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Title: Revd. Richard Allen Bishop of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of the U.S
Description: Half-length portrait of abolitionist and first African American bishop, Richard Allen. Allen, born enslaved in Philadelphia, founded and was ordained the first bishop of the denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1816. Allen, attired in a white tie, a black waistcoat, and a black jacket, faces slightly right., Title from item., Probably drawn on stone by deaf and mute Philadelphia lithographer Albert Newsam., Purchase 2001., 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. 1850]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department portrait prints - Allen [P.9968]

Title: Rev. Francis Burns Missionary bishop of the M.E. Church in Western Africa
Description: Bust-length portrait of the African American deacon and missionary bishop to Liberia. Burns, attired in a white collared shirt, a white bowtie, a black waistcoat, and a black jacket, sits slightly facing right. The African coastline, depicting buildings on the shoreline and boats in the water, is visible in the background., Title from item., Published in The Ladies repository (March 1859), frontispiece., See biography of sitter in The Ladies repository (March 1859), p. 129-132., Accessioned 1879., 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., Brady produced ambrotypes in his New York studio from 1855 until 1856, ceasing production following a lawsuit over the patent.
Creator: Buttre, John Chester, 1821-1893, engraver
Date: [March 1859]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Portrait Prints-B [5017.F.45]

Title: Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church [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 above a missionary preaching to a large group of Native Americans and a converted Black family kneeling and reaching toward the heavens; broken shackles and swords beside them. 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 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., Issued to Eliza J. Hamilton on April 7th, 1846. Signed by John Whitman, President and Saml. Sappington, Secretary., Gift of David Doret, 2009., See variant *Philadelphia Certificates - Organizations - M [P.P.2004.46.1]., 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., Access points revised 2021., Description revised 2021.
Creator: Sartain, John, 1808-1897, engraver
Date: [ca. 1835]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Philadelphia Certificates - Organizations - M [P.2009.26.1]

Title: Historical The plan for the organization of the Sunday School Union of the African Methodist Episcopal Church was presented by Rev. C. S. Smith to the Council of Bishops at their annual meeting in Cape May, N. J. August 11, 1882. The bishops approved of the plan, and the Rev. C. S. Smith was appointed corresponding secretary. At the General Conference, which met in Baltimore, MD. May, 1884, the Union was adopted as one of the general departments of the church, and the Rev. C. S. Smith was unanimously elected corresponding secretary of the same. The building now owned and occupied by the Union was purchased February 28, 1888, at a cost of $9,000. The building is situated on the north side of the public square in the city of Nashville, Tenn., and is a handsome five story structure with a solid stone front. The printing department was organized February, 1889, and is known as the publishing house of the A. M. E. Sunday School union. The first book ever issued by a Colored publishing house in the history of the world was issued by the Union, September, 1890, with the title, "Poor Ben." The first Children's Day to be observed in the A. M. E. Church took place on the 4th Sunday in October, 1882
Description: Print commemorating the ten year anniversary of the Sunday School Union containing half-length portraits of the president, and founder of the Sunday School Union, and three-quarter length portraits of the four regional queens of Children's Day 1891. Shows Bishop D[aniel] A. Payne D.D. L. L. D. President of A. M. E. Sunday School Union, an avid proponent of higher education for African Americans; Rev. C[harles] S. Smith. Founder of the A.M.E. Sunday School Union and organizer of Children's Day; Miss Amelia Boddy, Philadelphia, Pa. Eastern Queen; Miss Ida Jenkins, Independence Mo. Western Queen; Miss Mamie Pettiford, Franklin, Ind. Northern Queen.; and Miss Minnie Mabrey, Vicksburg, Miss. Southern Queen. The young women wear crowns, sashes, and flowers and hold scepters. Also contains a central vignette showing the exterior of the publishing house and a border comprised of flowers, ferns, and greenery. Children's Day was devoted to the interest of the children in the church, and included donations, special programs, and exercises such as original poetry, hymns, and African American history lessons., Title from item., Accompanied by original mailer tube containing label printed: Lithograph. Handle with Care. From the A. M. E. Sunday School Union Publishing House, Nashville, Tenn. *albums (flat) [P.2006.27b], Purchase 2006., 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: A. M. E. Sunday School Union
Date: 1891
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Religion [P.2006.27a]

Title: Bishops of the A.M.E. Church
Description: Commemorative print commissioned by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in commemoration of the nation's centennial and the church's 160th anniversary. Contains a central portrait of First Bishop Richard Allen surrounded by portraits of ten church bishops and six titled vignettes depicting important events, sites, and symbols in the history of the church. Bishops portrayed are: Morris Brown; William Paul Quinn; Daniel A. Payne; Jabez A. Campbell; Thomas M.D. Ward; John M. Brown; James A. Shorter; Alexander W. Wayman; Willis Nazrey; and Edward Waters. Vignettes depict: Wilberforce University, one of the first African American colleges in the United States founded in Ohio in 1856; an image of the "Old Chart", the Bible; interior scene of a young African American preacher, possibly Richard Allen, before his small congregation near a hearth and anvil from the "Early days of African Methodism"; exterior view of the "Payne Institute," Bishop Payne's log cabin school for African Americans in South Carolina declared illegal by the state in 1835; a marinescape with a group of people welcoming the "First missionaries to Port-Au-Prince Hayti, Rev. Scipio Beans and Richard Robinson, 1824"; and an 1876 exterior view of the "Book Depository A.M.E. Church" in Philadelphia., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Copyright John H.W. Burley, Washington, D.C. 1876., Framed., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1996, p. 36., 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., Gift of Roger Stoddard in honor of Edwin Wolf 2nd, 1996.
Date: 1876
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Framed graphics [P.9508]

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: The Rev. Richard Allen, Bishop of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, in the U. States
Description: Half-length portrait of the African American bishop, seated, and holding the Holy Bible upright in his lap with his right hand. Allen is depicted with gray curly hair and is attired in a shirt with a high neck collar, a vest, and a jacket. A geometric border frames the portrait. Allen, born into slavery in Philadelphia, founded and was ordained the first bishop of the denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1816., Original painting attributed to Raphaelle Peale., Title from item., 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., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Purchase 2006.
Creator: Boyd, John, engraver
Date: cDecember 8th, 1823, December 10th, 1823
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *portrait prints - A [P.2006.29]

Title: Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Philada Founded in 1794 by the Revd. Richard Allen, Bishop of the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. Rebuilt in 1805
Description: Exterior view of the rough cast second edifice of the African American church at 125 South 6th Street. Pedestrians and church attendees, predominately women, stroll the sidewalk and enter the house of worship adorned with a simple stone tablet inscribed, "Bethel Church." Known as "Mother Bethel," the church was formed from African American congregants discriminated against by the Methodist Episcopal Church. The 1805 building, the site of the first convention of the Unified African Methodist Episcopal Church, stood until 1841 when a third building was erected on the site., Title from item., Kennedy and Lucas, operated by David Kennedy and William B. Lucas, printed the city's first commercial lithographs, a series of church subjects drawn by W.L. Breton, probably including "Mother Bethel.", Philadelphia on Stone, POS 39, Wainwright retrospective conversion project, edited., Description revised 2021., Accessioned 1965., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Breton, William L., artist
Date: July 1829
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department W26 [7500.F]

Title: Brown St. above 4th, north side three doors west of Fourth
Description: View of the Zoar Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest African American congregation within the organized structure of United Methodism, founded in 1794. The church, with a for sale sign, stands between a livery stable and C.W. Kramer's light carriage and wagon factory. Pedestrians, including African Americans, stand on the sidewalk. Contains two boxes of text below and above the image inscribed: "Zoar M.E. Church, Founded 1791, Rebuilt 1838" and "This church propt. for sale. Lot 50 x 190. Apply to F. Snyder, N.W. Cor. 5th & Green." The church relocated to Melon Street, near Twelfth Street., Title from item., Commissioned by Philadelphia antiquarian Ferdinand Dreer., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1975, p. 6-11., Purchase 1975., 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: Evans, B. R. (Benjamin Ridgway), 1834-1891, artist
Date: 1884
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Evans watercolors [P.2298.138], http://www.brynmawr.edu/iconog/evans/files/plc138.html

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: 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: Rev. Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in the United States of America, 1779
Description: Half-length portrait of the African American bishop, seated, and holding a book, possibly the Bible, in front of a curtain. He looks slightly to the left and points to an open page of the book with his right hand and clasps the upper edge of the other side of the book with his left hand. Allen is attired in a collared shirt, a vest, and a jacket. Allen was the first African American bishop as well as founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was born in Philadelphia and was enslaved by Benjamin Chew. He worked as a wood-cutter during his ordination. A full-length portrait of the white Quaker abolitionist and little person Benjamin Lay is on the verso. Lay is attired in a tricorn hat, a long shirt and jacket, britches, and boots. He holds a cane and book in his right hand., Manuscript note on border: "The curiosity of the portrait below is that it was made for the first Black Bishop in the UStates and perhaps the world! He is indeed a self created Bishop; nevertheless, as such he has now, in his 65 years, in 1824, probably created 100 ministers, by his ordination! He was born & bred in Philada. He was originally a slave of Benjn Chew's Esqre & learnd the trade of a Shoemaker; & like St. Paul, 'labored with his own hands,' while he ordained-", Title from item., Date form item., In John Fanning Watson's Extra-illustrated autograph manuscript of "Annals of Philadelphia", p. 276., Gift of John F Watson, June 1830., 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: 1813
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Watson's Annals manuscript [Yi2 1069.F.276]

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