Search results

Title: [Satiric stereograph showing an African American dandy receiving a shoe shine from a white shoe shine boy]
Description: Stereograph, possibly published in London, depicting a scene satirizing race relations in America. Shows the dandy standing and with one foot on the boy's shoe shine box in front of a back drop depicted as a wall adorned with broadsides referencing abolition, slavery, and emancipation. The dandy is attired in striped and checkered pants, a jacket with tails, a ruffled shirt, and top hat. He holds a walking stick under one arm and a cigarette in his other hand. The boy kneels and shines the dandy's shoes with his shining supplies and tools by his box. Broadsides include a "playbill" reading "Adelphi. Tonight The White Slave. Octoroon Farce" and an advertisement for "Fast Clipper. Clyde. For New Orleans." Other posts read "No Slavery. Freedom" and "Great Meeting. Negro Emancipation. Poor Slaves.", Place of publication and date inferred from image content containing a reference to the "Octoroon" at the "Adelphi." Adelphi is a London theater where The Octoroon was performed 1861-1862., Grey mount with square corners., Purchased with the Davida T. Deutsch African American History Fund., See similar visual trope "I say Billy, do you know why I'm doing this? Cause, I'm going to run for Congress soon!" [Political cartoons - 1863-13W, 8033.F.3]
Date: [ca. 1862]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - unid. photo - Genre - African [P.2014.29]

Title: [Scene from Northwood, or, life North and South]
Description: Set in a lush grove on the bank of a river, lake, or pond, the vignette features a black man (presumably a slave), who helps a young white boy (most likely the son of his master) steady a fishing pole. The well-dressed boy sits on the knee of the barefoot slave., Vignette in a full-page advertisement for Sarah Hale's Northwood; or, Life North and South (New York: H. Long & Brother, 43 Ann-Street, [1852]), printed in The Literary World: a Gazette for Authors, Readers, and Publishers, edited by C.F. Hoffmann (New York: Osgood & Co., 1852), vol. 11, no. 299 (October 23, 1852), p. 272., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life
Creator: Orr, John William, 1815-1887, engraver
Date: [October 1852]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *Per L 49.7 2478.Q v 11 n 299 p 272, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2883

Title: The moral character of the Africo-Americans
Description: Set in New York, the image shows William Peterson, a black boy who prepares to rescue a white boy who has fallen through the ice while skating. Next him, a white boy supports another skater whom Peterson has saved from drowning. A few others continue to skate in the background., Caption title vignette in the Anti-Slavery Record (New York: Published by R.G. Williams, for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1835-1837), vol. II, no. IV (April, 1836), whole no. 16, p. 1., Small caption underneath the image reads: "William Peterson -- The Heroic Colored Boy.", Curator's note: Notice here the use of the term "Africo-Americans," used infrequently but persistently by some African Americans and abolitionists from at least the early 1830s through the Civil War period. The common usage of "blacks" and "Africans" was supplanted in the 1820s with "Negro" common among most whites, and "Colored" among most African Americans. As in all the terms used to describe black Americans over time, there is a nationalist-assimilationists dichotomy at work here, with "Africo-Americans" suggesting separate nationality and culture, and "Colored" suggesting darker-hued members of the common American nation and culture., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [April 1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 245 60026.D v 2 n 4 cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2849

Title: "I say Billy, do you know why I'm doing this? Cause, I'm going to run for Congress soon!"
Description: Satire belittling the increasing rights of African Americans following the Emancipation Proclamation and depicting a white shoe shine boy shining the shoes of an African American man, portrayed as a racist caricature of a Black dandy. On the street corner, the white boy shines the shoes of the African American man, attired in a top hat with a decorative band, a white collared shirt, a black bowtie, a plaid waistcoat, a checked jacket, striped pants, and black shoes. The shoe shiner speaks to another white boy, who is barefoot and attired in torn and worn clothes, "I say Billy, do you know why I'm doing this? Cause, I'm going to run for Congress soon!" In the left, a carriage passes by., Title from item., Date of publication supplied by Weitenkampf., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 1972, p. 63., Purchase 1972., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator: Potomac, artist
Date: [1863?]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1863-13W [8033.F.3]

Title: Uncle Peter putting the chickens in the window
Description: Egraving accompanies a fictional episode described in Chapter XIV, "Isabel's Winter." It features Uncle Peter, a former slave of the late Mr. Courtenay, an extremely kind master, whose family fell into dire poverty after his death. Although Uncle Peter has a new master, his ongoing affection for the members of the Courtenay family, who were struggling to feed themselves during a long winter, led him to secretly deposit two chickens inside their window., Illustration in Charles Peterson's The Cabin and Parlor: or, Slaves and Masters (Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson. Stereotyped by George Charles. Printed by King & Baird, c1852), p. 158., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Creator: Beeler, Charles H., engraver
Date: [1878]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare 2 Wright 1878a 10231.D p 158, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2655

Main menu