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Title: [Bootmaker with a boot on the table beside him.]
Description: Hand colored pink on cheeks., Cased photographs retrospective conversion project., Pad: Faded red velvet. Embossed in center Reimer 617 N. 2nd St. Philada. Fancy scroll work all around., Mat: Oval., Case: Leather. Geometric design in center surrounded by fancy scrolls and swirls. Same design on verso.
Creator: Reimer, Benjamin, 1826-1899, photographer
Date: ca. 1858
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Cased photos [P.2003.23]

Title: Soldiers your health, comfort, and usefulness, and your country's welfare, will in a great measure depend on your keeping your feet dry many are now lying in hospitals, but for wet feet might be rendering their country good service. One box of Frank Miller's leather preservative and water proof oil blacking, manufactured by Frank Miller & Co. Warsaw, N.Y. will last you one year. Try it, use it, and tell it to your fellows
Description: Dyott & Sons are listed at this address in the 1860 Philadelphia directory; by 1861, the company is listed as Dyott & Co. at 232 North Second Street., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War.
Creator: Frank Miller & Co.
Date: [1861?]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare sm # Am 1861 Frank (2)5786.F.161e (McAllister)

Title: Now is the time. 50,000 pairs boots, shoes & gaiters cheaper than ever Read the following prices, and judge for yourselves: ... Ladies' and children's shoes of all descriptions at the lowest prices. Gum boots, sea, water, gunning, fishing and ditching boots, made to order at the shortest notice
Description: A four-line poem at head of title: A Union of lakes and a Union of lands, A Union of states none can sever, A Union of hearts and a Union of hands, And the flag of our Union for ever., A four-line poem printed vertically, flanking the title: The flag of our country, long may it wave, O'er the land of the free & home of the brave. No pent up Utica contracts our powers, But the whole boundless continent is ours., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War.
Creator: Gallagher, William J., shoemaker
Date: [between 1861 and 1865]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare sm # Am 1861 Gallagher (2)5786.F.168a (McAllister)

Title: Albert & Bayley fine shoes, 449 Broad Street Newark, N.J
Description: Trade card promoting Albert & Bayley shoes and depicting a racist caricature of an African American boy pushing a wheelbarrow on a cobblestone street. The boy is barefoot and attired in a buttoned shirt with an open collar and the sleeves rolled up, striped shorts, and a hat with a long tassle. The wheelbarrow contains a giant-size pair of boots decorated with an American flag near the pull strap. Albert & Bayley had a shoe store at 449 Broad Steet, Newark, N.J. from 1883 to 1885., Title from item., Name of publisher and date from copyright statement: Copyright by Henry Seifert A.D. 1883., Place of publication deduced from place of operation of advertised business., Gift of David Doret.
Date: 1883
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Albert & Bayley [P.2017.95.3]

Title: Norway section - Main Building.
Description: Exhibit titles: Brandt, C., Bergen, Exhibit #50; Naess, H.S., Christiania, Exhibit #41, Main Exhibition Building, Bldg. #1. Norwegian sleigh and carriages; hides hanging on a wall behind. Also in the background is a display case with boots and shoes.
Creator: Centennial Photographic Co., photographer., creator
Date: 1876
Location: *Centennial - photos [P.9089.1]

Title: Mason's challenge blacking. James S. Mason & Co., nos. 138 & 140 North Front Street, Philadelphia
Description: Advertisement depicting a "shoe blacking" competition between two African American shoe shiners to promote the manufactory of blacking established in 1832 by James S. Mason. Shows two African American men, portrayed in racist caricature, holding a brush, a canister of "Mason's" blacking, and a boot, while they dance on a table. An African American man fiddler sits on a stool and plays. In the foreground, a white man holds an oversized boot. A white shoe shine boy, his pack on his back, stands behind an older man holding his arm as he points at his reflection in the boot. In the left background, a troop of white Union soldiers marches in behind a parade marshal adorned in "M" insignias. The men carry a banner reading "Mason's (Original) Challenge Blacking (Philadelphia)," as well as boots, and signs spelling "M-A-S-O-N." In the right background, a crowd of spectators, including figures likely representing Germany, the Ottoman Empire, Britain, and possibly France, stand and watch the competition attentively. Scene also includes boxes of Mason's Challenge Blacking. Following the death of Mason in 1888, his son Richard assumed the business which was in operation into the 20th century., Title from item., Date inferred from directory listings for the artist and engravers., Attributed by cataloger to Francis H. Schell, but possibly by Frederick B. Schell., 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: Schell, Francis H., 1834-1909, artist
Date: [ca. 1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Ph Pr - 11x14 - Advertisements - M [P.2013.51]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. The new shoes
Description: Racist caricature depicting an African American woman trying on shoes at "Sambo Paley Boots & Shoe Manufacturer." In the left, the woman, seated on a chair, looks down at her slightly raised left foot on which an African American clerk has placed a black slip-on shoe. Her removed yellow shoe rests beside her feet. She is attired in a yellow bonnet adorned with feathers and with a white veil that frames her face like long straight hair, a red puff sleeve dress, and a yellow slip-on shoe. She slightly raises her dress with her left ungloved hand to appear at her shoe and holds a green parasol to the floor with her gloved right hand. A blue and yellow purse hangs from her right wrist. The clerk kneels in front of her and holds her left foot. He is attired in a striped shirt, neck tie, brown vest, brown pantaloons, white stocking and red slipper shoes. The woman states the shoe "is sich a bery dirty color" and does he not have any white or pink ones. The clerk replies that it may not be "handsome" to look at, but surely a "good color to wear." In the background, an African American man, attired in shirt sleeves and an apron, possibly the bootmaker, shines a boot behind a counter and in front of a row of boots and shoes on a cabinet. A brush and can of boot black rest on the counter. A sign reading “Sambo Paley Boots & Shoe Manufacturer. The Best Jet Blacking Sold Here" hangs above the man’s head. In the far left, shoes hang inside the store’s window and visible through the shop’s doorway, a well-dressed African American man and woman walk past in the street. The man wears a top hat and waistcoat and the woman wears a yellow bonnet and puff sleeve dress. Scene also shows pairs of boots resting on the floor across from the kneeling clerk in the right. Figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features and their skin tone is depicted in black hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Inscribed: No. 3., P.2016.45.1 trimmed., Charles Hunt was a respected 19th century London engraver and etcher known primarily for his prints of sporting subjects., P.2016.45.1 gift of Dr. Richard Dunn & Dr. Mary Maples Dunn., Digital image depicted is P.9710.3., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Summers, William, artist
Date: [ca. 1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9710.3 & P.2016.45.1]

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