Five Points, 1827.
Title
Five Points, 1827
Description
Chaotic street scene after the 1827 painting Five Points by George Catlin depicting the early 19th-century New York City lower income area east of City Hall. Shows several white and Black men and women, individually, as couples, and in groups at the crossroads of Orange, Anthony, and Cross Streets. The streets are lined with places of "entertainment," "lodgings," and grocery stores primarily selling liquor. Amongst the melee on the streets, a large brawl and several small fights occur, people are knocked over, "couples" of men and women stroll and engage in conversation, peddlers sell their goods, a white woman pumps water, and pigs roam free., Title from item., Inscribed lower right corner: For Valentine's Manual., Plate from D.T. Valentine. Manual of the corporation of the city of New York for 1855 (New York: New York Common Council, 1855) (LCP Am 1855 New Yor Com)., Original painting in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, bequest of Mrs. Screven Lorillard (Alice Whitney), from the collection of Mrs. J. Insley Blair, 2016., Gift of Mrs. S. Marguerite Brenner, 1984., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., McSpedon & Baker, the New York lithographic partnership of Thomas McSpedon and Charles W. Baker, primarily performed stationery work. Illustrative plates executed by the partnership are rare.
Date
[1855]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - Views - New York - New York City [P.9057.8]
Enlistment of Sickles brigade [graphic].
Title
Enlistment of Sickles brigade
Description
Caustic satire depicting the enlistment by notorious New York Congressman Colonel Daniel Sickles of recruits from offices near New York's crime-ridden Five Points area. The congested scene depicts several men, including African American men, clustered on a city street near a liquor store. In the left, Sickles, unwigged, stands above the crowd, and holds out Bibles in each hand. In the right above the crowd, "Mrs. Higby," wife of a New York clergyman, hands out pipes to the men (an allusion to Sickles's men being given pipes and Bibles for enlisting). A sign near Sickles reads "The Capital in danger. Sickles Brigade to the Rescue!!" A sign near Mrs. Higby reads "Pipes for the noble saviors of their country by Mrs. Higby." The "enlisting" men wear torn, worn, and patched uniforms or street clothes and hold picket signs, guns, and clubs. Within the crowd, a pit bull terrier and a white boy watch the melee, which includes a white man, attired in a uniform and a "Colonel Sickles Brigade" cap, offering an African American man a medal, who scratches his head, next to another African American man, attired in uniform and portrayed in racist caricature, and seated on a barrel. A few years before the war in 1859, Sickles gained notoriety for murdering Philip Barton Key II for having an affair with his wife Teresa Bagioli. He was acquitted based on the first successful use of the insanity defense in the U.S., Inscribed upper left corner: 6., Issued as plate 6 in Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), a series of pro-Confederacy cartoons drawn and published by Baltimore cartoonist Adalbert John Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada. The "first issue" of 10 prints (numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24), with imprint "London, 1863" were printed as etchings. The remaining 20 prints (numbered 4, 8, 9-11, 14, 17-20, 23, 25-27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 40, 45) headed "Second and third issues of V. Blada's war sketches" and dated "London, July 30, 1864" were printed as lithographs., Tile and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Research file about artist available at repository., Accessioned 1935., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator
Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
Date
[1863]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Volck - Sketches - Volck 6 [2990.F.23]