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Title: Sunday laws hanging the cat on Monday for killing the mouse on Sunday
Description: Cartoon mocking Philadelphia's Sunday Laws depicting the moment before "Thomas" the cat will be hanged for his murder of a mouse on the Sabbath. In the center, shows the gallows surrounded by a line of white policemen, attired in uniforms and caps. In the left, three white hangmen, attired in suits, hold onto the rope and pull on the unlooped end of the noose. Two of the men smile sinisterly, while the third man wipes his tears with a handkerchief as he says, “Alas poor Tom!” To the right, an African American man, portrayed in racist caricature with exaggerated features, carries the "Blood Tub." Under the noose, a white man, possibly Philadelphia Mayor Alexander Henry, stands holding an execution order that reads, “Mayor Public Execution Tom” and the cat by the scruff of its neck. Before him stands a minister, resembling John Chambers, a champion of the Sunday Laws. He holds the dead mouse in this right hand and an open book in his left hand as he sentences the cat to death for murder. Behind the minister, an elderly white man, attired in a suit with a white bowtie, stands slightly hunched down holding an ear trumpet to his right ear. He comments, “I can’t hear a word the minister says on account of them cars,” a reference to the contested Sunday Law against the running of streetcars. A black dog runs in the left foreground., Title from item., Date from manuscript note written on recto: Aug. 1859., Place of publication inferred from content., Text printed on recto, below image: In the Dark Ages, long ago, One Horne was flogged on Monday; What for? That’s what I want you to know, He danced a horn-pipe Sunday! That was all! He but danced a horn-pipe Sunday, But he danced to the horsewhip Monday. By the roundheads, too, when Cromwell reigned, We read there was a hung on Monday, A cat who “the Sabbath day (?) profaned” By cat-ching a mouse on Sunday? Understand: She played with him first on Sunday, ‘Twas for that she was hung on Monday! And by America’s Puritan men, Mrs. Hotchkiss was punished on Monday; Cotton Mather forbade her, but once and again, She had kissed her babe on Sunday; A blow for a kiss. For so many kisses on Sunday, She got so many blows on Monday. So, too, in Brooklyn, the other day, Meyerbeer was tried on Monday; The complaint against him thus did say “He has sold lager beer on Sunday” And he had! But the jury said, on Monday! A good drink might be sold Sunday! And in the West’s “Queen city,” too, One Rudolph’s just ‘quitted on Monday; He would drive his ‘bus the whole week through And accommodate people on Sunday: And the Court, Gave the very Pruden-t decision on Monday, That “there’s more than ‘one thing needful’ on Sunday:” And so the “good time” is “coming” boys When a thing that is good on Monday—A drink, or a drive, or a joyful noise—Will be thought not bad on Sunday! Everywhere When wrong will be wrong on Monday, And right will be right on Sunday!, Accessioned 1893., 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: [Philadelphia]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1859-Sun [5656.F.24a]

Title: Mount Vernon--Washington's Residence
Description: Puzzle showing the eastern facade of the mansion and grounds overlooking the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia owned by George Washington. White men and women promenade, white children play with a dog, cattle graze, and a white man handler walks a horse on the landscaped grounds in the foreground. George Washington, Martha Washington, and a white woman sit on the porch. An enslaved African American man servant, attired in a white collared shirt, a black jacket with tails, and black pants, stands to the left of them. The estate, originally granted to Washington's great-grandfather John Washington in 1674, was inherited by George in 1761 and purchased by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association in 1858., One of four puzzles, stored in two pieces, housed in clamshell box., Purchase 1978., 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. 1858]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *albums (flat) - Four Lithographic Puzzles [8418.F.2]

Title: Mount Vernon--Washington's Residence
Description: Puzzle showing the eastern facade of the mansion and grounds overlooking the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia owned by George Washington. White men and women promenade, white children play with a dog, cattle graze, and a white man handler walks a horse on the landscaped grounds in the foreground. George Washington, Martha Washington, and a white woman sit on the porch. An enslaved African American man servant, attired in a white collared shirt, a black jacket with tails, and black pants, stands to the left of them. The estate, originally granted to Washington's great-grandfather John Washington in 1674, was inherited by George in 1761 and purchased by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association in 1858., One of four puzzles, stored in two pieces, housed in clamshell box., Purchase 1978., 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. 1858]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *albums (flat) - Four Lithographic Puzzles [8418.F.2]

Title: Mount Vernon--Washington's Residence
Description: Puzzle showing the eastern facade of the mansion and grounds overlooking the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia owned by George Washington. White men and women promenade, white children play with a dog, cattle graze, and a white man handler walks a horse on the landscaped grounds in the foreground. George Washington, Martha Washington, and a white woman sit on the porch. An enslaved African American man servant, attired in a white collared shirt, a black jacket with tails, and black pants, stands to the left of them. The estate, originally granted to Washington's great-grandfather John Washington in 1674, was inherited by George in 1761 and purchased by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association in 1858., One of four puzzles, stored in two pieces, housed in clamshell box., Purchase 1978., 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. 1858]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *albums (flat) - Four Lithographic Puzzles [8418.F.2]

Title: The nigger emperor of Nicuragua [sic] on his throne Attended by Chatfield & his Black guards witnessing the detention of the steamer Prometheus, by the English brig of war Express, at San Juan
Description: Racist political cartoon satirizing the fictitious "Nigger Emperor" of Nicaragua during the "Prometheus-Express" incident of November 1851, which threatened the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 between the United States and Britain to abstain from attempting dominion of Central America. Depicts the Emperor as a Black man, partially undressed, attired in a military uniform with epaulettes, a black plumed hat, a sword on his waistband, and black boots. He sits atop a barrel labeled “Jamaica Rum.” He has one boot off that exposes his sock. His trousers are off and draped over his right arm. He smiles with a cigar in his mouth and carries a bottle labeled “Brandy” in his left hand. He looks towards Frederick Chatfield, the United Kingdom’s consul in Central America from 1834 to 1852, standing in the right. Chatfield holds his hands up and says, “They shall pay the money or be blow to attoms for their temerity, let me again entreat your Majesty to condesend (sic) to draw your breeches over your imperial shins.” The Emperor gestures with his right hand to the two ships in the harbor and replies in the vernacular, “Nebber mine, Massa Chatfield, wedder to warm for wear beechum, Yankee hab to cum back and pay money to dis nigger, ya, ya, ya.” Behind the Emperor, several Black guards, attired in tall hats, smile and stand in formation. Also in the print is a small black dog sniffing the Emperor’s sock., The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 made Greytown, Nicaragua a free port, denying the British revenue. To circumvent this, the British charged harbor fees. On November 21, 1851, Cornelius Vanderbilt’s ship Prometheus refused to pay the British harbor fees. The British brig o’war Express fired three shots across the bow of the Prometheus. Vanderbilt then paid. However, when the ship arrived in New York he took his case to the U.S. government with the U.S. wanting Britain to withdraw from Central America. In early 1852, the Nicaraguan government sought to assert its authority over the Miskito kingdom. On April 30, 1852, Secretary of State Daniel Webster and British minister John Crampton negotiated a settlement that made Greytown a free city, protected the rights of the Miskito Indians, and established the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua along the San Juan River., Title from item., Erroneously dated 1839 by Weitenkampf., Appears in The old soldier, New York, February, 1852., Likely drawn by John L. Magee, who worked at 69 Nassau Street at this time., Originally part of American political caricatures, likely a scrapbook, accessioned 1899. Collection primarily comprised of gifts from Samuel Breck, John A. McAllister, and James Rush., 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: Magee, John L., artist
Date: [1852]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1851-28 [5760.F.107]

Title: "No higher law."
Description: Antislavery print denouncing the immorality of the Fugitive Slave Law by exploiting abolitionist Senator William H. Seward's famous quote that "a higher law" than the Constitution should exist regarding slavery. Shows "King Slavery," depicted as a bearded, bare-chested, white man, attired in a crown made of finger bones and armed with pistols in his waistband. The King sits and leans upon the arm of his throne composed of the "Fugitive Slave Bill," the Bible, and human skulls as he defiantly holds a whip of chains above his head. An American flag on a pole billows behind the throne. Below the throne, Seward, depicted as a priest, looks up and raises his left hand toward the King. He stands before a cat-faced altar inscribed "Sacred to Slavery," which rests upon a book of "Law" and pours oil from a container onto the altar fire, generating clouds of smoke. In the right, three enslaved men squat with their heads bowed. Senator Daniel Webster gestures toward them and holds a paper supporting the Fugitive Slave Bill "to the fullest extent." Near them, "Freedom," depicted as a bearded, white man and attired in a robe, displays his sense of defeat by removing his crown and lowering his liberty pole. In the left, an African American man freedom seeker fends off dogs attacking him. An African American woman freedom seeker and two children flee from two white men mercenaries on horseback and run toward a white woman with outstretched arms in front of a house. In the right background, the figure of Liberty falls from her pedestal., Title from item., Place of publication inferred from the residence of the distributor., Weitenkampf suggests date of publication as 1851., Text printed on recto: Price $3 A Hundred And Six Cents Single Copy., William Harned was an abolitionist printer in New York who also published the pamphlet, "The Fugitive Slave Bill:...." in 1850. (LCP Am 1850 Fug 16809.D.1)., A.B. Maurice and F.T. Cooper's The History of the 19th century in caricature (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1904), p. 156., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 2000, p. 40-2., Purchase 1999., 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.
Date: [1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1851 - 2W [P.9739]

Title: 'Conquering prejudice,' or 'fulfilling a constitutional duty with alacrity.'
Description: Antislavery print depicting the pursuit of a freedom seeker in accordance with the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Shows a barefooted, enslaved African American woman, portrayed with exaggerated features, and attired in a head kerchief and a short-sleeved dress. She runs holding her child and screams for help, "My God! My child! Will no one help! Is there no mercy!" Chasing her are Daniel Webster admiring himself for performing a "disagreeable duty," a marshal holding a gun and handcuffs and exclaiming a sense of relief over Webster's interpretation of the Constitution, and two dogs. In the background is a church and courthouse., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 1978, p. 54-5., Purchase 1978., 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., Kramer was a German born painter and lithographer who worked with the Rosenthals, a prominent Philadelphia family of lithographers from 1850 and through the early 1850s.
Creator: Kramer, Peter, 1823-1907, artist
Date: [ca. 1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1851- Con [8433.F]

Title: Practical amalgamation
Description: Racist print promoting anti-abolitionists' fears of multiracial personal relationships. Depicts a parlor scene where two interracial couples court on a couch. In the left, an attractive white women sits on the lap of an African American man. The man, depicted in racist caricature with grotesque facial features, holds a guitar in his right hand as she engages him in a kiss. In the right, a rotund African American woman holds a fan in her right hand as she is wooed by a slender white man on his knees who kisses her left hand. Portraits of abolitionists Arthur Tappan, Daniel O'Connell (a radical Irish abolitionist), and John Quincy Adams are hung on the wall behind the couch. A white and black dog are in the left corner., Title from item., First of a series of five., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 2015, p. 41., Purchase 1957., 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., Clay, born in Philadelphia, was a prominent caricaturist, engraver, and lithographer who created the "Life in Philadelphia" series which satirized middle-class African-Americans of the late 1820s and early 1830s.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, artist
Date: 1839
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1839-Pra 1 [6207.F]

Title: [Life in Philadelphia scraps]
Description: Series of trimmed, captioned scraps containing racist African American imagery based on the “Life in Philadelphia” series after the designs of Edward W. Clay first published 1828-1830. The series of primarily racist social caricatures lampooned the etiquette and conventions of early 19th-century, middle-class Philadelphians, particularly the growing community of free African American persons. Caricatures depict scenes of courtship, society balls, fashion, freemasonry, and the election of Andrew Jackson, as well as sexism, sexual harassment, and sexual innuendo. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features and often in the fashion of dandies and belles. Scenes include an African American man leaving his card for “Clotilda” at her basement apartment door within the dishcloth of her African American woman house servant before him (P.2021.28.1a); an African American man-woman couple stopped during their walk in a park to watch a man watching them (P.2021.28.1b); an African American ball at which an African American man attendee asks an African American woman attendee for a dance in front of other African American attendees in the background (P.2021.28.2a); an African American man sexually harassing an African American woman on a city street (P.2021.28.2b); an African American woman and man in conversation on a Sunday (“day of our lord”)(P.2021.28.3a);, African American couple “Mr. Lorenzo” and “Miss Chloe,” seated on a couch, by a window, in a parlor in conversation (P.2021.28.3b); an African American ball at which an African American woman attendee asks an African American man attendee if he likes the waltz in front of other African American attendees in the background (P.2021.28.4a); an African American woman in a dry goods store asking a white man sales clerk, who speaks with a French dialect, about stockings (P.2021.28.4b); an African American military volunteer chastising an African American boy drummer at a military encampment (P.2021.28.5a); an African American man-woman musical couple where she plays the guitar and he sings “Coal Black Rose”(P.2021.28.5b); two African American masons in conversation about “Gen’l Jackson” in front of an altar at a masonic hall (P.2021.28.6a); an African American woman, “Dinah,” being asked by an African American man, “Mr. Durang,” about his new checkered “fashion trousers” (P.2021.28.6b). Women figures are attired in wide-brimmed, and/or ornately adorned, wide-brimmed hats or headpieces, puff-sleeved dresses or a hooded cape in ornate patterns, as well as gloves, slipper shoes, jewelry, and monocles. Men figures are attired in top or wide-brimmed hats, waistcoats, vests, large bowties, trousers or pantaloons, military uniform, masonic regalia, gloves, and slipper shoes or boots. Accessories held by the figures include purses, umbrellas, fans, walking sticks., Scenes also include detailed backgrounds and interior and exterior settings including residential facades; dogs; a white man seated on a bench in a park; ballrooms with attendees and a band playing in a balcony; a section of a city street with a guardhouse; parlors; a counter at a dry goods store; a volunteer military encampment; a masonic hall; as well as pieces of furniture, such as chairs, mantles, and side tables., Title supplied by cataloguer., Date inferred from content., P.2021.28.1a contains three lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: Is Miss Clotilda at home? No sir she’s particularly ingaged in washing de dishes – Ah! give her my card!, P.2021.28.1b contains two lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: Vol is you looking at my dear? Vy I’m looking at dat imperent fellow vat’s laughing at us?, P.2021.28.2a contains three lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: Will you hona me wid your hand for de next codrille Miss Manda? Tank you sa’ but I’m ingaged for de nest ten set!, P.2021.28.2b contains two lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: What do you take me for? you black nigger? Why I take you for myself to be sure., P.2021.28.3a contains two lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: Bery hot dis day of our lord Mr. Cesa! Berry hot indeed Miss Juliet – de terometa is 96 degree above joho., P.2021.28.3b contains two lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: Mr. Lorenzo dat’s a nice dog you’ve got” Lord! Miss Chloe., P.2021.28.4a contains two lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: do you walse Mr. Wellington? No, my dear creta_ It’s to common. I go nothin but de Manourkey!, P.2021.28.4b contains two lines of dialogue in the vernacular and French dialect below the image: Have you any flesh coloured silk stockings, Sir? Oui Mamselle here is von pair of de last Parisian touch-, P.2021.28.5a contains two lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: You say I belong to de milishy you black varmont. I’ll let you know I’m a wolunteer., P.2021.28.5b contains two lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: How will your voice harmonize wid de sentiment. Mr. Cato you quite equal to Horn!, P.2021.28.6a contains three lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: Well brudder Jones what you tink of Genl Jackson now? Day say he’s gwang to be Anti Masonic! I don’t know, I tink dat depend on de new cabinet., P.2021.28.6b contains three lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: How you like de new fashion trousers Dinah. Oh quite lubly! You look like Mr. Durang when he play harlequin in de masqarade., Printed in upper left corner of P.2021.28.1a: [E?]dition., Printed in upper right corner of P.2021.28.2a and trimmed: 2nd E?[dition?], RVCDC
Date: [ca. 1838-ca. 1855]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (Miscellaneous) [P.2021.28.1a-6b]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. "Behold thou art fair Deborah,..."
Description: Caricature satirizing the manners of Quakers and depicting a white Quaker couple, Deborah and Timothy, courting in front of a fireplace with a fire in a sitting room. In the right, Timothy, depicted in left profile sits stiffly in a wooden, straight back chair with his hat in his lap. He is portrayed with full lips, a pronounced nose, and large ears and with his brown hair in a bowl cut. He wears a blue long coat, blue pants, and tied shoes. He compliments Deborah by reciting verses from the biblical love poem Song of Solomon. In the right, Deborah, portrayed facing the viewer, sits stiffly in a wooden, straight back chair with her hands in her lap. She is attired in a brown plain, long-sleeved dress, and a white kerchief over her shoulders. She also wears a white cap out of which sprays of her brown hair are visible on her forehead. Dorothy replies she is overcome by him and recites that his hair is like a flock of goats "from Gilead." A pug-like dog sits between their feet. Also shows, in the background, wooden, straight back chairs flanking the mantelpiece of the fireplace on which objet d'arts and a mirror with an ornately decorated frame is placed. Twom framed works of art hang on the wall on each side of the mirror., Title from items., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Inscribed: Plate 11., Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of the Jacksonian Era (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 88. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Purchase 1968.
Creator: Summers, William, artist
Date: [ca. 1831]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [7707.F]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. "Behold thou art fair Deborah,..."
Description: Caricature satirizing the manners of Quakers and depicting a white Quaker couple, Deborah and Timothy, courting in front of a fireplace in a sitting room. In the right, Timothy, depicted in left profile sits stiffly in a wooden, straight back chair with his hat in his lap. He is portrayed with full lips, a pronounced nose, and large ears and with his brown hair in a cowlick at the back top of his head. He wears a brown long coat, brown pants, and tied shoes. He compliments Deborah by reciting verses from the biblical love poem Song of Solomon. In the right, Deborah, portrayed facing the viewer, and looking down, sits stiffly in a wooden, straight back chair with her hands in her lap. She is attired in a brown plain, long-sleeved dress, and a white kerchief over her shoulders. She also wears a white cap out of which sprays of her brown hair are visible on her forehead. Dorothy replies she is overcome by him and recites that his hair is like a flock of goats "from Gilead." A small dog with a curled tail sits between their feet. Also shows, in the background, wooden, straight back chairs flanking the mantelpiece of the fireplace on which two candles rest., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Plate 2 of the original series published in Philadelphia., After the work of Edward W. Clay., Probably published by Anthony Imbert of New York., Contains five lines of dialogue below the image: Behold thou art fair Deborah, thou hast doves eyes! Behold thou art fair Deborah, yea pleasant! Turn away thine eyes from me, Timothy, for they overcome me; thy hair is a flock of goats that appear from Gilead!, Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of the Jacksonian Era (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 88. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Accessioned 1999.
Date: [ca. 1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | PRINT. Life in Philadelphia (New York Set) [P.9701.6]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. "Behold thou art fair Deborah,..."
Description: Caricature satirizing the manners of Quakers and depicting a white Quaker couple, Deborah and Timothy, courting in front of a fireplace in a sitting room. In the right, Timothy, depicted in left profile sits stiffly in a wooden, straight back chair with his hat in his lap. He is portrayed with full lips, a pronounced nose, and large ears and with his brown hair in a bowl cut. He wears a blue long coat, blue pants, and tied shoes. He compliments Deborah by reciting verses from the biblical love poem Song of Solomon. In the right, Deborah, portrayed facing the viewer, sits stiffly in a wooden, straight back chair with her hands in her lap. She is attired in a brown plain, long-sleeved dress, and a white kerchief over her shoulders. She also wears a white cap out of which sprays of her brown hair are visible on her forehead. Dorothy replies she is overcome by him and recites that his hair is like a flock of goats "from Gilead." A pug-like dog sits between their feet. Also shows, in the background, wooden, straight back chairs flanking the mantelpiece of the fireplace on which two candles rest., Inscribed: Plate 2., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Date inferred from name and address of publisher and time period of her publication of the series., Contains five lines of dialogue below the image: Behold thou art fair Deborah, thou hast doves eyes. Behold thou art fair Deborah, yea pleasant! Turn away thine eyes from me, Timothy, for they overcome me; thy hair is a flock of goats that appear from Gilead!, Sarah Hart was a Jewish Philadelphia fancy goods store owner and printseller who with her son future Philadelphia publisher Abraham Hart, assumed publication of the "Life in Philadelphia" series in 1829. Sarah Hart solely reprinted the entire series of 14 prints in 1830., Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American political caricaturist of the Jacksonian era (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 88. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O), RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Purchase 1990.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher
Date: [1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [P.9288]

Title: The Philadelphia dandies. A group of fashionables. "Shoot folly as it flies."
Description: Caricature lampooning "fashionable" middle-class Philadelphians depicting two scenes of “belles” being greeted. The first scene portrays a white belle, in the right, being greeted by a white dandy, in the left, who holds up a monocle in his left hand and asks, "How do you do?" They are each bent over and face each other. The dandy is attired in a white ruffled shirt, blue waistcoat, tan pants, and grey boots with spurs. He holds down a black top hat from which a cane hangs in his right hand. The belle is attired in a large green bonnet that curves at the back of her head and that is adorned with feathers and a ribbon, a pink, long-sleeved, knee-length, belle-shaped dress, and boots. She holds a green umbrella up in her right hand toward the raised arm of the dandy and the back of her dress has risen up. A pug-like jumps up and barks at her from behind. She responds that she is “rather cold.” The second scene depicts a white belle being greeted by a "fashionable" white woman and girl whose hand she holds. The women and girl are all similarly attired in large bonnets adorned with flowers, long-sleeved, high waisted, calf-length dresses in pink or green, and boots or ankle-laced shoes. They are also portrayed with stooped postures and accentuated posteriors. The woman with the child also holds a pink purse in the same hand as that of the girl who also wears pantalettes and holds a green parasol in her left hand. A third woman wearing a mortarboard style hat adorned with feathers, a long-sleeved, calf-length, high-waisted dress with under skirt, and boots, holds a spear-shaped umbrella over her shoulder and "marches" passed them in the right. Also, shows a pug-like dog standing in the left by the women who greet each other., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Contains two bubbles of dialogue within image of first scene: How do you do? How do you do? Madam! How is it with you today? It is rather Cold, sir!-, This caricature is similar in content to the prints from the series, "Life in Philadelphia" (London Set), and has been catalogued as part of the series., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Kensett, Thomas, 1786-1829, engraver
Date: [ca. 1820-ca. 1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9720]

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