Search results

Title: [Honeysuckle]
Description: Depicts a stem of honeysuckle., Title supplied by cataloger., Name of artist from manuscript note on verso., Gift of William Woys Weaver, 1995., 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., Douglass, an artist and prominent Quaker member of the Philadelphia African American elite, was best known as an educator and community activist.
Creator: Douglass, S. M. (Sarah Mapps), 1806-1882, artist
Date: [ca. 1845]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Drawings & Watercolors-Douglass [P.9493]

Title: Joyous birthday
Description: Racist, metamorphic birthday card depicting a caricatured portrayal of a Black man taxi driver and a Black man passenger, riding in a taxi. Scene, with the card closed, shows the exterior of a yellow taxi with blue and checkered trims. The passenger and driver, depicted with exaggerated and minstrelized features, including wide eyes and a circular mouth, look out their respective rear and front windows, and toward the viewer. The passenger wears a bowler hat and the driver is in a uniform, including a cap. A suitcase is strapped to the top and a a spare tire is attached to the rear of the vehicle. Scene, with card opened, shows the rear door of the car open and the passenger, attired in a pink plaid suit, seated on a blue car seat, and holding a pot with three flowers on his lap. The trim of the taxi is pink., Title from item., Date deduced from the visual content., Printed in the vernacular on inside front cover: When yo' Birf'day rolls around. May it find yo' Up to Snuff,' And may it bring de best ob joys. Now ain' dat Fare enuf?, Printed on verso: Made in U.S.A., Manuscript note on verso: Hoping you have many more Happy and Joyous Birthdays to come. Ruth., RVCDC, Gift of James Hill.
Date: [ca. 1935]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department ephemera - Cards - Birthday [P.2021.26.2]

Title: Game of Dr. Busby
Description: Early edition of the popular matching and memory card game designed by Ann Abbot and composed of four suits of five cards (Busby, Doll, Mr. Ninny-Come-Twitch, and Gardener). Suits are denoted with a different pictorial detail in the upper right corner: a mortar and pestle; pan of milk; an eye; and a spade. Suit of mortar and pestle cards depict “Dr. Busby” attired in a top hat, blue jacket with tails, and yellow pantaloons while standing with a walking stick and a bottle of medicine in his left hand in front of the corner of the “Busby Medicine's Drug" storefront with large display windows; “his Wife” attired in a long-sleeved red dress with yellow neckerchief and yellow cap while seated and embroidering; his “Son” wearing a mustache, a blue, cinched blouse, black pants, and a mortarboard, and standing with a walking stick in front a seminary-like building in the distant background; his female “Servant” wearing her hair in a low bun, a blue, deep neck dress with the sleeves pushed up, and a red apron while ironing a shirt next to a basket of laundry on a table; and “Doll, the dairy-maid’s black-eyed Lover” attired in a long-sleeved white shirt, red neckerchief, apron, and blue pants and standing, arms crossed, in front of a broom, wheel barrow of hay, and a barn yard in the distance., Suit of pan of milk cards depict “Doll, the dairy-maid,” her head tilted to the side, and attired in a corseted, red dress with half sleeves, a V-neck, and yellow apron while standing with a pail in one hand and the other behind her back near a fence and a milking stool; her “Father," balding, attired in a dark jacket, yellow vest, and blue pantaloons, while seated on a chair with a newspaper in his lap, a mug in one hand and smoking a pipe with the other beside a table with a tablecloth, lit candle, eye glasses, and a book; her “Brother” attired in a white, flouncy blouse with collar and red tie, yellow pants, and a yellow wide-brimmed straw hat and holding a rake in front of mounds of hay; her “Servant,” shown from the back, and attired in a blue sack coat, tan pants, and black wide-brimmed hat, while using a milkmaid’s yoke to carry pails of milk; her “pan of milk” being lapped at by a black cat while on a round table above a pail underneath it., Suit of eye cards depict Mr. Ninny-Come-Twitch attired in a top hat, yellow vest, red cravat, long black coat, and blue trousers with one hand on a walking stick and the other tucked into his coat while standing beside a dog resembling a greyhound; “his Wife,” her long hair on her shoulders and attired in a red, long-sleeved dress with bandeau neckline, and yellow apron while playing a piano from a book of music; his “Son” attired in a school outfit of a yellow short jacket with a white collar and blue pants, and his cap on the ground as he defends himself from a fight with another boy in school attire (red cap, red short jacket, and yellow pants) and with his fists up; his “Servant,” an African American man attired in a top hat, green coat with red collar and cuffs, ruffled white shirt, and tan pants while holding a basket over one arm and a whip in his opposite hand; and “One Eye” colored blue and part of a person’s face., Suit of spade cards depict “the Gardener” attired in a red jacket, yellow vest, and blue pants while holding a hook knife near a ladder and under a grape vine across from his hat on the ground and a fenced pasture in the background; “his Wife” attired in a blue, long-sleeved dress with white ruffled collar, and a yellow bonnet while using her apron to hold a bushel of roses in front of a young girl attired in a red dress with yellow pantaloons and yellow bonnet and holding a rose and basket; his “Son” attired in a red, blousy shirt, apron, blue pants, and wide-brimmed hat while using a hoe; his “Servant” attired in a short blue jacket, yellow vest and tan pants while walking through a fenced pasture and carrying a basket of fruit on his shoulder that hides his face; and his “Spade” resting idle on a stone wall on which a rose bush and other greenery climbs and two potted plants are displayed. "The Improved and Illustrated Game of Dr. Busby" first published in 1843 purportedly sold over 15,000 copies in 18 months. The game has been credited with creating the explosion in popularity of games in America during the 19th century and containing one of the earliest representations of an African American in an American game., Title from label pasted on maroon paper slip case: Gam[e] of Dr. Busby., Paper slip case contains a partially-removed illustrated label printed on green paper. Label depicts a woman ironing, i.e. the illustration on the Busby suit “Servant” card., Date from copyright statement printed on leaf of “Directions” pasted to inside of inner white cradle: Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by W. & S. B. Ives, in the Clerk’s Office of the District court of Massachusetts., "Directions" explicate the suits, "players should sit round a table," and a player is to call upon his right hand neighbors for any card not in his own hand until "he calls for one which his neighbor has not in his hand." Directions also explain the next player needs to "call for those cards which have been called for and obtained by the first" so players must be attentive as "the game is made longer and more complicated by every failure of memory" until its close when the victor has all "four families united in his hand", LCP copy has variant title: Game of Dr. Busby., Purchased with the Davida T. Deutsch African American History Fund., Housed in phase box., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Abbot, Anne W. (Anne Wales), 1808-1908
Date: 1843
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums - Busby [P.2015.28]

Title: [Croft, Wilbur & Co. trade cards]
Description: Series of illustrated trade cards promoting confectioners Croft, Wilbur & Co. and depicting children performing a variety of activities, including two white girls playing tug-of-war over a wrapped piece of candy; and boys and girls eating sweets, including a white boy eating a candy stick while holding his dog on a leash. Also shows flowers; a courting white boy and girl couple sitting on a log; two white boy clowns dancing, playing a drum, and strutting a homemade pitchfork; and a man in Colonial attire popping out of a large cracker or bon-bon and dumping candy to white woman who catches it in her skirt. Racist card depicting an African American boy, portrayed in caricature, and a white girl on a candy stick seesaw. In the left, shows the white girl attired in a large, white bonnet; a yellow dress with red polka dots; a blue and white checked smock; orange stockings; and brown shoes, sitting on a red and white striped candy stick. In the right, the barefooted African American boy, attired in an orange shirt and gray pants, sits on the other side of the candy see saw. The fulcrum is a piece of chocolate. Founded in Philadelphia in 1865 by Samuel Croft and Henry Oscar Wilbur, Croft, Wilbur & Co. divided into H.O. Wilbur & Sons and Croft and Allen in 1884., Title supplied by cataloger., Four prints printed by E. Ketterlinus & Co., Includes two prints [1975.F.120 and 1974.F.141] with advertising text printed on versos., Gift of Emily Phillips, 1883., 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., Digitized.
Date: [ca. 1880]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Croft [1975.F.120; 1975.F.141; 1975.F.145; 1975.F.168; 1975.F.176; 1975.F.178; 1975.F.182a; 1975.F.196; 1975.F.210]

Title: 1888-1889 third supplement to catalogue of electrotypes from A. Blanc, Horticultural Engraver, No. 314 N. Eleventh St. Philada., Pa., U.S.A Registered Cable Address, "Blanc, Philadelphia."
Description: Catalog, including section “New Electros of Vegetables for 1889,” of electrotype specimens for the premier Philadelphia horticultural engraver and lithographer containing images of flowers, plants, fruits, and vegetables. Varieties of flowers, plants, fruits, and vegetables represented include begonias, carnations, chrysanthemums, ferns, pansies, poppies, roses, verbena, corn, melons, lettuces, onions, peppers, pumpkins, squashes, and tomatoes. Illustrations include specimen numbers and prices (ranging from $.50-$10), and most include titles. Images predominantly depict sentimental and genre views of women, children, and animals containing or bordered by flowers; baskets of fruit or flowers; wilderness scenes; insects; single letters and words embellished with floral details; potted plants and flowers; flower bushes; residential views containing flowers; flower and vegetable vignettes; bean pods; single, fields, patches, and bushels of fruits and vegetables; and gardening tools and agricultural implements and equipment., Other specimens depict reproductions of lithographs; female representations of months of the year; “Bulbs grown in Bamboo rod”; a montage, including a crate with packages of bulbs; "Craig’s New Chrysanthemum, Mrs. A. Blanc"; "The Philadelphia Prize Chrysanthemum of 1888"; "Cornfield"; "Insect Destroyers" (i.e., insect destroying insects); and "Odds and Ends" showing bottles of herbs. Also includes a photomechanical studio portrait of an African American boy and girl attired in winter coats and hats, a racist metamorphic montage showing a melon morph into a caricaturized African American figure; and an illustrated advertisement with testimonials promoting W. M. Giradeau’s Seminole Watermelon. Contents also include statements describing the flowers depicted; promoting made to order cuts and the possibility for the addition of text (mortised); noting possible alterations, including “each cut separate” and reductions in price; and indicating "3/4 natural size.", Cover annotated in pencil with date: 1890., Some leaves contain page numbers: 58-134., Cover contains photomechanical illustrations of a studio portrait showing a seated, barefoot girl in simple attire, holding a basket of roses under her arm, and holding a flower to her nose with the other. Attire includes a wide-brimmed hat adorned with several flowers. Grass and flowers rest at her feet. Portrait bordered by a large pictorial detail depicting two stemmed roses. Portrait is specimen 4817 in catalog., Contains promotional text to "Dear Sir" and dated Philadelphia, September 1, 1888 on inside front cover. Text advertises "list of new electrotypes, issued since last year’s supplement … that will enable you to give your catalogue an entirely different appearance" and references how it’s "an important item to the Horticultural trade" and Blanc’s stocks of electros are a “trifling expense” compared to original cuts. Text also explains the deferment of the reprinting of an entirely new catalog due to his addition of a large number of new electros, as well as ordering information including the necessity of a signed order sheet in which purchaser agrees not to sell or loan the electros; ability to make to order any cut for exclusive use; no discounts excepting for orders amounting to over $100; terms strictly cash with order; and cuts ordered to be mailed require a 10% additional fee for postage. Text also advertises "List of My Catalogues," including "Catalogue of Fruit and Tree Cuts"; "Cuts for Catalogue Covers'; "Lawn Views"; and "Sheets of Potato Cuts, Oats, Wheat, Grasses, etc."; their prices of 15 to 20 cents each or $1 for set, which is deductible from orders amounting to $5; and note about "Correspondence en Francais.", Several specimens include Blanc's copyright statement or name., Includes order sheet inscribed with addition equations., Back cover and end pages missing, RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Purchased with funds for the Visual Culture Program., See the Albert Blanc entry in the Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers., See the Edward Stern & Co. entry in the Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers., William M. Giradeau (b. 1852), owner of Girardeau Seed Company in Monticello, Fla., developed the first commercial machine for separating seeds from watermelons, making Jefferson county, the top watermelon seed supplier in the world by 1884.
Creator: Blanc, Albert, 1850-
Date: [1888]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums - Blanc [P.2013.69.2]

Title: [Partridge & Richardson trade cards]
Description: Series of illustrated trade cards and caricatures for Artemus Partridge & Thomas D. Richardson's "bee hive" dress trimmings' store at 17, 19 & 21 North Eighth Street in Philadelphia. Illustrations include various series depicting flowers; men and women couples promenading; bust-length portraits of well-dressed women; children playing and fishing on the beach; frogs and cherubs seated on or near mushrooms holding umbrellas in the rain; and anthropomorphic rabbits jumping rope, one rabbit pulling another on a sleigh with a banner labeled "Rabbit Transit," the sleigh crashing through the ice, and two African American men, portrayed in racist caricature, trying to lure rabbits into a trap. Other imagery includes an anthropomorphic moon smiling down at a boy sitting on the limb of a bare tree with two cats singing from sheet music labeled "Clair de lune"; a portrait of a mother holding her infant; a female cherub picking flowers; a girl picking flowers; a fox standing under a grapevine trellis; three cats in a basket; a girl blindfolding a dog; and a boy fishing in a pond., Title supplied by cataloger., Four prints [1975.F.660-662 & 665] copyrighted 1881 by Chas. Moritz., Printers and engravers include Graf Brothers (Philadelphia), Sunshine Publishing Company (Philadelphia), Wemple & Kronheim (New York), and Craig, Finley & Co. (Philadelphia)., Four prints [1975.F.701-704] signed with the same trademark initials (C.A. or A.C.) and contain French titles, including "Zozor revenant du bain," "Lili pechant la crevette," "Nini prenant sa leçon de natation," and "Petit marin faisant une découverte"., Gift of Emily Phillips, 1883., 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., Digitized., Added to African Americana Digital Collection 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. 1880]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Partridge [various]

Title: [Partridge & Richardson trade cards]
Description: Series of illustrated trade cards and caricatures for Artemus Partridge & Thomas D. Richardson's "bee hive" dress trimmings' store at 17, 19 & 21 North Eighth Street in Philadelphia. Illustrations include various series depicting flowers; men and women couples promenading; bust-length portraits of well-dressed women; children playing and fishing on the beach; frogs and cherubs seated on or near mushrooms holding umbrellas in the rain; and anthropomorphic rabbits jumping rope, one rabbit pulling another on a sleigh with a banner labeled "Rabbit Transit," the sleigh crashing through the ice, and two African American men, portrayed in racist caricature, trying to lure rabbits into a trap. Other imagery includes an anthropomorphic moon smiling down at a boy sitting on the limb of a bare tree with two cats singing from sheet music labeled "Clair de lune"; a portrait of a mother holding her infant; a female cherub picking flowers; a girl picking flowers; a fox standing under a grapevine trellis; three cats in a basket; a girl blindfolding a dog; and a boy fishing in a pond., Title supplied by cataloger., Four prints [1975.F.660-662 & 665] copyrighted 1881 by Chas. Moritz., Printers and engravers include Graf Brothers (Philadelphia), Sunshine Publishing Company (Philadelphia), Wemple & Kronheim (New York), and Craig, Finley & Co. (Philadelphia)., Four prints [1975.F.701-704] signed with the same trademark initials (C.A. or A.C.) and contain French titles, including "Zozor revenant du bain," "Lili pechant la crevette," "Nini prenant sa leçon de natation," and "Petit marin faisant une découverte"., Gift of Emily Phillips, 1883., 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., Digitized., Added to African Americana Digital Collection 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. 1880]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Partridge [various]

Title: [Hunter's handsome drug stores, cor. Pacific & New Jersey Aves., cor. Atlantic & Indiana Aves., Atlantic City, N.J. and cor. Fifteenth and Wharton Sts., Philadelphia]
Description: Series of illustrated trade cards promoting Hunter's Drug Stores, and depicting white boys bowling, a large fish in a pond surrounded by flowers, and men and women laboring outside, including a white man and woman couple fetching water from a well, a white woman standing in a field carrying a staff, and a white woman watering flowers with smiling, human faces in a garden as a cupid figure with wings watches her from the other side of a fence. Two African American men, portrayed in racist caricature, haul large bundles of wheat past a milestone labeled "M. 10." In the left, the barefooted man is attired in a tunic, and in the right, the man is attired in a hat, a tunic, and shoes., Title supplied by cataloger., One print [P.9828.6173] contains advertising text printed on verso promoting the purity, quality and accuracy of Hunter's drugs and lists items available for sale at his drugstores., Date from copyright statement on six prints [P.9828.6175-6180]: Copyright 1882 by Ed. Wolf., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Gift of William Helfand., 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. 1882]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Helfand Patent Medicine Trade Card Collection - Pharmacists - H [P.9828.6173-6180]

Title: [Geo. S. Harris & Sons print specimens]
Description: Series of specimens, primarily for trade cards and labels, printed by the prominent Philadelphia lithographic firm. Subjects include fanciful, allegorical, and sentimental scenes and portraiture with women, children, and flowers; hunting and recreational scenes; international iconography; animals (dogs, horses, and an alligator clutching a Black baby in its jaws); political and military imagery, including President James Garfield; land and marinescapes; and mythological and fairy tale views. Collection also includes specimen without an imprint and probably printed by Harris showing a plantation scene with a white man, attired in a straw hat, a white collared shirt, white pants, and a sword on his waistband, placing his right hand on the shoulder of a barefooted Black man, attired in a straw hat, a white collared shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, and white pants that are torn at the bottom, who carries a hoe. They stand before a body of water surrounded by flowers and trees with the plantation in the background. Racist scene shows a white female angel with wings pouring packages of tobacco from a cornucopia to a group of men and women from various ethnic groups and nationalities, including Native Americans, Chinese, Spanish, and Middle Eastern people, many of which smoke cigars, hookahs, and pipes. Specimen depicting a man, attired in a turban with a dagger in his waistband, kneeling with a rifle beside him. Surrounding him are palms and desert plants. In the right background, a lions stands and looks on., Title supplied by cataloger., Publication date inferred from content of one print depicting President James Garfield., Originally part of Specimens Album [P.9349]., Gift of Margaret Robinson, 1991., 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. 1881]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Specimen Album Loose Prints Collection - Geo. S. Harris [P.9349.279, 283-284, 292, 298-307, 309, 317-318, 321, 328-329, 332, 436-437, 439, 441-442, 447, 451-453 & 455-456]

Main menu