Attributed to E.W. Clay., Title and publication information supplied by Wainwright., Clay, born in Philadelphia, was the most prolific caricaturist of the Jacksonian era. He became well known for his popular racist series, "Life in Philadelphia," published from 1828 until around 1830, which mocked upwardly mobile African American Philadelphians as ineptly attempting to imitate the white middle class., Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of the Jacksonian Era. (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 76, 358. (LCP Print Room, Uz A423.O), LCP holds duplicate untrimmed print: *Wainwright 315., Racist caricature simultaneously mocking and condoning the pretentiousness and bigotry of early 19th century Philadelphia Quakers toward their "social inferiors." On a Philadelphia road in front of a small home with an open picket fence and a visitor arriving on horseback, a raggedly dressed dark skinned traveler with buck teeth, possibly an Irishman or African American, asks a rotund Quaker man and his attractive prim and proper daughter, "I say, this isn't the road to Philadelphy, honey, is it?" The father responds indignantly to the "Friend," that he is not only asking a question, but also telling a lie, and of course it is the road.
Date
[1830 or 1831]
Location
http://www.lcpgraphics.org/wainwright/W315.htm, Library Company of Philadelphia Print Dept. W315 [P.2179]
Attributed to E.W. Clay., Title and publication information supplied by Wainwright., Clay, born in Philadelphia, was the most prolific caricaturist of the Jacksonian era. He became well known for his racist popular series, "Life in Philadelphia," published from 1828 until 1832, which mocked upwardly mobile African American Philadelphians as ineptly attempting to imitate the white middle class., Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of the Jacksonian Era (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 76, 358. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)., LCP holds duplicate trimmed print: W315., Gift of William Helfand., Racist caricature simultaneously mocking and condoning the pretentiousness and bigotry of early 19th century Philadelphia Quakers toward their "social inferiors." On a Philadelphia road in front of a small home with an open picket fence and a visitor arriving on horseback, a raggedly dressed dark skinned traveler with buck teeth, possibly an Irishman or African American, asks a rotund Quaker man and his attractive prim and proper daughter, "I say, this isn't the road to Philadelphy, honey, is it?" The father responds indignantly to the "Friend," that he is not only asking a question, but also telling a lie, and of course it is the road.
Date
[1830 or 1831]
Location
http://www.lcpgraphics.org/wainwright/W315.htm, Library Company of Philadelphia Print Dept. *W315 [P.9576]
