Blank African American genealogical certificate containing a family tree surrounded by portraits of the first twenty-four U.S. presidents; portraits of prominent African American men and women religious, political, and educational leaders; and eleven vignettes contrasting life in the South of the enslaved versus the free. African American portraits include Frederick Douglass flanked by Washington and Lincoln; Judson W. Lyons, Register of the Treasury; Miss Lucy C. Laney, Founder of the Haines Institute; Booker T. Washington; H.M. Turner, Bishop of the A.M.E. Church; T. Thomas Fortune, editor New York Age; Hon. John M. Langston, diplomat; Madam Sissiretta Jones, performer and singer; Miss Hallie Q. Brown, educator and African American women's rights activist; Prof. Mary V. Cook, Principal of the State University, Louisville, KY; Miss Ida B. Wells, editor and author; Hon. John R. Lynch, U.S. Paymaster and ex-Congressman; Dr. Henry Fitzbutler, founder of the Louisville National Medical College; and L.H. Holsey, Bishop of the C.M.E. Church. Vignettes depicting slavery include the last auction of enslaved people in Savannah; enslaved cotton pickers working the field; enslaved people dancing and playing instruments "as children were taught in the dark days of slavery"; and an enslaved family in front of their “hut.” Contrasting post-emancipation scenes include a view of Tuskegee Institute; a view of "progressive farming as taught at Tuskegee Institute"; a group portrait in front of a "school house erected by a Tuskegee graduate"; the Victorian house of R.R. Church, a free man; and Spanish-American War battle scenes of African American regiments assisting the Rough Riders, including at San Juan Hill. Also contains the white eye of Providence below the title., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1899, by J.M. Vickroy, Terre Haute, Ind., Printed on recto: Branch Office Terre Haute, Ind., Purchase 2002., 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., Vickroy, a prominent Indiana fine arts publisher, specialized in genealogical and fraternal order certificates.
Date
1899
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC - African American Heroes [P.2002.16]
