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Title: Associate Presbyterian Mission, Trinidad
Description: View of the mission established by the Presbyterian Church in 1842. Shows a white man and woman couple with a dog greeting a Black man in front of two bungalows down the road from a Black man walking with a rifle over his shoulder. In the foreground, a fence surrounds the property from the road, and palm trees are visible. The Presbyterian Church relinquished the mission to the Free Church of Scotland circa 1852., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Illegible partial artist's imprint on recto., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of views of foreign countries. 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: [ca. 1845]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - Religion [5754.F.97b]

Title: [Prodigal Son series, 1775]
Description: Six prints based upon Sebastian Le Clerc II's 1751 series, "L'Histoire de l'enfant prodigue," depicting the Prodigal Son parable of sin, penitence, and salvation. Includes two Black characters: a prostitute and a male servant. The six scenes titled: La Enfant prodigue exigeant sa Legitime; Le depart de l'Enfant prodigue; Vie debauche de l'Enfant prodigue; L'Enfant prodigue dans la plus grande Misere; L'Enfant prodigue reclamant la bonte de son Pere; Rejouissances pour le Retour de l'Enfant prodigue depict the white son claiming his patrimony, taking leave of his father, living a debaucherous life with prostitutes, in misery as a swineherder, returning penitent to his father, and celebrating his return with a feast., "Vie debauche de l'enfant prodigue" shows the prodigal son engaged in immoral behavior. Depicts the young white man, attired in a white wig, a jacket, breeches, white stockings, and buckled shoes, seated at a table with three prostitutes. He leans over and gropes the breast of the white woman, who touches his face with her left hand and raises a glass in her right hand. The Black woman sits in the left and holds a glass in her left hand. The women are attired in wigs in high hairstyles ornamented with ribbons, bows, and feathers, dresses, and heeled dress shoes. The table has plates of food, cutlery, and glasses set upon it. On the floor is a tub filled with bottles. Several bottles are knocked over at the man’s feet, including one that is spilling out alcohol. In the right, a servant woman, attired in a white cap, a plain dress, and an apron, bends over a gambling table to tidy up the cards and chips., "Rejouissances pour le retour de l'enfant prodigue" shows the celebration of the prodigal son’s return with a feast. Depicts four white men and two white women seated at the dining table. The men are attired in wigs, white shirts, jackets, breeches, white stockings, and buckled shoes. The women are attired in wigs in high hairstyles ornamented with ribbons and bows and dresses with bows at the neck. The feasters eat and drink at the table, which has glasses, plates, and cutlery set on it. Two white men servants, attired in wigs, white shirts, and uniform jackets, stand behind the diners and serve food on a plate. In the left, a Black man servant, attired in a wig, a white shirt, a uniform jacket, breeches, white stockings, and buckled shoes, crouches behind a chair to hide and drinks from a bottle. The man seated in the chair turns around to look at him. At his feet is a tub filled with bottles, one bottle knocked over, and an additional bottle by his chair. In the top right background is a balcony where four white men musicians play, including two violinists and possibly an oboe player., Prints numbered 1-6 lower left corner., Series title supplied by cataloger., Publication information inferred from name of engraver and the attire of the depicted figures., See Ellen G. D'Oench's Prodigal Son narratives, 1480-1980 (Connecticut: Yale University Art Gallery and Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, 1995)., Purchase 1971., 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.
Creator: Haid, Johann Elias, 1739-1809, engraver
Date: [ca. 1775]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Prodigal Son-1775 [7943.F.1-6]

Title: Columbia trading with all the world
Description: Allegorical print depicting "Columbia" (i.e., the United States) as a white woman with brown hair, on the deck of a ship. She holds a caduceus and disperses treasures from a horn of plenty held by "Wisdom," who is portrayed as a white woman attired in a helmet, armor, a skirt, and sandals. Wisdom holds a spear in her left hand and gives the treasures to three male figures representing the country's international trade partners. Figures depicted are: Africa as a Black man attired in a headpiece shaped like an elephant's head and leaning on a tusk of ivory; Asia as a bearded man with a light-brown color skin tone attired in a turban; and South America as a man in a feathered headpiece carrying a bow., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Possibly published in London and not the United States., Revised state. Previous title and imprint faintly visible and illegible below image., Gift of Dr. Mary DeWitt Pettit, 1965., 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.
Date: [ca. 1789-ca. 1800]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Allegories [7737.F]

Title: If dat ar fish knowd dis wor Merrick's thread, he wouldnt ha bit Merrick Thread Co. Best six cord 8
Description: Racist trade card for the Merrick Thread Company at 248 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia and depicting Black men, attired only in loincloths, pulling a captured whale onto a beach. The five men, portrayed in racist caricature, stand on the beach and hold onto the thread coming from an oversized spool labeled, "Merrick Thread Co. Best Six Cord 8," in the right. The whale with an open mouth of sharp teeth is pulled from the ocean onto the beach. In the background, two men run, and palm trees are visible in the right. Merrick Thread Co. was founded in 1865 by Timothy Merrick, Austin Merrick, and Origen Hall in Mansfield, Connecticut. After its founding, the company established mills in Holyoke, Massachusetts. In 1898, the company merged with thirteen other independent thread and yarn manufacturers to form the American Thread Company., Title from item., Date inferred from date of operation of advertised business., Advertising text printed on verso promotes Merrick Thread Co.'s best six cord soft finish spool cotton for machine & hand sewing and offers patrons "two lithoed water-color engravings" and "Sunshine for Little Children" on receipt of twenty-five cents., Gift of Emily Phillips, 1883., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Digitized.
Date: [ca. 1880]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Merrick [P.2002.30]

Title: F. Pulaski & Co., 1026 Chestnut St Opening days, November 1st and 2d, 1881
Description: Series of illustrated trade cards promoting F. Pulaski & Co., a fancy goods store at 1026 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. Illustrations depict a white woman pulling on her red stockings as her pet cat rubs his head against her foot and the same woman attired in a brown coat, a pink hat, blue stockings and white shoes, leaving her home with her cat trailing her. Also includes two related scenes showing a white woman standing with her head lowered before her surprised white husband with black soot on her face and clothing. In the subsequent scene, the husband is fighting with a Black man. In the right, the white man's brown cap flies off his head and white flour is dispersed through the air. In the left, the Black man's brown, brimmed hat falls to the ground as he grabs his hands around the white man's head with his right leg lifted up. F. Pulaski & Co., initially a partnership between Frank Pulaski and M.L. Kline when these trade cards were created, later specialized in pictures and picture frames., Title from item., Text in French printed on recto [1975.F.714]: "En voyant sa femme changée de couleur, Pétrin qui a mauvais caractère, devine tout de suite que Charabia lui a fait une niche. Il a son plan.", Text in French printed on recto [1975.F.718]: "Comme ils se sont promis de faire suer: Charabia, de la farine à chon ami Pétrin, et Pétrin du charbon a Charabia, ils se tiennent parole.", Gift of Emily Phillips, 1883., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Digitized.
Date: 1881
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Pulaski [1975.F.714; 1975.F.718; 1975.F.764 & 1975.F.871]

Title: Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African
Description: Bust portrait of the British, Black free man and abolitionist, Olaudah Equiano, who authored one of the earliest and most influential autobiographies by a formerly enslaved person. He is attired in a dark-colored jacket with a collar and buttons and a white collared shirt, cravat, and waistcoat. He holds the Bible in his right hand, which is open to “Acts Chap. IV. V. 12.”, Title from item., Publication information and date inferred from source in which the portrait was originally included., Published as the frontispiece in Olaudah Equiano's The interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano...(New York: W. Durrell, 1791). (LCP Am 1791 Equ, Log 3936.D)., Accessioned after 1870 and before 1900., 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.
Creator: Tiebout, Cornelius, 1777-1832, engraver
Date: [1791]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Portrait Prints - E [1885.F.145]

Title: Pennsylvania Colonization Society A view of Bassa Cove in Liberia
Description: Honorary life membership certificate containing a view of Liberia, the African American colony established by the American Colonization Society in 1822. In the left foreground, three bare-chested Black people, attired in white sarongs, stand at the West African cove across from the small village. The village is comprised of buildings and is surrounded by a fence. People and cattle stroll the grounds. The Pennsylvania Colonization Society, established in 1826, was a state chapter of the controversial American Colonization Society established in 1816 to promote Black American emigration to resolve the problem of race inequality and to end slavery., Title from item., Issued to [Tho]mas Sully, Esquire of Philadelphia on October 24, 1848 for his donation of "valuable original portraits." Signed by [Robert B.] Davidson, rec. secretary; Elliot Cresson, corresponding secretary; J.R. Ingersoll, president., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Gift of Hirschl and Adler Galleries, 1989., 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., Lehman & Duval was a Philadelphia partnership between painter, lithographer, and engraver George Lehman, and lithographer, Peter S. Duval, that lasted from 1835 until 1837.
Date: [ca. 1837]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Philadelphia Certificates [P.9261]

Title: This view of the barracks Fort Charlotte and part of the Island of New Providence to the westward of the town of Nasssau taken from the top of the guard house Is respectfully inscribed to Wm. Dowdeswell Esqr. Governor General of the Bahamas. And the inhabitants of those islands by their most obedient servant, John Irving
Description: View of the two-story British barracks and fort near the coast of the Bahamas. A British barge is docked at the nearby levee. Relaxed British soldiers converse near a cannon on the lookout. A Black man leads a horse and cart loaded with coal up the roadway to the barracks., Title from item., Manuscript signature on verso: N. Franks Esq. L. Irving, Dowdeswell, a noted print collector, was appointed Governor of the Bahamas in 1797., 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.
Creator: Hubert & Stadler, engraver
Date: Jan 1st, 1802
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC - Views - Foreign - Bahamas [1879.F.2]

Title: Ethnographic tableau Specimens of various races of mankind
Description: Chart showing racist depictions of fifty-four, bust-length, portraits of men and one woman of different "races" from eight geographic regions to emphasize contrived differences in cranial characteristics. The “Geographical Distribution” includes I. Arctic, II. Asiatic, III. European, IV. African, V. American, VI. Polynesian, VII. Malayan, and VIII. Australian. With each region, six depictions of individuals of that race are shown, some facing forward and some in profile. Many of the individuals are depicted as racist stereotypes. Many are attired in hats, turbans, or headdresses custom to their country of origin. In the left, under the caption “Cranioscopic Examples,” nine different skulls in right profile are depicted. In the right, chart sections include “Mankind, Grouped Physiologically” and “Linguistic Distinctions.”, Title from item., Folded plate removed from Josiah C. Nott and George R. Gliddon's Indigenous races of the earth (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co.; London: Trubner & Co., 1857) (LCP *Am 1857 Nott (1)2733.Q (Rush)). See "Explanations of the tableau" pages 618-638., Captions below images on recto: Artic: Eskimo, Tchucktchi, Koriak, Aleoutian, Aino, Samoyede. Asiatic: Kamtschadale, St. Laurent Islander, Tartar, Chinese, Kalmuck, Tuda. Euro[pean]: Finn, Icelander: Cuvier, Bulgarian, Greek, Caucasian. [Euro]Pean: Syrian, Arab, Fellah, Berber, Uzbek Tatar, Affghan (sic). African: Ababdee, Sahara Negro, Yeboo Negro, Mozambique Negro, Caffr, Hottentot. American: Kutchin Indian, Stone Indian, Ottoe Indian, Yucatan Indian, Boroa Indian, Fuegian. Polynesian: New Zealander, Samoa Islander, Tikopia Islander, Vanikoro Islander, Tana Islander, Viti Islander. Malayan: Malay, Javanese, Marianne Islander, Hindoo, Mintira, Negritto. Australian: North Australian, West, Australian, South Australian, Tasmanian, Tasmanians (Men, Women)., Bequest of Dr. James Rush, 1869., 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.
Creator: Kramer, Peter, 1823-1907, artist
Date: 1857
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department ***BW-Natural history [(1)2733.Q.1]

Title: Views of Liberia from "W.F. Lynch report of mission to Africa"
Description: Series of titled views of the Black emigrant country of Liberia (founded 1822) that accompanied a government report compiled by William F. Lynch, Commander, United States Navy following an exploratory excursion to the west coast of Africa. Depicts the stone mansion of Joseph Jenkins Roberts, the first president of Liberia (1847-1855); Episcopal Mission, near Cape Palmas, Mt. Vaughan, founded in 1834 under the auspices of the Maryland Colonization Society and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church; Monrovia (i.e., Liberia) from Bushrod's Island; and Cape Palmas, a Liberian settlement. Views include lush landscapes, Black and white residents, sailing ships, and dwellings., Title from name of the publication., Artists include John H.B. Latrobe and William S. Seager., Printed below images: Senate executive documents, No. 1, 33rd Congress, 1st Session, Part III., Published in "W.F. Lynch report of mission to Africa," Senate Executive documents, 1st Session, 33rd Congress, part 3, vol. 1, doc. 1, p. 329-389., Latrobe, a Baltimore landscape painter, also served as President of the Maryland Colonization Society., Gift of David Doret, 2004., 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., Wagner & M'Guigan, a partnership between Philadelphia lithographers Thomas S. Wagner & James M'Guigan, was active 1846-1858.
Creator: Wagner & M'Guigan
Date: [1853]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - Views - Foreign - Africa [P.2004.33.5a-d]

Title: Writing the Emancipation Proclamation
Description: Pro-Confederacy caricature bombasting Abraham Lincoln's legal and moral authority to write the Emancipation Proclamation. Depicts a demented Lincoln writing the Proclamation seated at a table adorned with a spectral eye; ram horned African American heads, portrayed in racist caricature; and legs ending in cloven hooves. He sits upon a chair with a back decorated with the head of an ass, the "U.S. Constitution" trampled beneath his foot. Atop the table, the devil holds his inkwell before him. A liquor decanter rests upon a sidetable nearby. On the wall, framed paintings hang depicting "saintly" St. Ossawotamie (i.e., John Brown), and the "murderous" rebellion of the enslaved in the 1790s in "St. Domingo"(i.e., Haiti). Behind Lincoln, near window drapes held back by a vulture headed tie back, a statue of liberty, her liberty cap fallen over her face, rests her shield down upon the wall pedestal on which she stands., Inscribed upper left corner: 25., Issued as plate 25 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., Title 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., 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: Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Volck - Sketches - Volck 25 [2990.F.10]

Title: Mount Vaughan Scite of Protest[an]t. Episcopal Mission, Cape Palmos, West Africa
Description: View of the lush grounds of the mission begun in the Black emigrant colony of Liberia in 1835 to educate and spread the gospel in Africa. Depicts the "mission houses," "school house," houses of a "native laborer" and "a colonist," and "native cattle broken to the yoke." A Black man guides a cattle-drawn cart on the dirt road outside of the fenced mission fields where Black laborers work. Begun under the auspices of the American Colonization Society and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the mission moved on March 4, 1837 to Mt. Vaughan, named in honor of the Missionary Society's Secretary of the Board, Rev. John Vaughan. Contains key to figures below the image., Title from item., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1969, p. 56., Purchase 1969., 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., Breton was a 19th-century Philadelphia painter, delineator, and early lithographer who specialized in views.
Creator: Breton, William L., approximately 1773-1855, artist
Date: 1838
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Views - Foreign - Africa [7821.F]

Title: A view of Bassa Cove (in Liberia.)
Description: View "from a drawing made on the spot by Dr. Robert McDowall" of a village scene in Liberia, the African American colony established by the American Colonization Society in 1822. Also used as the illustration of a membership certificate of the Pennsylvania Colonization Society. In the left foreground, three bare-chested Black people, attired in white sarongs, stand at the West African cove across from the small village. The village is comprised of buildings and is surrounded by a fence. People and cattle stroll the grounds. Established in 1816, the controversial American Colonization Society promoted Black American emigration to resolve the problem of race inequality, and to dissolve the institution of slavery. Copies of the print were on view for sale at the colonization society office for over a decade. McDowall was a Black physician sent by the society to provide medical care at the colony., Title from item., Advertised in Colonization herald, June 17, 1837, vol. III, no. 54, p. 214 and later issues., Purchase 1970., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Lehman & Duval was a Philadelphia partnership between painter, lithographer, and engraver George Lehman, and lithographer, Peter S. Duval, that lasted from 1835 until 1837.
Date: [ca. 1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC-Views-Foreign-Africa [7930.F]

Title: Free negroes in Haiti
Description: Racist satire promoting Confederate fears of a liberated enslaved society depicting Black Haitians portrayed as caricatures of cannibalistic savages. In a jungle setting, naked and bare-chested Black men and women participate in the sacrifice of a Black baby on a stone altar. The leader or shaman, attired in a feathered head piece, appears to pray to the gods over the headless body, as another holds a long stake ending with the baby's head. Some play drums with human bones, others eat human flesh in the background. In 1804, Haiti became the first free Black republic after a 13 year revolution emanating from a rebellion by the enslaved against the white enslaver plantation society., Inscribed upper left corner: 27., Issued as plate 27 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., Title and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Research file about artist available at repository., RVCDC, Accessioned 1935., 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.
Creator: Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Volck - Sketches - Volck 27 [2990.F.18]

Title: These are to certify, that [blank] is a member of the New-Jersey Society, for promoting the abolition of slavery. [blank] Presdt. Secy. [blank]
Description: Abolition society certificate depicting a white, Federal-era man pointing toward a chained, kneeling enslaved man who declares, "Am I not a Man and brother!" In the left, the enslaved man, attired in a white loincloth and with chains binding his hands to his feet, kneels down on his right knee upon a marble pedestal and clasps his hands together. In the right, the white man, attired in a white cravat, a waistcoat, a jacket, breeches, and black shoes, stands and holds in his left hand a Bible opened to Isaiah 61:1 atop the marble altar, which is inscribed with the verse: "He came to proclaim liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." Heavenly beams shine down upon them through an opening in the clouds. The New Jersey abolition society was established in 1793., Unused certificate., Title from item., Illustration of a kneeling male slave on the certificate is a variant of the image popularized by Josiah Wedgwood. Formed in 1787, the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade designed and adopted as its seal the image of a kneeling African male slave asking, "Am I not a man and a brother?" That same year, Wedgwood, a ceramics manufacturer and member of the Committee, issued the image as a medallion, which was distributed in America. The image became a popular anti-slavery icon and was soon widely reproduced on artifacts and in print in the United States and in Britain. During the 1820s, a female counterpart with the motto, "Am I not a woman and a sister?" was created by British abolitionists and quickly embraced in the United States, particularly among women abolitionists., Accessioned 1968., 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.
Date: [ca. 1800]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC-Certificates [7762.F]

Title: To the friends of negro emancipation, this print is inscribed
Description: Print commemorating Great Britain's passage of legislation, given royal assent in 1834, granting emancipation to the enslaved throughout Great Britain and the British colonies. Depicts near a coast, a joyous free Black man, attired in a sarong, arms held up in celebration. He stands upon a whip surrounded by smiling Black men who bury his shackles; a Black girl who kneels before him; and a Black mother, seated on a bench beside a book, smiles and holds her baby up in the air. Next to them an "Emancipation Notice" has been tacked to a palm tree. In the background, Black people celebrate on the shore as a ship sails away., Title from item., Text printed below title: A glorious and happy era on the first of August, bursts upon the Western World; England strikes the manacle from the slave, and bids the bond go free., Purchase 1969., 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.
Creator: Lucas, David, 1802-1881, engraver
Date: August 1, 1834
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC-Emancipation [7808.F]

Title: Cinque The chief of the Amistad captives
Description: Bust portrait of the enslaved leader after a painting by New Haven, Connecticut artist, Nathaniel Jocelyn, engraved by Philadelphia artist and Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society member, John Sartain, to raise funds for the enslaved ship mutineers' defense before the Supreme Court. Sartain reproduced the painting, commissioned in 1841 by Philadelphia African American abolitionist and Amistad Committee defense fund member, Robert Purvis, following the refusal of the Artist Fund Society to display the original at the society's 1841 exhibit. Depicts the West African, attired in a toga, walking cane in hand, slightly facing left, in front of a background of African landscape., Title from printed signature of sitter below image., Date inferred from content., Printed on recto: fac simile of the original autograph., Original painting in the collections of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, New Haven, CT., LCP exhibition catalogue: Negro history, p. 34., LCP exhibition catalogue: Made in America, #61., See Ann Katherine Martinez's The Life and career of John Sartain (1808-1897): A nineteenth century Philadelphia printmaker (Ph.D dissertation, The George Washington University, 1986), p. 75-78., See Hugh Honour's The Image of the Black in western Art (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), part 2, vol. IV, p. 159-161., See Katherine Martinez's and Page Talbott's, eds. The Sartain family legacy (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000), p. 66-67., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of engravings. 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.
Creator: Sartain, John, 1808-1897, engraver
Date: [ca. 1841]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Portrait prints-C [5306.F.35]

Title: Cinque The chief of the Amistad captives
Description: Bust portrait of the enslaved leader after a painting by New Haven, Connecticut artist, Nathaniel Jocelyn, engraved by Philadelphia artist and Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society member, John Sartain, to raise funds for the enslaved ship mutineers' defense before the Supreme Court. Sartain reproduced the painting, commissioned in 1841 by Philadelphia African American abolitionist and Amistad Committee defense fund member, Robert Purvis, following the refusal of the Artist Fund Society to display the original at the society's 1841 exhibit. Depicts the West African, attired in a toga, walking cane in hand, slightly facing left, in front of a background of African landscape., Title from printed signature of sitter below image., Date inferred from content., Printed on recto: fac simile of the original autograph., Original painting in the collections of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, New Haven, CT., LCP exhibition catalogue: Negro history, p. 34., LCP exhibition catalogue: Made in America, #61., See Ann Katherine Martinez's The Life and career of John Sartain (1808-1897): A nineteenth century Philadelphia printmaker (Ph.D dissertation, The George Washington University, 1986), p. 75-78., See Hugh Honour's The Image of the Black in western Art (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), part 2, vol. IV, p. 159-161., See Katherine Martinez's and Page Talbott's, eds. The Sartain family legacy (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000), p. 66-67., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of engravings. 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.
Creator: Sartain, John, 1808-1897, engraver
Date: [ca. 1841]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Portrait prints-C [5306.F.35]

Title: Primrose The celebrated piebald boy, a native of the West Indies; publicly [sic] shewn in London 1789
Description: Full-length portrait of John Richardson Primrose Bobey, a young Black man with the pigmentation disorder vitiligo, born enslaved in Jamaica, and inspected and exhibited as a specimen of science throughout England. Shows the young man standing on a shoreline. He stands with palm trees in the distance. He is dressed in a loincloth knotted on his left hip and adorned with tassels. White patches are visible on his legs, torso, and down the center of his head. In his right hand, he holds up a captioned portrait broadside of himself as a boy and points to it with his left hand bent at the elbow and from in front of his waist. The broadside depicts the very young Bobey with primarily white skin above text reading "A Child born at Gros Islet, in the Island of St. Lucia, of Black Parents, Taken from a model of the infant colored from nature," and at the museum of T. Pole, Surgeon, Grace Church, in London." In adulthood in London, Bobey advocated for his freedom from enslavement and was a proprietor of a menagerie and a member of several societies, including the Free Masons., Title from item., Manuscript note on recto: Presented T. Pole Surgeon, London, to the Library of Philadelphia., Publication information inferred from broadside illustrated in image and address of London publishers Wm. Darton & Jos. Harvey., Noted in LCP Minutes, v. 3, p. 230-231., Biographies of sitter in Karl Pearson, A monograph on Albinism (London: Cambridge University Press, 1911-1913) and William Granger, The new wonderful museum, and extraordinary magazine: ... (London: Printed for R.S. Kirby, 1804), v. 2, p. 711-714., Pole, a Philadelphia-born Quaker physician, was also an artist who illustrated his own text "An Anatomical Instructor, an Illustration of the Modern and Most Approved Methods of Preparing and Preserving the Different Parts of the Human Body, and of Quadrupeds, by Injection, Corrosion, ... (London, 1790)., 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., Descripton revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Gift of Thomas Pole, 1790., RVCDC
Date: [ca. 1789]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | PRINT. *portrait prints - Primrose [901.F.27]

Title: Missionary Society of the Evangelical Association of North America [certificate]
Description: Life membership certificate containing a vignette contrasting scenes of apocalyptic doom and religious salvation. Shows to the right an angel trumpeting salvation and wielding the Bible; a white man missionary preaching to a large group of Native Americans; and a converted African family of a man, woman, and child, kneels and reaches toward the winged messenger of God. On the ground are broken chains and swords, and a hut and palm trees are in the background. Opposite the scenes of salvation, a cross rises from the ground, bringing forth a river of redemption too late for the lost souls of a bejeweled "heathen" woman and a skull-headed man entangled by serpents. Behind them a temple, probably the Vatican, collapses to the ground. The Evangelical Association, a Methodist ministry, worked first to convert Native Americans and enslaved people before extending their missions to the Black inhabitants of Liberia in the 1820s., Issued to Peter H. Cage of Catasauqua, Pa. on February 24, 1870. Signed by Thomas Bowman, Secretary; Francis Hoffman, President; and Isaac Hess, Treasurer., Gift of David Doret, 2004., 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.
Creator: Sartain, John, 1808-1897, engraver
Date: [ca. 1850]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Philadelphia certificates - Organizations - M [P.2004.46.1]

Title: [Geo. S. Harris & Sons print specimens]
Description: Series of specimens, primarily for trade cards and labels, printed by the prominent Philadelphia lithographic firm. Subjects include fanciful, allegorical, and sentimental scenes and portraiture with women, children, and flowers; hunting and recreational scenes; international iconography; animals (dogs, horses, and an alligator clutching a Black baby in its jaws); political and military imagery, including President James Garfield; land and marinescapes; and mythological and fairy tale views. Collection also includes specimen without an imprint and probably printed by Harris showing a plantation scene with a white man, attired in a straw hat, a white collared shirt, white pants, and a sword on his waistband, placing his right hand on the shoulder of a barefooted Black man, attired in a straw hat, a white collared shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, and white pants that are torn at the bottom, who carries a hoe. They stand before a body of water surrounded by flowers and trees with the plantation in the background. Racist scene shows a white female angel with wings pouring packages of tobacco from a cornucopia to a group of men and women from various ethnic groups and nationalities, including Native Americans, Chinese, Spanish, and Middle Eastern people, many of which smoke cigars, hookahs, and pipes. Specimen depicting a man, attired in a turban with a dagger in his waistband, kneeling with a rifle beside him. Surrounding him are palms and desert plants. In the right background, a lions stands and looks on., Title supplied by cataloger., Publication date inferred from content of one print depicting President James Garfield., Originally part of Specimens Album [P.9349]., Gift of Margaret Robinson, 1991., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
Date: [ca. 1881]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Specimen Album Loose Prints Collection - Geo. S. Harris [P.9349.279, 283-284, 292, 298-307, 309, 317-318, 321, 328-329, 332, 436-437, 439, 441-442, 447, 451-453 & 455-456]

Title: This certifies that [blank] having paid to the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church the sum of twenty dollars, is hereby constituted a member during life conformably to the seventh article of the constitution. New York, [blank]. [Blank] chairman. [Blank] clerk
Description: Life membership certificate containing a vignette contrasting scenes of apocalyptic doom and religious salvation. From the celestial heavens, the hand of God points to an angel trumpeting salvation and wielding the Bible; a white man missionary preaches to a large group of Native Americans; and a converted African family of a man, woman, and child, kneels and reaches toward the winged messenger of God. On the ground are broken chains and swords, and a hut and palm trees are in the background. Opposite the scenes of salvation, a cross rises from the ground, bringing forth a river of redemption too late for the lost souls of a bejeweled white woman and a skull-headed man entangled by serpents. Behind them a temple, probably the Vatican, collapses to the ground crushing a white man. The Missionary Society, officially organized in New York in 1820, worked first to convert Native Americans and enslaved people before extending their missions to the Black inhabitants of Liberia in 1823., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Issued to Reverend Thomas Lumption on April 9th, 1844. Signed by Joshua Soule, Chairman, and Francis Hale, Clerk., Purchase 1971., 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.
Date: [ca. 1835]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Certificates [7971.F]

Title: View of the Capitol of the United States after the conflagration in 1814
Description: Abolitionist allegorical book illustration juxtaposing a coffle of enslaved Black men and boys standing before the ruins of "a monument to liberty," the United States Capitol, following the British occupation of the city during the War of 1812. Author suggests that the destruction of the Capitol was a sign of divine displeasure to promote the abolition of slavery. In the foreground, two white men enslavers lead shackled men and boys pass the ruin. Two allegorical white female figures, one of Liberty, hover in the clouds above. Enslaved people were traded in Washington, D.C. and used in the reconstruction of the Capitol., Title from item., Frontispiece from Jessey Torrey, Jr.'s, A Portraiture of domestic slavery in the United States (1817)., Torrey was a Philadelphia physician, abolitionist, and author of tracts on morals and the diffusion of knowledge., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of views of the District of Columbia. 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.
Creator: Lawson, Alexander, 1773-1846, engraver
Date: 1817
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - Government Buildings - Washington, D.C. [5740.F.9b], http://www.lcpimages.org/afro-americana/F181.htm

Title: [View of the Centennial Machinery Hall with people from all nations]
Description: Block-printed wallpaper depicting an exterior view of Machinery Hall designed by Henry Pettit and Joseph M. Wilson for the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which celebrated the centennial of the United States through an international exhibition of industry, agriculture, and art in West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. Horse-drawn carriages bring visitors to and from the Hall. A large crowd of spectators walk on the grounds. In the foreground, people from various nationalities and ethnicities are represented including Native Americans attired in feather headdresses; two men, including a Black man, attired in fez hats; two Chinese men, one carrying a fan, attired in conical hats and robes; two Arab men in white headdresses and robes; and a Scottish man attired in a kilt. Other spectators include a man attired in a sailor’s uniform, men and women couples, and young boys., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content., Gift of David Doret., RVCDC
Date: [ca. 1876]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department ***Doret and Mitchell Collection – Prints [P.2022.62.3.49]

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