the shoulder and a decorative chest plate and pants with a vertical stripe on the outseam. He holds up a mace adorned with an eagle with his right hand. In the background, members of the marching band, attired in caps with plumes and uniforms, play tubas. A line of older African American boys and a girl walks ahead of the band. Two of the children look behind themselves toward the band, including a boy with a look of surprise. During the Civil War, African American brass bands were formed by white commanding officers to promote and increase recruitment of African American soldiers. Following the war, many of the ex-military musicians formed civilian bands associated with quasi-military drill teams, volunteer organizations, and social clubs., Robinson, married to Washington U.S. Treasury clerk Rollinson Colburn, lived in the Capitol between circa 1870 and her death in 1912. In 1887 eight of her works, some purported to be based on her own eye-witness accounts during the 1870s, showing African American life in the city were published as a collectible series of photographs. Occassionally, Colburn described and signed her descriptions of the scenes on the versos of the photographs., Title printed on mount., Date from copy right statement printed on mount: Copyright 1887., Written in lower left of original print: Copyright 1881. Mrs. R. Colburn, RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Purchased with the 2019 Junto Fund.
- Date
- 1887
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photos - 5 x 7 - unidentified - Events [P.2020.16.1]

