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Title: [Arthur Showell]
Description: Full-length studio portrait showing Showell, seated in a chair, and attired in a suit, tie, and spats. His legs are crossed, with one hand resting on his knee, and the other hand resting on the arm of the chair. A studio backdrop is visible in the background. Showell, a resident of South Philadelphia, worked as a laborer with the Adams Express Co. He also served in World War I in the 368th Infantry, part of the African American 92nd Infantry Division known as the "Buffalo Soldiers.", Title supplied by cataloguer., Gift of Brice C. Showell., Fragile condition.
Date: [ca. 1923]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department portrait photographs - misc. - sitter - Showell [P.2015.1.1]

Title: "A guard of colored soldiers"
Description: Full-length group portrait depicting three African American Union soldiers, attired in uniform, standing with bayoneted Springfield rifle muskets and non-commissioned officer swords in hand. The soldiers include a sergeant (center left) who wears a regular belt plate, three chevrons on his sleeve, a kepi with a tarred cover, and a non-commissioned officer baldrick on his sword. The African American private (center) wears an infantry bugle and brass insignia on top of his kepi. The private (right) wears an unadorned kepi. In the left, is a white man soldier, probably a junior officer, attired in a great coat and slouch hat and holding possibly an 1850 foot officer's sword. Possibly soldiers from Camp William Penn, the African American training camp near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania., Title from manuscript note on recto., Name of photographer/publisher attributed from copy of photograph available in Hindman February 27, 2024 auction. Copy included revenue stamp and was stamped on verso: O.H. Willard's New Galleries, 1203 Chestnut St. No. [4485] Phl. Copy of listing included in Willard research file at repository., Date inferred from revenue stamp on verso of copy at Hindman auction, February 2024., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of Civil War views. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., Description revised 2024 with information from 2024 Hindman auction listing., Access points revised 2024., 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: Willard, Oliver H., -1875
Date: [ca. 1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits- group - Military [5779.F.3d]

Title: [Peace Jubilee parade, military men marching along North Broad Street near Columbia Avenue, Philadelphia]
Description: View showing the white men members of an unidentified marching band playing instruments as they walk down Broad Street, Philadelphia during the Peace Jubilee, a celebration commemorating the end of the Spanish American War. The Tenth Cavalry Regiment, an African American regiment that served at San Juan Hill, Cuba, marches and performs behind them. A large crowd stands on the sidewalk and sits in the viewing stands near the Columbia Avenue Savings Fund, Safe Deposit, Title & Trust Co. Depicts the east side of Broad Street looking southeast, including the spire of the Oxford Street Presbyterian Church in the distance. Bunting and American flags decorate the buildings. In October of 1898, Philadelphia honored the end of the Spanish-American War with the Peace Jubilee. To pay tribute to the armed services, the Court of Honor was built on Broad Street with the Triumphal Arch erected at Sansom Street. The celebration included military reviews and parades, and President William McKinley attended., Title supplied by cataloger., Gift of Albert L. Doering, 1994., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Doering, William Harvey, 1858-1924, photographer
Date: October 1898
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department lantern slides - Doering [P.9453.266]

Title: [All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors in West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia]
Description: Detail of the back of the memorial, sculpted by J. Otto Schweizer, erected in 1934 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in memory of all African American military men who have served in war time. Depicts three of the four female allegorical bronze figures representing War, Liberty, Peace, and Plenty. They flank a commemorative plate embellished with Pennsylvania's seal and listing the monument's commissioners. Erected after much controversy on Lansdowne Avenue in West Fairmount Park, the memorial was moved in 1994 to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway opposite the Franklin Institute., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content., Schweizer was a European-trained Philadelphia sculptor who specialized in monumental works including several commissions for sites in Pennsylvania., Gift of Joseph Kelly, 1982., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator: Photo Illustrators (Firm)
Date: [ca. 1934]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Photo-Illustrators [P.8810.6]

Title: [All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors in West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia]
Description: View of the back of the memorial, sculpted by J. Otto Schweizer, erected by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1934 in memory of all African American military men who have served in wartime. The top of the monument is a sculpted eternal flame, the "Torch of Life," surrounded by four American eagles. Below the flame, four female allegorical figures representing War, Liberty, Peace, and Plenty, flank a commemorative plaque. Trees are visible in the background. Erected after much controversy on Lansdowne Avenue, the memorial was moved in 1994 to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway opposite the Franklin Institute., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content., Photographer's imprint stamped on verso., Manuscript note on verso: Phila. West Fairmount Park. Memorial to colored soldiers erected by the Commonwealth of Penna. June 30, 1934. No. 786., Schweizer was a European-trained Philadelphia sculptor who specialized in monumental works including several commissions for sites in Pennsylvania., Gift of Joseph Kelly, 1982., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator: Photo Illustrators (Firm)
Date: [ca. 1934]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Photo-Illustrators [P.8810.7]

Title: [All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors in West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia]
Description: View depicting the front of the memorial, sculpted by J. Otto Schweizer, erected by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1934 in memory of all African American military men who have served in wartime. The top of the monument is a sculpted eternal flame, the "Torch of Life," surrounded by four American eagles. Below the torch, a female allegorical figure of justice stands holding wreaths symbolic of honor and reward. She is flanked by five figures of African American military personnel from each branch of the armed service. A dedication is inscribed into the memorial's granite pedestal which is adorned with a wreath. Erected after much controversy on Lansdowne Avenue, the memorial was moved in 1994 to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway opposite the Franklin Institute., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content., Photographer's imprint stamped on verso., Manuscript note on verso: Phila. West Fairmount Park. Memorial to colored soldiers erected by the Commonwealth of Penna., Inscribed in negative: 786A., Gift of Joseph Kelly, 1982., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Schweizer was a European-trained Philadelphia sculptor who specialized in monumental works including several commissions for sites in Pennsylvania., 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: Photo Illustrators (Firm)
Date: [ca. 1934]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Photo-Illustrators [P.8810.8]

Title: 24th Regiment, U[nited] S[tates] C[olored] T[roops] at Camp W[illia]m: Penn
Description: View showing the African American 24th Regiment standing in ranks at Camp William Penn, Cheltenham Township. Two white officers stand in front of the regiment gathered next to the camp's barracks. Begun in 1863 with the support of the Union League, Camp William Penn was the first Pennsylvania camp for volunteer African American regiments. Eleven regiments were formed at the camp, including the 24th. Camp William Penn was the largest existing camp for the training of officers to lead African American troops., Accessioned 1981., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date: [ca. 1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - unidentified - military [P.8687.6]

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: "Nick Biddle" Of Pottsville, Pa., the first man wounded in the Great American Rebellion, "Baltimore, April 18, 1861."
Description: Half-length portrait of the older African American volunteer Union soldier, attired in uniform. Biddle, a freedom seeker, sustained his wound - a gash to the head - as his troop, the Washington Artillerists, en route to defend the Capitol, was violently harassed by secessionists., Title from item., Forms part of: McAllister scrapbook of Civil War Portraits. [(1)5775.F]. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date: [ca. 1861]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department portrait prints - McAllister Civil War scrapbook of portraits [(1)5775.F.8]

Title: [The scourged back]
Description: Three-quarter length portrait showing the severely scarred back of the former enslaved and Union soldier, Peter, also known as Gordon, taken during a medical examination in Louisiana and sent to the Surgeon General of Massachusetts. Peter is seated, and with his back to the camera. His head is turned left and he holds his left hand on his lef hip. He wears a goatee and his hair is in tight curls., Image reproduced as wood engraving with accompanying article in Harper's weekly, July 4, 1863, p. 429. (LCP **Per H, 1863.) Name of photographer supplied by article., Title and publication information supplied by William Darrah's Cartes-de-visite in nineteenth century photography (Gettysburg: William C. Darrah, 1981), p. 148., One of three variant photographs depicting Peter posed with his back to the camera., Manuscript note in modern hand on verso of P.8925.4 attributes copy to publisher C. Seaver, Jr.: "Gordon" by C. Seaver, Jr. Seaver, Jr., a Boston photographer, published the carte-de-visite in support of the abolitionist movement., 5786.F.157c originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of Civil War Miscellanies. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., P.8925.4 accessioned 1982, found in collection., Recent scholarship has shown the identity of the man photographed in "The Scourged Back" to be a man named Peter, not Gordon. See David Silkenat, "'A Typical Negro': Gordon, Peter, Vincent Colyer, and the the story behind slavery's most famous photograph," American Nineteenth Century History 15, no. 2 (2014): 169-186. Copy in LCP Graphic Arts Department Research file - Peter., Description revised 2025., Access points revised 2025., 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: M'Pherson and Oliver, photographer
Date: [ca. 1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits - sitter - Peter [5786.F.157c; P.8925.4]

Title: [Building of the Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Troops, 1210 Chestnut Street, Nov. 1864]
Description: View of the Philadelphia building decorated in celebration of the military progress of African American troops and the abolition of slavery in Maryland on Nov. 1, 1864. A gaslight sign on top of the building declares, "God Save the Republic." A large transparency of vignettes with mottoes and quotes supporting emancipation covers the front of the building including a representation of the symbolic Federal Arch, a battle scene with African American soldiers, an auction of enslaved people, and an African American mother sending her child to school. The bottom of the transparency announces, "Emancipation Proclaimed," and contains portraits of President Lincoln, Vice-President Johnson, and prominent abolitionists, as well as words of appreciation for prominent Union Generals including Grant. A sign for the "Free Military School" to train commanders of "Colored Troops" is visible in the doorway., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content., Reproduced in Kenneth Finkel's, Nineteenth century photography in Philadelphia. (New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1980), plate 176., LCP holds related broadside: "Emancipation in Maryland" (#Am 1864 Phi Sup (6)5777.F.40b)., McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photos - unidentified - Events [(6)5777.F.40a]

Title: A distinguished arrival Negro soldier - "Hi dar! Show dis ole lady a room - one wid a closet to put dis yar skelle in tum in!"
Description: Cartoon satirizing the imprisonment at Fort Monroe, Va. of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, detained by Union cavalry troops on May 10, 1865, while wearing his wife's overcoat and shawl as a disguise. Shows an African American soldier escorting Davis to a cell door at the "Hotel De Monroe." In front of the door a noose hangs. Davis, attired in a bonnet, shawl, and overcoat, holds a money bag labeled "JD. CSA" (an allusion to Davis's confiscation of the remaining Confederate treasury). The soldier holds a bayonet to which a skirt hoop is attached and speaks in the vernacular "Hi dar! Show dis ole lady a room..." In the background, a smiling sun, an African American soldier, and a ship sailing the bay are visible. Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe between 1865 and 1867., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Ent'd according to act of Congress, in the year 1865, by J. Chapman in the Clerk's Office of the District Court, for the Southern District of New York., Purchase 2004., 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date: 1865
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv - misc. - Civil War - Caricatures and cartoons [P.2004.6.2]

Title: [Building of the Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Troops, 1210 Chestnut Street, Nov. 1864]
Description: View of the Philadelphia building decorated in celebration of the military progress of African American troops and the abolition of slavery in Maryland on Nov. 1, 1864. A gaslight sign on top of the building declares, "God Save the Republic." A large transparency of vignettes with mottoes and quotes supporting the Union and emancipation covers the front of the building including a representation of the symbolic Federal Arch adorned with an inscription; a battle scene with African American soldiers; an auction of enslaved people; and an African American mother sending her child to school. The bottom of the transparency announces, "Emancipation Proclaimed," and contains portraits of President Lincoln, Vice-President Johnson, and prominent abolitionists, as well as words of appreciation for prominent Union Generals including Grant. A sign for the "Free Military School" to train commanders of "Colored Troops" is visible in the doorway., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content., Reproduced in Kenneth Finkel's Nineteenth century photography in Philadelphia (New York: Dover, 1980), plate 176., LCP holds related broadside: "Emancipation in Maryland" (#Am 1864 Phi Sup (6)5777.F.40h)., Accessioned 1978., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - unidentified - events [P.2000]

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