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Title: Certificate of marriage
Description: Marriage certificate illustrated with vignettes within an ornamental border. Depicts vignettes representing peace and love including doves near an altar with an eternal flame, and cherubs floating on clouds, reaping grain, and rowing a gondola., Issued to John A. Jones and Mary Anne Dickerson. Signed by Rev. William Douglass, officiant, and by Samuel Van Brackle and George W. Hopewell, witnesses., Copyright secured., Title from item., Date based on date of the event represented., Purchase 1993., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Croome, Meignelle & Co. was a Philadelphia engraving firm operated by engraver, William Croome, and banknote engraver, James Meignelle in the 1840s.
Creator: Croome, Meignelle & Co., engraver
Date: [ca. 1846]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *albums (flat) [P.9427] - Dickerson Family Collection - Miscellaneous

Title: "The coon" wedding march
Description: Scene showing a young African American girl in a white dress leading the procession of the young African American couple and their attendents. The bride, holds fake flowers and wears a calico shirt, white skirt, and thick cloth veil. Small picture prints and placards written in black dialect adorn the walls., Inscribed on negative: 16974., Copyright by William H. Rau., Stamped on mount: Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Liverpool, Eng. American and Foreign Views., Digitization funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
Creator: Rau, William Herman, 1855-1920, photographer
Date: c1897
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - Rau - Genre [P.9921]

Title: A darktown wedding, the ceremony
Description: Racist depiction of the nuptials of a young African American couple officiated by a white-haired African American man and witnessed by six African American attendants. In the left, the officiant, attired in a suit, holds a paper as he conducts the ceremony. The bride, attired in veil pinned to the back of her hair, a white dress with a large boutonniere of flowers, and white gloves, has her head tilted down and holds the hand of the groom. The groom, attired in a white collared shirt, a waistcoat, a jacket with a large flower boutonniere, pants, and shoes, stands facing left towards the officiant. Two women and three men stand behind the couple and watch the ceremony. One man alters a placard on the wall that reads, “suffer little children to come unto me” by crossing out “me” and writing “us” inverting the “s.” The dilapidated wall with exposed brick is sparsely decorated with another placard, “God bless our home” and a framed picture. A top hat rests on a stool., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Copyright 1901 by C.H. Graves., Publisher's blindstamp on mount., Distributor's blindstamp on mount: The Universal Photo Art Co. Philadelphia, Napierville, Ill., London, Paris, Hamburg., Stamped on mount: 4574., Purchase 2001., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Digitization funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
Date: 1901
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - Graves - Genre [P.9922]

Title: [E]spousal of Esther
Description: Lantern slide formerly owned and probably used in art lessons by Philadelphia painter, photographer, and art teacher, Xanthus Smith. Depicts the proposal of marriage of Persian King Ahasuerus to the Hebrew Esther. In the center, the King stands from his grand, golden throne, attired in a crown and robes, and holds a scepter in his left hand. He reaches his right hand out to Esther, attired in a white dress and veil and a gold necklace and bracelets. Behind her are attendants, one of which holds a parasol over her. A Black woman, attired in a red and gold dress and a gold necklace and earrings, kneels carrying the future Queen’s crown on a red pillow. In the right, women musicians play the harp and drum. Also in the image are several censors of burning incense., Title from partially legible label on mount., Number 21 in "Bible History" series., Gift of Edna Andrade, 1994., 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: [ca. 1875]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Lantern Slides-Smith, Xanthus [P.9471]

Title: Marriage certificate. This certifies that [Washington C. Young/of Philadelphia/state of Pennsylvania] [Amanda L. West/of Goshen/state of New Jersey] were by me united in marriage according to the ordinance of God and the laws of the state of [Pennsylvania] at [Philadelphia] on the 24 day of [May] 188[3]. [Philip L. Sanborn?]/ [Sarah A. Ross]/ [Rev. W.H. Ross officiating minster]
Description: Marriage certificate with gold touches and containing the bust-length, carte-de-visite studio portrait photographs of Washington C. Young and Amanda L. West, who are African American, surrounded by text, pictorial details, and an ornate border. Young's portrait depicts the young man, looking to the left, and attired in a jacket with a notch lapel, a dark-colored tie, and white, straight shirt collar. He also has a mustache and wears his hair short and with a side part. West's portrait depicts the young woman, looking to the right, and attired in a garment with small puffs at the shoulder and a high-collar neckline adorned with a fabric flower. She wears her wavy hair pulled back, parted in the middle and with side bangs. She also wears earrings. Between the portraits are ornaments with text reading, "It Is Not Good That Man Should Be Alone, Gen 2.18" and "I Will Make Him An Help Meet For Him Gen 2.18." The certificate also contains pictorial details of flowers and vinery, a bell, doves, and a banner. The border is composed of scrollwork, floral shapes, and cornice ornaments. At the time of their marriage, Washington C. Young was a clerk. He would continue in this profession throughout his life. Amanda (West) Young worked as a dressmaker by 1910 and was later listed as a housekeeper in census records. The couple had four children, including a daughter who worked as a dressmaker., Title from item., Date of printing inferred from printed and manuscript date., Completed in manuscript to Washington C. Young and Amanda L. West on May 24, 1883. Signed Philip L. [Sanborn?], Sarah A. Ross, and Rev. W.H. Ross, Officiating Minister., RVCDC
Date: [completed 1883, printed ca. 1880]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - Certificates - Marriage [P.2023.59]

Title: [Photographic reproductions of the Cartoon Printing Co. series after the 1878 Harper’s Weekly "Blackville" series “The Twins”]
Description: Photographic reproductions of drawings based on a racist series of African American caricatures originally created for Harper's Weekly in 1878 by Sol Eytinge that satirized the courtship and marriage of and the start of families by "The Twins." The African American figures are depicted with exaggerated features and mannerisms. Includes "No. 1 The Flirtation" showing the "Twins" meeting their suitors; "No. 2 The Introduction" showing the "Twins" being formally introduced to their suitors; "No. 3 The Courting" showing the "Twins" being courted together; "No. 4 The Proposal" showing the "Twins"suitors proposing to them in different manners; "No. 5 The Duel" showing the "Twins" suitors preparing to duel with guns; "No. 6. The Wedding" showing the "Twins" dual wedding; "No. 8 Return from the Honeymoon Tour" showing the "Twin" couples promenading in town; "No. 9 Coming Events" showing the town doctor and the husbands of the "Twins" racing down a dirt road on donkey back; and "No. 10 The Event Or Where '2 Pair is Better Than 4 of a Kind'"showing the arrival of the "Twins" twins., Title supplied by cataloger., Date from copyright statement on four of the original drawings in the series: Copyrighted 1881 John McGreer, Chicago, Ill., Name of artist stamped on versos: McGreer Chicago., Series missing No. 7. The Wedding Feast., Name of publisher inscribed on four of the original drawings in the series (No. 2-3, 6, and 9)., Inscribed on two of the original drawings in the series (No. 2 and 8): Remodeled from sketch in Harpers Weekly or Reproduced from sketch in Harpers Weekly by the Cartoon Printing Co. Chicago., Inscribed on one of the original drawings in the series (No. 3): Reproduced from sketch by Sol Eytinge in Harpers Weekly by the Cartoon Printing Co. Chicago., Purchased with the Davida T. Deutsch African American History Fund., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 2017, p. 52., John McGreer (1833-1905) was a dime museum painter, landscape artist, and cartoonist. He worked in Chicago after 1870 and was a partner in the novelty and satire printing firm Cartoon Printing Co., later Cartoon Publishing Co., by the early 1880s. In 1897, he patented statuettes of African American caricatures for use as cardholders. He resided in New York and was noted as a landscape artist at the time of his death in 1908., See Shawn Michelle Smith, Photography on the Color Line: W. E. B. DuBois, Race, and Visual Culture (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004), 82-86., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: McGreer, John, 1839-1908
Date: 1881
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - 5 x 7 - Unid. - Events [P.2017.26.1-9]

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