The McAllister & Brother firm descended from the Scottish émigré´ John McAllister Sr. (1786-1866) who operated a store in Philadelphia from the late eighteenth throughout the nineteenth century. The business, originally a cane and whip manufactory, evolved over the years to become a spectacle shop and later the premier opticians’ shop of the city. The shop sold lenses, cameras, and stereoviewers and served a major role in the development and the promotion of early photography.
The McAllister & Brother Stereograph Collection comprises some of the oldest photographic views of Philadelphia church exteriors and interiors. Issued circa 1860-circa 1863, the photographs provide images of such prominent religious structures as Christ Church, St. Peter’s Church, Gloria Dei, and St. Mark’s Church.
Collection of photographs by Odiorne of commercial streets in center city Philadelphia east of 10th Street. Primarily documents Chestnut Street between 6th and 10th Streets, including views from Odiorne’s photographic studio at 920 Chestnut Street showing a variety of retail businesses and several large hotels. Hotels depicted include Continental Hotel, Girard House, and Washington House. Also contains views of the area near Dock Street and the Delaware River waterfront showing boarding houses, hotels, liquor stores, and oyster saloons; 5th Street near Arch Street, including images of Garrigues & Magee Manufacturing Chemists, suppliers of photographic chemicals and William Wilson & Son, manufacturers of silver ware; residences near 4th and Pine Streets; and Franklin Square. Also includes images of the Market Street market sheds, and a police station. Several of the views are snow scenes.
Philadelphia photographer Henry B. Odiorne (1805-1860) worked out of Isaac Rehn’s Gallery at 920 Chestnut Street 1859-1860.
Collection of 38 views of properties owned by Jackson-Cross Company, a commercial real estate firm founded by Joseph T. Jackson in 1876. The company merged with the Cross Company in 1936 and became Jackson-Cross Company. The firm operated until 1998 when Insignia Financial Group acquired it. The collection depicts a number of sites throughout Philadelphia during the 1940s, including office buildings, industrial sites, hospitals, banks, and stores and shops.
Broadsides, certificates, songs and prayers reflecting Pennsylvania German-American folk culture collected by Don Yoder and William Woys Weaver, mostly 19th century.
Collection of negatives taken 1900-1910 by Philadelphia music teacher and amateur photographer Frank Berry (b. 1863). Images primarily document Berry's neighborhood in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia and the nearby Wissahickon Valley. Contains images of scenes and buildings in Manayunk including Berry's home on Righter Street; friends and family posed for informal portraits; children engaged in recreational activities including sledding, biking, boating, fishing, and swimming; bridges, trails, and landscapes in the Wissahickon Valley; the construction of Walnut Lane Bridge (1906-1908); and several beach scenes. Also includes views of the Historical Pageant in 1912; the Northeast Manual Training School; St. Stephen's Episcopal Church; altar decorations; Josephine Berry playing a piano; a man posed with a motorcycle; the family Christmas tree; a childrens' street band; a liquor store at 5226 Ridge Avenue; Berry with his camera; and children taking photographs.
James McClees (1821-1887), a pioneer Philadelphia photographer, produced a significant number of the oldest paper photographs held in the graphics collection. The views, dated 1853-1859, depict prominent residential, public, and commercial buildings that document the changing architectural landscape of the city of Philadelphia. A large number of the images show churches and educational institutions, including Seventh Presbyterian Church, Dr. Chamber’s Independent Church, the Fourth Baptist Church, Central High School, Jefferson Medical College, and the Spring Garden Institute. In addition, views of the Old London Coffee House, the Graff house, the State House, and Chestnut Street Theatre record the historic city that was becoming overshadowed by newer construction such as the Farmers and Mechanics Bank, Spring Garden Institute, and the West Philadelphia Water Works. McClees also photographed prominent residences; bridges over the Schuylkill; the aftermath of the 1856 fire at Sixth and Market streets; businesses and industries, including his daguerreotype studio; cemeteries, theaters; hotels; the Fairmount Water Works; and the Academy of Natural Sciences. A series of panoramic views of the city from the State House steeple forms the collection as well.
Part of a series of progress photographs by Philadelphia commercial photographer William Nicholson Jennings (1860-1946) commissioned by the builders Irwin & Leighton to document the construction of the Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company building, March 1927-early 1928. Images show the clearing of the site, laying of the foundations, the erection of steel framing, the progress of exterior masonry work and the completed building. Also contains interior views of the framing between floors and details of the ornamental doorway.
Collection of 182 lantern slides photographed 1870-1916 by Philadelphia photographer and Photo-Secessionist John C. Bullock (1854-1939) predominately depicting views of colonial-era residences and landmarks on Germantown Avenue. The Germantown Avenue views, most created 1910-1915, illustrate the third edition of Charles F. Jenkins’ local history book The Guide Book to Historic Germantown. Collection also includes images of historic sites in Center City and rural landscape.
Collection of 250 portrait photographs on postcard stock depicting residents of South Philadelphia and Kensington by amateur photographer John Frank Keith (1883-1947), ca. 1910-ca. 1940. Keith documented hundreds of, typically unidentified, working-class Philadelphians, individually, and as groups standing on sidewalks, in front of streetscape, and sitting on stoops. The majority of photographs date to the 1920s and show men, women, and children.
Seventeen photographs (1894-ca. 1945) by Philadelphia amateur photographer, teamster, and machinist Eugene Davis. Images primarily document the electrification, beginning in 1894, of Philadelphia’s first horse railway line operated by the Frankford and Southwark City Passenger Railway Company. Includes views of horse-drawn cars and electric trollies. Collection also contains images of location of Davis’s machinist shop Walker & Davis, Inc. with partner Noah Walker, and other vehicles, including an autogiro, a Ford Model T truck, delivery carts and wagons, and the beached cruise ship, Morro Castle.
Collection of bas-relief small carvings depicting the primary exhibition halls at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876. The exhibition celebrated the centennial of the United States through an international exhibition of industry, agriculture, and art.
One of four volumes of prints and drawings issued in 1878 by prominent Philadelphia lithographer, etcher, and artist Augustus Kollner (1812-1906). The twenty-four views primarily depict landscapes of Fairmount Park. Also contains views of Philadelphia and Bucks and Montgomery counties. Several of the lithographs from this volume were based on sketches he executed in the 1840s.
The Civil War Graphics and Ephemera Collection is primarily comprised of the John A. McAllister Collection. The collection includes tens of thousands of examples of printed ephemera, most from the Civil War years, including circa 600 recruiting posters, as well as newspapers, political broadside and leaflets, tickets, trade cards, cartoons, and a complement of ribbons, buttons and other ephemeral items constituting the largest such collection documenting the Philadelphia home front. The collection of graphic items includes lithographs, engravings, cartoons, maps, textiles, drawings, photographs, and about 7,000 patriotic pictorial envelopes. Additionally, mixed media holdings within the collection document sanitary fairs, voluntary saloons and hospitals, generals and leaders, playing cards, verse, and Confederate States ephemera.
The McAllister Graphics Collection of prints, ephemera, and scrapbooks reflect the collecting efforts of Philadelphia antiquarian John A. McAllister (1822-1896) during the Civil War. The Civil War graphics include prints and photographs of camps, forts and battlefields; political cartoons; portraiture; certificates; architectural and engineering plans; textiles and ephemera. A large segment of the prints are lithographic views of camps and battle scenes, with over 100 printed by the Philadelphia printer L.N. Rosenthal and New York firm Currier & Ives as well as a small number printed on textiles by Boston Chemical Printing Company. Also significant is the Civil War ephemera, which includes envelopes, stationery, and paper novelties such as toy soldiers. The Civil War Envelope and Stationery collections contain over 7,000 items illustrated with patriotic designs and slogans. Several envelopes by prolific publishers King & Baird and Charles Magnus are included in this collection. A smaller ephemera collection is the Civil War paper soldiers. The paper toys, a small number published by McLoughlin Bros. and G. Heerbrandt, depict soldiers from over a dozen different New York regiments. Three scrapbooks of Civil War envelopes and portrait prints and photographs of prominent military and political figures also comprise collection.
Collection of landscape photographs taken 1885-1900 by Philadelphia-area naturalist photographer and Photo-Secessionist Robert Redfield (1849-1923). Images primarily depict the Brandywine Creek and Mill Creek (PA); Twin Lakes (CT); and Mount Washington (MA) as well as unidentified creeks and streams. Many of the views include people at recreation and sheep or cows. Collection also includes views of the office and darkroom of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia (South Fifteenth Street) and the photographer’s residence in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
Collection of over 2500 glass and film negatives, photographic prints, and lantern slides taken by amateur Philadelphia photographer Marriott C. Morris (1863-1948). A member of a prominent Quaker family descended from Philadelphia merchant Anthony Morris, Morris was also a philanthropist, executor and trustee of estates, and founder of the Germantown Boys’ Club. Images include formal and candid portraits of the extended Morris family and friends, views from family travels to Bermuda, the Poconos, and the family summer homes "Avocado" and “Cedar Mer” in Sea Girt, New Jersey. The collection also features numerous photographs of Germantown, including several depicting the exterior and interior of the family residence the Deshler-Morris House (5442 Germantown Ave) and Boys’ Parlor building and excursions.
Other images depict Philadelphia and the nearby area, including Haverford College, Pelham (Philadelphia, Pa.), Cedar Grove (Montgomery County, Pa.), Delaware Water Gap, and Olney, Pa.; Haddonfield, N.J., Wilmington, De.; Catskills; the coast of Maine; Lake Hopatcong, N.J.; the Natural Bridge, Va.; Baltimore, Md.; West Point, N.Y.; the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893; views of railroad excursions, including the Catawissa Railroad and Shenandoah Valley Railroad; and Pennsylvania and New Jersey Friends’ meeting houses. Also contains a small number of negatives photographed by the photographer’s mother Martha Canby Morris, and his brother Samuel Canby Morris.
Scrapbook of print specimens, proofs, and original drawings primarily delineated and compiled by German-born Philadelphia engraver John Serz (1808-1881), an engraver, professor of drawing at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, and president and secretary of the old Artists Club. Contents include book and periodical illustrations; separately-issued views; portrait prints; certificates; and job printing specimens. Majority of graphics depict religious, landscape, historical, genre, and fashion views, including plates from "Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints" (New York, 1864); Auerbach’s "Tales of the Black Forest"; Sartain’s Magazine; Graham’s Illustrated Magazine; W. Alvin Lloyd’s Railroad Guide; and Demorest’s Monthly Magazine.
Scrapbooks compiled by Mary Rebecca Darby Smith (1814-1886), the daughter of Philadelphia Quakers Hannah Logan Fisher (1777-1846) and James Smith (d. 1826) and great great granddaughter of scholar and William Penn’s secretary James Logan (1674-1751). Smith was an author, poet, a world traveler, autograph collector, and socialite.
Scrapbooks contain printed and original art works; photographic reproductions of art works, including sculpture; book and periodical illustrations; and newspaper clippings. Subjects of the imagery include American and European landscapes and marinescapes; views of European cities, landmarks, and historical sites; portraiture, including Queen Victoria; views of animals; scenes of rural life; figure studies; and allegorical, religious, and sentimental (often courtship) scenes.
Photomechanical reproduction of a mechanical drawing of a cross section of the pumping machinery for the waterworks, including the boiler and reservoirs, which when full were able to hold 17,660 gallons of water. Also includes smaller vignettes in the upper left and right corners showing the elevation and plan of the waterworks. The neo-classical style marble pump house was completed in 1800 after the designs of architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, in the tree-lined public square at High (Market) and Broad streets. The city's first waterworks delivered water from the Schuylkill River to subscribers and city hydrants until 1815, when superseded by the Fairmount Waterworks. The pump house was razed in 1827.
Collection of stereographs issued circa 1855-circa 1862 by pioneer Philadelphia photographers William and Frederick Langenheim , the first publishers of stereoviews in the United States in 1854. Photographs show business interiors, panoramic views of the city, Fairmount Park, including Laurel Hill Cemetery, and scenes along the Delaware Riverfront. Businesses depicted include jewelers Bailey & Co., hatter Charles Oakford, and opticians McAllister and Brother.
Collection of primarily racist social caricatures lampooning the etiquette and conventions of early 19th-century, middle-class Philadelphians, particularly the growing community of free African American persons. Eliciting the heightened racism in the antebellum North, the African American men, women, and children characters are depicted with exaggerated features, wearing boldly-patterned and colored clothes, and speaking in a vernacular to be portrayed and denigrated as illegitimate elite society. Caricatures address courtship, consumerism, society balls, fashion, freemasonry, and the election of Andrew Jackson. Some caricatures also represent the sexism of the era.
Originally published in Philadelphia as a set of fourteen prints; the first eleven were issued in 1828 and 1829 by William Simpson, a proprietor of a "fancy store." Sarah Hart and Son, stationers, published plates 12 and 13 in 1829. The last plate was issued by Sarah Hart alone in 1830. Probably in 1830 Sarah Hart reprinted the entire series. Additional African American caricatures by Clay, "Sketches of Character. At Home. Abroad," "The Dead Cut," "Back to Back," and "Philadelphia Fashions" published between 1829 and 1837 have generally been accepted and are identified as a part of the series., LCP holds entire series. Ten of the fourteen are first editions and four are reprints.
LCP AR [Annual Report] 1967 p. 51-53; 1968 p. 18-20.
Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of the Jacksonian Era. (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 85-100.
Nancy R. Davison, ‘E.W Clay’s Life in Philadelphia: A Moment in Time,’ Imprint: Journal of the American Historical Print Collector’s Society (Autumn 2018), p. 2-29.
Jean Fagen Yellin and John Van Horne, eds. The Abolitionist Sisterhood (Ithaca: Cornell University Press in cooperation with the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1994), p. 218-222.
Jasmine Cobb, Picture freedom: Remaking Black visuality in the 19th century (New York: New York University Press, 2015), p. 148-220.
Bulk of collection was accessioned in 1999. One print (5656.F.39) accessioned in 1893. Several of the prints were acquired and/or accessioned between 1968 and 1971.
Added to African Americana Digital Collection 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.
Collection of illustrated ephemera, primarily trade cards, envelopes, receipts, letterheads, billheads, and labels, for predominantly Pennsylvania businesses and trades, ca. 1830-ca. 1910.
Printed ephemera related to American business and commerce. Predominantly consists of over 150 pieces of printed advertising ephemera sent by suppliers of stationery and related products to the Philadelphia firm John C. Clark from 1866 to 1868.
Later 19th-century watercolors, many commissioned by antiquarian and jeweler Ferdinand J. Dreer (1812-1902), from a collection of over 150 views of Philadelphia streetscapes by architect and artist Benjamin R. Evans. Some of the images are based on earlier prints, drawing, and photographs of the depicted site.
Creator
Evans, B. R. (Benjamin Ridgway), fl. 1857-1891, Creator
Album of snapshots showing the Logan family residence Loudoun erected for Thomas Armat (photographer's great grandfather) in 1800 at 4650 Germantown Avenue and Stenton, the Logan family country seat at 4601 North Eighteenth Street in Germantown.
Collection of photographs, including a series created by Philadelphia professional photographer, William Rau, along with architectural drawings, photomechanical prints, sketches, lithographs and etchings, depicting the Capitol during its construction from 1901 to 1906.
Souvenir viewbook, probably issued during the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, containing fifteen captioned views of prominent sites and landmarks in the city.
Album and loose prints compiled by a member of the African American Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning family containing portrait photographs of family and friends, ca. 1860-ca. 1925.
This collection includes historical materials or references to or descriptions of historical materials that may be considered offensive or harmful. Historical records are evidence of the time in which they were created and often contain language and images that are racist, homophobic, sexist, ableist, or otherwise derogatory and insensitive. The Library Company takes responsibility for these materials and their importance for the study of the past seriously. The Library does not endorse the views expressed in these materials.
If you encounter language in this digitized collection, or elsewhere that you find offensive or harmful, or if you have questions about the statement above or about our work, we welcome your feedback. A full statement and feedback form where you can alert us of potentially harmful material is here.
The Race and Visual Culture Digital Collection contains historical visual material and popular art works, often racist in content, that pertain to the visual culture of race and its social, cultural, and historical complexities and biases. The collection, in correlation with the African American History Graphics Digital Collection, includes over 1,600 images and descriptions of visual material that depict or reference the BIPOC community between the 18th and 20th centuries. The sub collections contained within are arranged by date spans based on the creation date of the item. The supplied titles, descriptions, and subject headings were reviewed, revised, and remediated to include anti-racist language as part of a 2021-2022 remediation cataloging project of our African American History Graphics Collection. Many records still include legacy Library of Congress Subject Headings, which conform to national and institutional cataloging standards that are under review for their continued public use in our catalogs. The collection was first published in 2023.
Resources:
Antracoli, Alexis A., Annalise Berdini, Kelly Bolding, Faith Charlton, Amanda Ferrara, Valencia Johnson, and Katy Rawdon. “Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia: Anti-Racist Description Resources.” October 2020.
https://archivesforblacklives.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/ardr_202010.pdf
Berry, Dorothy. Descriptive Equity and Clarity around Blackface Minstrelsy in H(arvard) T(heater) C(ollection) Collections, 2021.
https://www.dorothy-berry.com/minstrel-description
Jeannet, Paula. “The Ethics of Describing Images: Representing Racial Identities in Photographic Collections,” Catalogue & Index, March 2021.
https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.cilip.org.uk/resource/collection/CC45A47F-BE48-4BA1-B6D4-25BF10F1BC41/C&I202Jeannet_describing_images.pdf
Scrapbook containing primarily engraved gift book and periodical illustrations issued between circa 1832 and 1868 from American and British publications, including "Columbian Lady’s and Gentlemen’s Magazine"; "Godey's Lady's Book"; "Ladies Companion"; "New Mirror"; and "Sartain's Magazine." Illustrations, several engraved by A. L. Dick, predominantly depict sentimental, romantic, religious, genre and allegorical views and often include children and animals. Titles include "The Draught Players"; "The Lovers"; "The Philosopher & His Kite" (showing Benjamin Franklin); "They sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites [sic] for twenty pieces of silver; "Lake See Hoo and Temple of the Thundering Winds from the Vale of Tombs"; "Schuylkill Water Works"; "Luther on Christmas Eve"; "Farmers Nooning," including an African American man farm hand (after 1843 W. S. Mount painting); "Cup-tossing" (reading of tea leaves); "The Opera Box"; and "The Village School." Portrait prints, including an image of Jenny Lind, and a few architectural design prints also encompass the illustrations., Also contains chromolithographs and the illustrated title page from Henry Harbaugh's "Birds of the Bible" (1854) and many tinted lithographs printed by Ackerman from "Reports of Explorations and surveys,...for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean (1855-1861); several photographic reproductions of original paintings showing genre views, landscapes, and marinescapes, including the work of J. S. Fenimore; George C. Lambdin; Edward and Thomas Moran, W. T. Richards, Samuel Sartain, Christian Schussele, N. H. Trotter, and S. B. Waugh; and photographs of a paddle boat near the Fairmount Water Works and views of the Wissahickon. Some pages also include embossed and color vignettes of birds, flower vases, and flowers. Other lithographs and chromolithographs depict sentimental and religious views, including a baby "hatching" from a flower and the T. Sinclair religious tableauxes "Pontius Pilatus" and "Manoah’s Sacrifice"., Probably compiled by Mrs. H. Godley., Title from stamp on the leather spine., Inserts: Envelope inscribed "Mrs. H. Godley, 1725 Vine St." and engraved portraits of "Robert Moffat" and "Girl in a Florentine Costume of A.D. 1500." "Girl" print includes amateur pencil alterations., Various artists, engravers, lithographers, and printers including Ackerman; W. Allan; T. Allom; W. H. Bartlett; W. Bennett; J. Burnet; J. G. Chapman; A. L. Dick; T. Doney; Durand & Co.; J. B. Forrest; A. W. Graham; Charles Heath; J. R. Herbert; J. B. Longacre; W. S. Mount; J. Neale; E. T. Parris; Nicolas Poussin: Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Smillie; Rice & Buttre; H. S. Sadd; John Sartain; Eliza Sharp; Thomas Sinclair; and Benjamin Franklin Waitt., Various publishers, including American Sunday-School Union; Henry F. Annears; L.A. Godey; and Hurst, Chance & Co., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Purchase 1986.
Date
[ca. 1832-ca. 1868]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums [P.9152]
Bound volume of portrait plates issued between circa 1804 and 1831 from various publications, including "Mechanics Magazine"; "New British Lady's Magazine"; and the compilation "Boxiana or Sketches of Antient [sic] and Modern Pugilism" (London: George Virtue, 1829). Portraits depict prominent and celebrity European figures, predominantly from Great Britain, including clergymen, legislators, entertainers, scientists and inventors, royalty and pugilists. Plates include full-length, half-length, and bust-length portraiture, with some containing backgrounds, props, or ornate borders. Portraits of religious figures predominantly published by London publishers F. Westley and Westley & Davis and arranged in alphabetical order by sitter's name. Portraits of legislators, celebrity and other prominent figures predominantly published by London publishers Fisher Son & Co. and J. Robins & Co. and arranged in alphabetical order by sitter's name. Portraits of pugilists predominantly published by G. Smeeten and Sherwood, Jones & Co. and most arranged in alphabetical order by sitter's name. Volume also includes a title page and views titled "The John Bull Fighters Splendid Silver Cup" and "A Sparring Match at the Fives Court" from the Pierce Egan's "Boxiana" series originally published in parts in 1813 and later as volumes between 1818 and 1828., Sitters include reverends George Burder (Senior Secretary of the London Missionary Society), William Milne (Late Missionary to the Chinese), David Stuart (Theological Tutor of the Irish Evangelical), and Robert Vaughan; physician Carl Linnaeus; inventor Sir Richard Arkwright; Queen Caroline; statesman John Wilson Croker; authors Madame De Genlis, Madame De Stael, and Hannah More; (Victoria Mary Louisa) Duchess of Kent; George I, II, III, and IV; performers Josephine Girardelli and Anna Maria Tree; architect Peter Nicholson; Whig politician Thomas Spring Rice; and chemist William Hyde Wollaston. Sitters also include pugilists Peter Crawley; Dick Curtis; Josh Hudson; Tom Owen; Ned Painter; Dutch Sam (i.e., Samuel Elias); Ned Turner; and expatriate, African American pugilists Bill Richmond and Tom Molyneux (portraits on the same page)., Portraits of Bill Richmond and Tom Molyneux show the men in bust-length. Richmond looks slight to the right. He has curly hair and is attired in a patterned shirt with a ruffled collar and a jacket. Molyneux is shown in right profile. He has curly hair and is attired in a shirt with a ruffled collar and a jacket., Title from stamp on spine., Inscribed on front free end paper: R. B. bind as arranged., Pages numbered in ink in upper left corner., Inscribed on verso of portrait of ‘His Most Gracious Majesty, George Augustus-Frederick The Fourth” (p. 110): On Celebrated Englishmen, Various artists and engravers, including George Cruikshank; Isaac Robert Cruikshank; Fenner, Sears & Co.; W. T. Fry; W. Hollins; Thomas Lawrence; R. Page; W. T. Page; George Parker; Sherwood, Jones & Co.; J. R. Wildman; and J. W. Wright., Publishers include Knight & Lacey; George Smeeton; F. Westley; Westley & Davis; T. Williams; and Williams & Smith., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Accessioned 1882., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date
[ca. 1804-ca. 1831]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums [Uz 3 51278.O]
Photograph album of African American government worker Richard DeReef Venning, a member of the African American middle-class Stevens-Cogdell and Sanders-Venning family, and containing predominantly unidentified portraits of African American and white men, women, and children, including family and friends. Contains bust, half and full-length portraits, often studio portraits. Several of the female sitters wear ornate hairstyles and many sitters also wear crosses. Also contains a carte de visite reproduction of a painted portrait of possibly George Cogdell (p.16) and a carte de visite inscribed “Pete” and “Sam” showing two men in checkered patterned jumper costumes, wigs, hats, and full-face masks (p.18). Identified sitters include Samuel Le Count Cook (p.2, photograph dated 7/4/[18]90 and imprint of DC photographer Rice on verso, ), Edward W. Venning (p.13, photograph dated 1869 and imprint of Philadelphia photographer G.W. Cheston on verso), Sarah Venning (p.13 &14, imprint of Philadelphia photographer Larkin on the verso), Richard DeReef Venning (p.13, photograph dated 12/7/[18]74 on recto and imprint of Philadelphia photographer Henrici & Garns on verso), Sarah Ann Sanders, daughter of Sarah Sanders (p.14, lower right, ca. 1865, inscribed on recto: S.A.S.; imprint of Philadelphia photographer B.F. Reimer and "property of ed. y.v." inscribed on verso), Cordelia Chew Hinkson (p.35), and Cordelia Hinkson Brown as a baby (p.35). Other sitters may possibly be William H. Chew (p.1), Addie Howard (p.3) and George Washington Musgrave (group portrait, p.19)., Album also contains a portrait signed "Ellie" (p. 22, photograph dated 11/16/[1875] and imprint of NY photographer G.H. Johnson on verso) and an unidentified portrait that is likely Cordelia Sanders (Chew) and her sons Richard and Charles Chew (p.15, lower left, imprint of Philadelphia photographer Miles & Foster on verso). Another unidentified portrait is likely Jacob C. White, co-founder of the Pythians, Philadelphia's first African American baseball club (p. 27, upper left, imprint of Philadelphia photographer Gutekunst). Also contained are inserted portraits (rehoused on boards and with album), including one of a Black man inscribed "H.S.S." and Jan. 11/82 on the recto and verso of the mount (L.W. Cook, Boston, photographer) and one of a Black woman inscribed "Respects of Marie" on the verso (J.P. Silver, photographer)., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content., Contains title page: Album. Page illustrated with ornamental border., Contains several loose portaits., Various photographers, including Philadelphia photographers H. D. Garns & Co., G. W. Chesterton, African American photographer Gallo Cheston, Larkin Gallery, O. B. DeMorat, C. Hagemann & Co., Henrici & Garns, B. F. Reimer, H. D. Garns & Co., Miles & Foster, Broadbent & Phillips, M. S. Hagaman, Lothrop’s Ferrotype Gallery, Germon, J. Fenton, J. P. Silver, Parlor Galleries, as well as Washington, D.C. photographers Kets Kemethy and Rice, Norfolk photographer J. A. Faber, Trenton photographer J. Bainbridge, Charleston photographer Jesse E. Bolles, Boston photographer L. W. Cook, Salem photographer Smith & Bousley, and New York photographer G. H. Johnson., Inscription on front free end paper: R.D. Reef Venning, June 12/84, Washington, D.C., Some of the photographs contain inscriptions, including dates, identifications, and valedictions, on the versos., Label pasted on back cover: No. 464 Gately & Haskell, booksellers, Hoen building, Baltimore, MD., Ca. 1900 pastel portrait of possibly Clara, nurse to children and grandchildren of Sarah Sanders and R. W. Cogdell (P.9367.32, Stevens-Cogdell/ Sanders-Venning Collection) after ca. 1875 tintype photographed by J. Fenton (729 South St., Phila) P.2012.37.1.23b originally inserted in album and housed with album., See Lib. Company Annual Report, 1991 p. 26-31., Gift of descendants Cordelia H. Brown, Lillie V. Dickerson, Mary Hinkson Jackson, and Georgine E. Willis in honor of Phil Lapsansky., See LCP exhibit catalogue: African American Miscellany p. 45., Genealogical charts available at repository., Some photographs dated during conservation treatment in July 2021. Conservation notes in collection research file at repository (Graphic Arts Department)., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Richard DeReef Venning (1846-1929), born in Philadelphia, was son of seamstress Elizabeth and carpenter Edward W. Venning. Venning worked as a grocer in Philadelphia before being appointed as a clerk to the Eastern Division of the Pension Office in 1881. He resided in Washington, D.C. from the early 1880s to early 1900s, and boarded with the African American Presbyterian minister Francis Grimké and his brother, lawyer and diplomat Archibald Grimké for several years. In 1914, Venning returned to Philadelphia and lived with his nephew George E. Venning's family who referred to him as "Dah." The family was active in the Philadelphia African American political, social, educational, and cultural community from the 1850s to the 20th century, including the St. Thomas P.E. Church, Church of the Crucifixion, Central Presbyterian Church, the Colored Institute of Youth, and the Citizens Republican Club.
Creator
Venning, Richard DeReef, 1846-1929
Date
[ca. 1865 - ca. 1922]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning Collection [P.2012.37.1]
Photograph album containing identified portrait photographs, bust-length, half-length, and full-length, of twenty-one prominent Philadelphia African American men. Named sitters in order of inclusion in album include veteran Harmon Richardson attired in a military uniform; educator and activist Octavius Catto; civil rights activist Edwin Chew (son of John and Charlotte Henson Chew); janitor and later undertaker Guy M. Burton with musician Ed[ward] H. Johnson and Terry V. Hall; musician Joseph G. Anderson; Civil War veteran and waiter Taylor Aldridge; Johnson al-Jube holding a basket; laborer Parker T. Smith; Jeremiah V. Hall; George Hall; waiter William I. Lancaster; barber James Keith; caterer Henry Tobias; Cheslea Bass, barber and partner to James Keith, with caterer Andrew F. Stevens; Edwin Lewis; Jas. H. Williams ae.[sic] Rush; Thomas Proctor; and restauranteur/caterer Ja[me]s B. Page. Musicians Edward Johnson and Joseph G. Anderson were members of Francis Johnson's band in the 1830s and 40s., Title supplied by cataloger from label on spine., Date from content and medium of photographs., Cardboard binding with torn spine label inscribed: Portraits of Well Know[n]. Insides of binding covers include scribbles and a pasted partial scrap of a flower., Photographs are loose or attached to album pages within binding., Sitters, and occasionally their profession, identified by manuscript notes on verso of photograph or album page. Some notes include statement "deceased," including for sitters Harmon Richardson, Edwin Chew, Octavius Catto, Edward H. Johnson, Terry V. Hall, Joseph G. Anderson, Johnson al-Jube, George Hall, James H. Williams, and James Page., Mostly unidentified photographers with identified Philadelphia photographers John L. Gihon and Parlor Gallery., Portrait photograph of Octavius Catto reproduced after a circa 1871 portrait photograph taken by African American Philadelphia photographer Gallo W. Cheston and/or Philadelphia photographers Broadbent & Phillips. See "Amy Cohen's Catto the Forgotten Hero" at catto.ushistory.org/. See also Harper's Weekly 15 (October 28, 1871), p. 1005 and a copy of the original portrait at https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2006.8. Photograph stamped on verso: Kean Archives, Phila., Portrait photograph of Taylor Aldridge inscribed on verso: Nov. 27 '83., Verso of album page with portrait photograph of Edwin Lewis inscribed: July '83., Verso of album page with portrait photograph of James Page printed: Sharpless Bros. Dry Goods, Chestnut and Eighth Sts. Philadelphia., Purchase 1990., Description revised 2023., Access points revised 2023., 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. 1865-ca. 1885]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums [P.9304]
The Library Company Papers Project is a three-year, NEH-funded project to review, process, and digitize institutional records from the institution’s founding in 1731 through 1881.
The Philadelphia on Stone Digital Catalog contains over 1300 lithographs, related ephemera, and prints documenting Philadelphia commercial lithography between 1828 and 1878 derived from the surveys conducted at eight collaborating institutions between May 2007 and May 2010. Lithographs listed in Nicholas Wainwright’s Philadelphia in the Romantic Age of Lithography (1958), lithographs not listed in Wainwright portraying the built environment of Philadelphia, and advertisements for and printed views of Philadelphia lithographic establishments form the core content of the records and images contained in this catalog.
Each catalog record contains the name of the holding institution of the item(s) described and is the repository who should be contacted to obtain reproductions of prints not held in the collections at the Library Company of Philadelphia.
