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Title: Wootten's excelsior stove lustre or pure black lead Prepared by John Wootten, Jr. No. 94 Spruce St. Wholesale Depot, no. 13 North Third Street Phila
Description: Racist advertisement promoting Wootten’s Excelsior Stove Lustre and depicting an African American man, portrayed in caricature, polishing a stove. Shows the African American man servant, barefoot and attired in a plaid, collared shirt and pants, kneeling before a stove with a brush in his left hand. On the floor in front of him is a glass of water, an open can of polish, and a box labeled, Wootten’s Excelsior Stove Lustre or Pure Black Lead. In the right, a white woman stands wearing her brown hair in a bun and attired in an off-the-shoulder dress with a bow at the chest and lace sleeves. She looks toward the man and asks, “Uncle Tom whose blacking is that you are useing [sic].” He replies in the vernacular, “La Missey don’t you know dat -- dat is Wooten's Lustre." To the left of the woman, a black cat stands on a wooden chair with its back raised and looks at the man. Also visible in the image are plates, bowls, and cups on shelves, another wooden chair, and an open window that has a potted plant on the ledge. John Wootten Jr. (1820-1872) is listed in the 1861 Philadelphia city directory as a blacking maker., Title from item., Date from Poulson inscription on recto: Mar. 28 -59; S. 4 (old no.) Spruce Street., Not in Wainwright., Text printed on recto: For polishing and beautifying stoves, this Lustre stands unrivalled. It may with perfect justice be called The Housekeeper’s Choice; it gives a more brilliant appearance, retains it gloss longer, and requires Fifty per cent less labor than any other preparation in existence, when moistened with a little water, and applied vigorously to iron work of any kind, the effect is truly magical; housekeepers and others are well aware what great labor is requisite, and time expended in the attempt to give a fine polish with many of the lustres sold at the present day – here however both these evils are remedied; a beautiful gloss is obtained in a few minutes, and without scarcely any exertion whatever. Another advantage which this article possesses over all others, is, that it tends to preserve the iron from the deleterious effects of damp and rust, which so often render a stove entirely useless in the course of a few seasons. This Lustre is prepared with great care from the very best lead that can be found in the market, and is entirely free from all those foreign substances which so greatly destroy the efficacy of other articles.", Philadelphia on Stone, POSP 279, Accessioned 1982., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Sinclair, Thomas S., approximately 1805-1881, lithographer
Date: [March 28, 1859]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *BW - Advertisements [P.8729.21]

Title: [Migrating African Americans emancipated from enslavement]
Description: Drawing by Alexander Kitzmiller, a 24-year-old Pennsylvania German, prisoner Number 4780 at Eastern State Penitentiary. Depicts two African American families of freedom seekers emancipated from enslavement, portrayed in racist caricature, migrating on horseback and on foot. In the left, an African American man, barefoot and attired in a yellow hat, a blue collared shirt, and orange and white patterned pants, rides on a mule with his son and daughter. Behind him walking on foot is a boy, attired in a soldier’s cap, a red collared shirt with a red tie, and blue pants with suspenders and the African American mother, attired in a red head kerchief, hoop earrings, a yellow dress, and yellow and black shoes, who holds the arm of her daughter. The young girl, attired in a blue hat and a red and white striped dress, carries a Black doll. In the right, another family walks, including an African American man, attired in a yellow hat, a red and white striped collared shirt with a brown tie, white pants, and black boots, who carries a bundle on a stick; an African American woman, attired in a white head kerchief, hoop earrings, a red dress, and yellow and black shoes, who carries a baby on her shoulder, and a boy, attired in a soldier’s cap, an orange collared shirt, blue pants with suspenders, and brown shoes, who has his hand in his pants pocket. Adaption of Francis B. Schell's illustration, "Arrival at Chicksaw Bayou of the negro slaves of Jefferson Davis, from his plantation on the Mississippi," published in Frank Leslie's Illustrated newspaper on August 8, 1863., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content and tenure dates of S.W. Woodhouse as physician at Eastern State Penitentiary., Manuscript note on verso: Presented to me by a German prisoner in the State Penitentiary of Pennsylvania during my residency there. S.W. Woodhouse, M.D., Woodhouse was a Philadelphia surgeon, naturalist, and pioneer ornithologist who served as resident physician at the Eastern State Penitentiary from 1862 to 1863., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1997, p. 37., Purchase 1997., 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.
Creator: Kitzmiller, Alexander, approximately 1839-, artist
Date: [1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Drawings & Watercolors - Kitzmiller [P.9547]

Title: The game of secession or sketches of the rebellion Our army and navy for ever!
Description: Gameboard containing a serpent-like figure comprised of 135 spaces surrounded by captioned vignettes also used on Civil War envelopes. Pro-Union designs advance the player and anti-secession designs retard the player. Vignettes depict portraits of prominent war figures; views of forts, soldiers, and preparations for battle; Union and Confederate flags; allegorical figures; and satiric and racist depictions of Confederates. Includes President Abraham Lincoln; Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Gen. Winfield Scott, Maj-Gen. George B. McClellan, Comm. S.F. Dupont, Confederate Gen. Beauregard; bombardment of Fort Sumter; Philadelphia Navy Yard; liberty; Columbia; and Confederate soldiers on retreat; riding a enslaved African American man, and protected by bales of cotton. "Directions" to play the game printed in the lower left corner. Flags and shields adorn the borders., Title from item., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of materials related to George McClellan. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., Reproduced in Erika Piola, "For the millions: Civil War stationery for women and children in the McAllister Collection at the Library Company of Philadelphia," The Ephemera journal 13 (2010), [39]., 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: [1862]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC - Games [5793.F.44]

Title: Slavery as it exists in America : Slavery as it exists in England
Description: Racist, anti-abolition print challenging Northern abolitionists' view of slavery by favorably contrasting the living conditions of enslaved African American people in America with that of British industrial workers. First image depicts enslaved men, women, and children playing music, singing, and dancing during a hoe-down while Southerners and Northerners observe and comment about how the false reports to the North about the hardships of slavery will now be rectified. Second image portrays a British cloth factory where several emaciated white factory workers, attired in torn and worn clothes, have gathered, including a woman and her children referring to themselves as slaves; two workers discussing running away to an easier life in the coal mines; and workers commenting on their premature aging. A rotund priest and tax collector observe. Soldiers march in the background. Below the image is a small portrait of the "English Anti-slavery Agitator" George Thompson., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1850 by J. Haven in the clerk's office of the District Court of Mass., Manuscript note on verso: Deposited April 9, 1851, Recorded vol 26. pag, 145., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1967, p. 55., 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., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date: 1850
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1850-6 [P.9675]

Title: The dis-united states. Or the Southern Confederacy
Description: Cartoon mocking the inherent dissension within the newly formed Confederacy depicting the Confederate state leaders as conniving self-opportunists led by the Governor of the first state to secede, South Carolina's Francis Pickens. Pickens, armed with a whip and pistol, is astride the back of an enslaved African American man on all fours, and demands as a "file leader," obedience from Stephen R. Mallory of Florida, William Yancey of Alabama, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, Joseph Brown of Georgia, and an unidentified white man from Louisiana. The Confederates seated upon representations of their state interests (a wrecked hull, bales of cotton, and a barrel of sugar) ignore Pickens and demand acquiescence to their different state needs including coastal control, control of profits from the sale of cotton, and increased bonds and duties as compensation for separating from the Union., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Date of publication supplied by Reilly., Purchase 1964., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War., 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: Currier & Ives
Date: [1861]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1861-6R [6612.F]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. Dark conversation
Description: Circa 1833 racist caricature about the "disagreeableness" of the growing community of middle-class African Americans in Philadelphia. Depicts an African American man greeting an African American man-woman couple on a windy street corner, near the shop of a print dealer and where several fashionably-attired African American men and women are walking and standing. A river is visible below. In the left, the solitary man dressed in equestrian costume, including a white riding hat, green coat, and white ruffled shirt, holds a walking cane and comments about the "Black looking day." He extends a snuff box, with his ungloved left hand, to the man who is a part of the couple. The man, attired in a blue waistcoat and black pants, accepts the box with his ungloved right hand while holding a green umbrella under his left arm. He agrees about the stormy condition and that "De Blacks flying about so make it Petickly Disagreable." His woman partner, stands beside him and with her right hand under the elbow of his extended arm. She is attired in a white bonnet and a white shawl over a pink long-sleeved dress. She also wears white gloves, holds a black purse in her right hand, and her bonnet is adorned with a feather that blows in the breeze. Behind them, the African American men and women on promenade are similarly attired in waistcoats and pants; equestrian costume; and long-sleeved dresses and bonnets. Shadowy depictions of several prints are visible in the print dealer’s large display store window. Also shows in the far right, a river, bridge, and landscape. Figures are portrayed with oversize and exaggerated features and their skin tone is depicted with black hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Charles Hunt was a respected 19th century London engraver and etcher known mostly for his prints of sporting subjects., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Summers, William, artist
Date: [ca. 1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9710.1]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. The new shoes
Description: Racist caricature depicting an African American woman trying on shoes at "Sambo Paley Boots & Shoe Manufacturer." In the left, the woman, seated on a chair, looks down at her slightly raised left foot on which an African American clerk has placed a black slip-on shoe. Her removed yellow shoe rests beside her feet. She is attired in a yellow bonnet adorned with feathers and with a white veil that frames her face like long straight hair, a red puff sleeve dress, and a yellow slip-on shoe. She slightly raises her dress with her left ungloved hand to appear at her shoe and holds a green parasol to the floor with her gloved right hand. A blue and yellow purse hangs from her right wrist. The clerk kneels in front of her and holds her left foot. He is attired in a striped shirt, neck tie, brown vest, brown pantaloons, white stocking and red slipper shoes. The woman states the shoe "is sich a bery dirty color" and does he not have any white or pink ones. The clerk replies that it may not be "handsome" to look at, but surely a "good color to wear." In the background, an African American man, attired in shirt sleeves and an apron, possibly the bootmaker, shines a boot behind a counter and in front of a row of boots and shoes on a cabinet. A brush and can of boot black rest on the counter. A sign reading “Sambo Paley Boots & Shoe Manufacturer. The Best Jet Blacking Sold Here" hangs above the man’s head. In the far left, shoes hang inside the store’s window and visible through the shop’s doorway, a well-dressed African American man and woman walk past in the street. The man wears a top hat and waistcoat and the woman wears a yellow bonnet and puff sleeve dress. Scene also shows pairs of boots resting on the floor across from the kneeling clerk in the right. Figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features and their skin tone is depicted in black hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Inscribed: No. 3., P.2016.45.1 trimmed., Charles Hunt was a respected 19th century London engraver and etcher known primarily for his prints of sporting subjects., P.2016.45.1 gift of Dr. Richard Dunn & Dr. Mary Maples Dunn., Digital image depicted is P.9710.3., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Summers, William, artist
Date: [ca. 1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9710.3 & P.2016.45.1]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. A crier extraordinary
Description: Racist caricature of an African American town crier performing his duties in front of a storefront on a busy Philadelphia street. The crier, attired in worn clothing and a yellow straw hat, holds up his bell in his right hand and a sheet of news down with the other. He calls out the upcoming events, including sales of merchandise, a "sarmont on Temperance," and a "Colored Ball at Mrs. Johnsons." His attire includes a blue jacket, striped shirt with patches, a red cravat, white pants with patches, and black shoes. Several spectators listen, including an African American belle, attired in a striped, hooded cape over a dress with floral details; an African American street boy, attired in a worn jacket, vest, and pants and holding a broken mug; a white boy peddler, attired in a smock and boots and with his wares on a tray over his shoulder; and a white shopkeeper holding a cloth work in his hands as his stands in his store's doorway. The peddler boy walks a dog that has torn the crier's copy of the news. Drapery hangs in the store’s display window. African American figures are depicted with oversize and exaggerated features. White figures are depicted with exaggerated features.., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains five lines of dialogue in the vernacular below the image: Sale dis nite_Frying Pans_Grid Irons_Book_Oyster Knives and odder kinds of Medicines_Joe Williams will hab some fresh oysters at his stablishment_by tickler design, Mr. Hewlet will gib Imitations ober again_two or tree damaged Discussion Locks, and Rebd. Mr. P.Q. will deliver a sarmont on Temperance, half past 6 o’Clock precise, dats not all! Widout Money or Price _ de great Bull Phillip will be station at Squire S__s & dats not all nudder! dare will be a perlite & Colored Ball at Mr. Johnsons jus arter dis is bin done”_, Charles Hunt was a respected 19th-century London engraver and etcher known mostly for his prints of sporting subjects., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Summers, William, artist
Date: [ca. 1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9710.11]

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. Grand celebration ob de bobalition ob African slabery
Description: Racist caricature about free African Americans' celebratory response to the abolition of the African slave trade by the United States, an act passed in 1807 that took effect in 1808. Depicts a group of over fifteen well-dressed men sitting and standing and drinking, smoking, and making toasts around a large dinner table. A number of the men raise goblets and/or pipes in the air. Soup tureens are visible on the table. One man, standing, drinks from a rum bottle. In the far right, an attendee, in a wide-brimmed hat, carries away another who is unconscious, his tongue out, and holding a pipe. The men are attired in waistcoats with tails, pants and pantaloons, some striped, vests, and cravats. Some wear their hair in pompadour styles and one man has white hair. The biting toasts address "De Orator ob de day," William Wilberforce, a prominent British abolitionist; William Eustis, Governor of Massachusetts and the disgraced former Secretary of War under Madison; "De Sun" which should shine at night; Joseph Gales, a publisher and secretary of the American Colonization Society who believed that only states had the right to emancipate enslaved persons; "Ning Edwards;" "De Genius ob Merica;" the "White man" who wants to colonize blacks "now he got no furder use for him;" and "De day we Celembrate" and why it did not come sooner. Figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features and their skin tone is depicted in black hand coloring. During the early 19th century, summer celebratory processions commemorating the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade occurred annually in major Northern cities like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains eight bubbles of dialogue in the vernacular within image: De Orator ob de day_When I jus hear him begin he discourse, tink he no great ting, but when he come to end ob um, I tink he like to scorch cat more better dan he took_Moosick_Possum up de Gum tree/Gubner Eustas Cleber old sole as eber wore nee buckle in de shoe_99 cheer and tree quarter/De Sun _Wonder why he no shine in de night putting nigger to dispense ob de candle./De day we Celumbrate! who he no come sooner? Guess de hard fros & de backward spring put um back. 29 pop gun v. 2 grin. White man _ mighty anxious to send nigger, to de place dey stole him from, now he got no furder use for him./De Genius de Merica _ He invent great many curious ting: wonder who just invent eating & drinking. 30 cheer & ober./Joe Gales _ He ax Massa Adams “if he be in health my brudder” and den he cut he guts out./Ning Edwards_ Guess he no great Angs no more nor udder people all he cut such a swell., Inscribed: No. 11., See Lib. Company Annual Report 2003, p. 40-42., Shane White and Graham White's Stylin': African American Expressive Culture... (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), p. 111. (LCP Ii 4, A2880.O)., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Harris, I., engraver
Date: [ca. 1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [7510.F]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. Grand celebration ob de bobalition ob African slabery
Description: Racist caricature about free African Americans' celebratory response to the abolition of the African slave trade by the United States, an act passed in 1807 that took effect in 1808. Depicts a group of over fifteen well-dressed men sitting and standing and drinking, smoking, and making toasts around a large dinner table. A number of the men raise goblets and/or pipes in the air. Soup tureens are visible on the table. One man, standing, drinks from a rum bottle. In the far right, an attendee, in a wide-brimmed hat, carries away another who is unconscious, his tongue out, and holding a pipe. The men are attired in waistcoats with tails, pants and pantaloons, some striped, vests, and cravats. Some wear their hair in pompadour styles and one man has white hair. The biting toasts address "De Orator ob de day," William Wilberforce, a prominent British abolitionist; William Eustis, Governor of Massachusetts and the disgraced former Secretary of War under Madison; "De Sun" which should shine at night; Joseph Gales, a publisher and secretary of the American Colonization Society who believed that only states had the right to emancipate enslaved persons; "Ning Edwards;" "De Genius ob Merica;" the "White man" who wants to colonize blacks "now he got no furder use for him;" and "De day we Celembrate" and why it did not come sooner. Figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features and their skin tone is depicted in black hand coloring. During the early 19th century, summer celebratory processions commemorating the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade occurred annually in major Northern cities like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains eight bubbles of dialogue in the vernacular within image: De Orator ob de day_When I jus hear him begin he discourse, tink he no great ting, but when he come to end ob um, I tink he like to scorch cat more better dan he took_Moosick_Possum up de Gum tree/Gubner Eustas Cleber old sole as eber wore nee buckle in de shoe_99 cheer and tree quarter/De Sun _Wonder why he no shine in de night putting nigger to dispense ob de candle./De day we Celumbrate! who he no come sooner? Guess de hard fros & de backward spring put um back. 29 pop gun v. 2 grin. White man _ mighty anxious to send nigger, to de place dey stole him from, now he got no furder use for him./De Genius de Merica _ He invent great many curious ting: wonder who just invent eating & drinking. 30 cheer & ober./Joe Gales _ He ax Massa Adams “if he be in health my brudder” and den he cut he guts out./Ning Edwards_ Guess he no great Angs no more nor udder people all he cut such a swell., Inscribed: No. 11., See LCP AR (Annual Report) 2003, p. 40-42., Shane White and Graham White's Stylin': African American Expressive Culture... (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), p. 111. (LCP Ii 4, A2880.O)., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Harris, I., engraver
Date: [ca. 1860]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9713.3]

Title: The Cincinnati platform, or the way to make a new state in 1856
Description: Antislavery cartoon criticizing presidential nominees James Buchanan and John C. Breckenridge's support of pro-slavery forces over freesoilers in the violent political struggle in "Bleeding Kansas" during the Democratic Convention of 1856 in Cincinnati. Depicts a pro-slavery militia, carrying a flag labeled "Kansas and Liberty," that has marshalled a group of shackled, enslaved African American men who wear loin-cloths. Several of them clasp their hands together and look with pleading expressions at the white militiaman, behind them, and who carries a whip in his left hand and drives them forward. They march toward a settlement, which has a "Free Soil and Fremont" flag where homes burn and settlers and cattle lay wounded or dead. In the right is the corpse of an assaulted, white mother, who lies on the ground with her breasts exposed. Her naked, dead baby lies face down over her left arm. In the upper left, Buchanan and Breckenridge, standing in front of seated convention delegates on a platform, oversee the violence and comment about the freesoilers being a curse to the country who would surely leave if forced to work for "10 cents a day.", Title from item., Date inferred from content., Copyright statement printed on recto: Entered in according to act of congress in the Clerk’s Office of the district Court for the Eastern District of Penna. By I. [sic.] Childs., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date: [1856]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1856-10W [5760.F.95]

Title: Specimen sheet Union, patriotic and humorous designs upon envelopes
Description: Advertisement containing twenty-five examples of Civil War envelope vignettes published by King & Baird. Majority of the vignettes include titles and slogans. Designs depict the American flag; liberty, the American eagle; soldiers (including the martyred Colonel Ellsworth); caricatures of Brigadier General Henry A. Wise (former governor of Virginia), Jefferson Davis, and the Southern gentry; a portrait of Washington; an abolitionist scene showing the whipping of an African American man entitled "The persuasive eloquence of the Sunny South"; and a racist caricature of an African American man on all fours carrying a whip and asking in the vernacular, "Whar's Jeff Davis?" Also contains a description of the envelopes and shipping information, as well as the scale of prices ranging from "25 Assorted Envelopes, (25 kinds)" at 25 cents to 1000 at 5 dollars., Title from item., Text printed on recto: Single copies of this sheet will be mailed free of postage, upon receipt of six cents, by King & Baird, Book and Job Printers, 607 Sansom St., Philadelphia., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of miscellaneous Civil War prints. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886 [5786.F.161a]. Accessioned 2002 [P.2002.45]., 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.
Creator: King & Baird
Date: [ca. 1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Civil War [5786.F.161a; P.2002.45]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. Grand celebration ob de bobalition ob African slabery
Description: Racist caricature about free African Americans' celebratory response to the abolition of the African slave trade by the United States, an act passed in 1807 that took effect in 1808. Depicts a group of over fifteen well-dressed men sitting and standing and drinking, smoking, and making toasts around a large dinner table. A number of the men raise goblets and/or pipes in the air. Soup tureens are visible on the table. One man, standing, drinks from a rum bottle. In the far right, an attendee, in a wide-brimmed hat, carries away another who is unconscious, his tongue out, and holding a pipe. The men are attired in waistcoats with tails, pants and pantaloons, some striped, vests, and cravats. Some wear their hair in pompadour styles and one man has white hair. The biting toasts address "De Orator ob de day," William Wilberforce, a prominent British abolitionist; William Eustis, Governor of Massachusetts and the disgraced former Secretary of War under Madison; "De Sun" which should shine at night; Joseph Gales, a publisher and secretary of the American Colonization Society who believed that only states had the right to emancipate enslaved persons; "Ning Edwards;" "De Genius ob Merica;" the "White man" who wants to colonize blacks "now he got no furder use for him;" and "De day we Celembrate" and why it did not come sooner. Figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features and their skin tone is depicted in black hand coloring. During the early 19th century, summer celebratory processions commemorating the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade occurred annually in major Northern cities like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains eight bubbles of dialogue in the vernacular within image: De Orator ob de day_When I jus hear him begin he discourse, tink he no great ting, but when he come to end ob um, I tink he like to scorch cat more better dan he took_Moosick_Possum up de Gum tree/Gubner Eustas Cleber old sole as eber wore nee buckle in de shoe_99 cheer and tree quarter/De Sun _Wonder why he no shine in de night putting nigger to dispense ob de candle./De day we Celumbrate! who he no come sooner? Guess de hard fros & de backward spring put um back. 29 pop gun v. 2 grin. White man _ mighty anxious to send nigger, to de place dey stole him from, now he got no furder use for him./De Genius de Merica _ He invent great many curious ting: wonder who just invent eating & drinking. 30 cheer & ober./Joe Gales _ He ax Massa Adams “if he be in health my brudder” and den he cut he guts out./Ning Edwards_ Guess he no great Angs no more nor udder people all he cut such a swell., P.2016.45.2 trimmed and lacking imprint., See LCP AR (Annual Report) 2003, p. 40-42., Shane White and Graham White's Stylin': African American Expressive Culture... (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), p. 111. (LCP Ii 4, A2880.O)., Digital image shown is P.9709.3., P.2016.45.1 gift of Dr. Richard Dunn & Dr. Mary Maples Dunn., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Harris, I., engraver
Date: [ca. 1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) - publisher - Isaacs, W.H. [P.9709.3 & P.2016.45.2]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. A crier extraordinary
Description: Racist caricature of an African American town crier performing his duties in front of a storefront on a busy Philadelphia street. The crier, attired in worn clothing and a yellow straw hat, holds up his bell in his right hand and the sheet of news down with the other. He calls out the upcoming events, including sales of merchandise, a "sarmont on Temperance," and a "Colored Ball at Mrs. Johnsons." His attire includes a blue jacket, striped shirt with patches, a red cravat, white pants with patches, and black shoes. Several spectators listen, including an African American belle, attired in a striped, hooded cape over a dress with floral details; an African American street boy, attired in a worn jacket, vest, and pants and holding a broken mug; a white boy peddler, attired in a smock and boots and with his wares on a tray over his shoulder; and a white shopkeeper holding a cloth work in his hands as his stands in his store's doorway. The peddler boy walks a dog that has torn the crier's copy of the news. Drapery hangs in the store’s display window. Black figures are depicted with oversize and exaggerated features. White figures are depicted with exaggerated features., Signed W.S. for William Summers in lower right corner., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains five lines of dialogue in the vernacular below the image: Sale dis nite_Frying Pans_Grid Irons_Book_Oyster Knives and odder kinds of Medicines_Joe Williams will hab some fresh oysters at his stablishment_by tickler design, Mr. Hewlet will gib Imitations ober again_two or tree damaged Discussion Locks, and Rebd. Mr. P.Q. will deliver a sarmont on Temperance, half past 6 o’Clock precise, dats not all! Widout Money or Price _ de great Bull Phillip will be station at Squire S__s & dats not all nudder! dare will be a perlite & Colored Ball at Mr. Johnsons jus arter dis is bin done”_, Charles Hunt was a respected 19th century London engraver and etcher known mostly for his prints of sporting subjects., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Purchase 1968.
Creator: Summers, William, artist
Date: [ca. 1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) - publisher - Isaacs, W.H. [7689.F]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. General order!!! Tention!! de whole city ob Philadelphia!! Philadelphia, Uly 14th 1825, 6 month and little more beside
Description: Racist caricature about free African Americans' summer celebratory processions commemorating the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade by the United States, an act that took effect in 1808. Shows a Philadelphia street scene with an African American peddler and an African American shoe shiner. In the left, the peddler, attired in a wide-brimmed hat, waist coat with tails, and pantaloons carries a basket and exclaims, "Philadelphia Uly 14, 1825 & little arter." The shoe shiner, attired in a waistcoat and pants, holds a rack of boots and responds "That is de day ob de grand Celebrahsun." The men stand in profile. Also shows, in the background, two African American boys, attired in jackets and pants, facing the viewer, and one with his hands playfully raised in the air. Also contains several lines of text in vernacular and dialect addressed to "Peter Mink, de Chief Marshal ob de day, he Majesty de President” and “Per order Pompey Peterl, President and Snappo Gripes, Secretary" printed below the image. Text explicates the appropriate attire and manners expected during the celebratory procession, including "two sleebes to dare coat"; "trousaloon be all ob light complexion"; and "de Soulger dat know he duty always hold upun head like Lamb Tail an look savage like Meat Ax." Also details the punishment for "neglec to discomply," including "whip to death"; "fine of 40 shillings"; and placement in "de House of Destruction for Ninety nine years." Figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features and their skin tone is depicted in black hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains two bubbles of dialogue in the vernacular within image: “Philadelphia_ Uly 14 1825_ & little arter”/”That is de day of de grand Celebrashun”, Lib. Company. Annual report, 2003, p. 40-42., See Reilly 1825-1 for variant published in Boston., 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., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Date: [ca. 1835]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (London Set) - publisher - Isaacs, W.H. [P.2004.4]

Title: Arre st of the slave George Kirk
Description: Cartoon portraying the arrest during the New York case of the freedom seeker George Kirk. Kirk, enslaved by Georgia enslaver Charles Chapman had concealed himself on a Savannah brig traveling to New York City. While docked in New York, Kirk was discovered and beaten before being sheltered at the American Anti-Slavery Society office on Nassau Street. He had taken refuge at the office following his being ordered to be returned to Georgia on a legal technicality after having been previously freed by the court. In response, abolitionists including, lawyers Lois Napoleon and John Jay, editor of the "National Anti-Slavery Standard" Sydney Howard Gay, and sugar refinery proprietor Dennis Harris conceived a plan to secure Kirk's freedom through his concealment and transport from the Nassau Street office in a box addressed to abolitionist Rev. Ira Manley in Essex, New York. Kirk was discovered and arrested during the transport. Kirk was later freed through a legal argument presented by Jay. Depicts a horse-drawn dray labeled "D. Harris" on which Kirk, portrayed in racist caricature, is within a crate. Kirk is being pulled by police from the crate. "Tracts" fly out from the wooden box and its cover marked "Rev. Ira Manley, Essex, New York. This side up with Care" has fallen to the side of the dray. Kirk exclaims "Gorra mighty massa you take away my bref! dis child didn't come into de box hisself! de bobalitionists put him in it!!" White police men reach for him and make comments and threats, including smelling "a rat"; shaking "the life out of (Kirk)"; and the "Carman" having a "rather black job." The white carman, his hands on the reins of the horse and looking back, responds "It ain't anything else." Scene also includes a middle-class Black woman holding a parasol and middle-class Black man, who with a monocle to his eye, exclaims "Ponhona. Here's a game!! while standing near a group of white men abolitionists also witnessing the moment. The frowning abolitionists, including possibly Elias Smith, make comments and observations, including about Kirk being again "in the hands of Philistines"; having to take out "another habeus corpus ... at any expense"; and Manley being disappointed in "not receiving his consignment." Elias Smith procured a writ of habeus corpus for Kirk before his first court appearance., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entd according to Act of Congress in the year 1846 by H.R. Robinson, in the Clerk's office of the Distt Court of the U. States, for the southn District of New York., RVCDC, Clay, born in Philadelphia, was a prominent caricaturist, lithographer, and engraver who created the "Life in Philadelphia" series which racistly satirized middle-class African American Philadelphians in the late 1820s and early 1830s.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, artist
Date: 1846
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1846-7W [P.2024.43.1]

Title: Life in New York
Description: Collection of primarily racist social caricatures lampooning the etiquette and conventions of early 19th-century, middle-class New Yorkers, particularly the growing community of free African American persons. Eliciting the heightened racism in the antebellum North, the African American men, women, and children characters are depicted with exaggerated features, wearing boldly-patterned and colored clothes, and speaking in a vernacular to be portrayed and denigrated as illegitimate elite society. Caricatures also address “rules” of courtship, fashion, classism, and a dance lesson. Some caricatures also represent the sexism and ethnic divisions of the era., Influenced by the "Life in Philadelphia" series of 1828-1830, the series consists of at least eight prints published around 1830 by eminent New York lithographer Anthony Imbert. Although often attributed to Edward W. Clay, the different styles of the caricatures imply that the prints were executed by various artists employed by Imbert. The African American caricature, "A Five Points Exclusive," a lithograph published in the early 1830s by John Pendleton, an associate of Imbert, has been included as a part of the series., Serie title from items., Dates inferred from content and names of publishers., Original series contained at least eight prints., LCP holds four of the series. Three are first editions., Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of Jacksonian America (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 93-95. (LCP Print Room Yz, A423.O), 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., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Date: 1830-ca. 1834, bulk 1830
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in New York (New York Set)

Title: Life in New York. My name is Antonio Ceasa de Wilson..."
Description: Racist and sexist caricature exploiting a documented assault case reported as a lampoon in the September 30, 1829 edition of the "Morning Courier and New York Enquirer" about two African American men in an altercation over the intentions and handkerchief of "Miss Minta." In front of the left side of a police station counter attended by seven white men, "Antonio Cesea de Wilson" is being held back by his coat lapel by a white older man. The older man, attired in a waist coat and pantaloons, has a slight frown. Wilson, portrayed with wide, round eyes and a plain expression, and attired in a cravat, shirt, waistcoat, vest, and pants, stands with his feet apart and his left arm outstretched and his hand in a fist as his other arm is pulled back. He explains to the police how he came to the tussle with "Massa Sambo." On the right side of the counter, "Massa Sambo," portrayed with a plain expression, and attired in a ruffled shirt, cravat, waistcoat, and stirrup pants, stands and gestures behind him to Miss Minta." She holds a closed fan up in one hand and a parasol to the ground with the other. She is portrayed with a plain expression and wears her hair in a top knot and is attired in a long-sleeved, double-skirted dress with a check pattern and lace details, stockings, and slip on shoes. She looks in the direction of “Massa Sambo.” He explains that he is the receiver of the handkerchief and her rightful suitor. He has not only received her "witching glance" but has given her several gifts, including a lock of hair. The men, congregated behind the station's counter, include the magistrate recording the testimonies. The men are attired in waistcoats, shirts, and cravats. Many of the men laugh and, in the right, one reads a paper near shelves of ledgers. The African American figures are portrayed with oversize features., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains several lines of dialogue in dialect and the vernacular below the image: My name is Antonio Ceasa de Wilson, I have been paying a visit to Miss Araminta Arabella Tomson in de oyster cellar where she live, Where Massa Sambo come in and say “You have no business here” so I look at Miss Minta and she say I have, and this gentleman and me have a tussle. The handkerchief is not his, but one Miss Minta made a present of to me.”/I can assure you “that Miss Araminta did give me the witching glance, which told me as plain as eye could speak that I was the more welcome visiter, and as to the handkerchief, it is Miss Minta’s, and I have better right to it than this other gentleman, as I have presented to her, a scissor, a timble, and a lock of my hair.”, Anthony Imbert, a New York artist, was a pioneer of American lithography who was also known for his ability as a marine painter., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Canova, Dominico, artist
Date: [ca. 1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in New York (New York Set) [P.9704.1]

Title: Life in New York. "Blakey I say, can't you by the powers of your stame engine..?"
Description: Racist caricature depicting a conversation between a middle-class African American merchant and a working-class Irish man. Depicts the well-dressed man "merchant" of a "Patent Steam" laundry and his well-dressed woman companion being approached by a white Irish man outside the doorway to his “Patent Steam Scouring Establishment. Clothes of all kinds, etc.” He wears a top hat, green waistcoat, a white ruffled shirt and stiff collar, white pants, and black shoes. He holds a walking stick. His companion wears a yellow, wide-brimmed hat adorned with feathers and ribbons, a blue and yellow, long-sleeved dress with lace details, white stockings and slipper shoes. She holds up a monocle toward the Irish man who is in bare feet and attired in worn and torn clothing. He holds a stained and patched waistcoat. The Irish man asks the merchant to "shift" his coat for a new one, as by the appearance of the merchant's coat, he is just the man for whom he has been looking since leaving "Kilarney." The merchant and his companion are "salted" by the notion that they are of the same nature as the "ruffian" and will "larn" him better by telling him to "ply to the office." The African American figures are portrayed with oversized features and their skin tone is depicted in black hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains several lines of dialogue in dialect and the vernacular below the image: What you mean sir! I’m a merchant, I larn you better! cant you rid dat dere Sign, ply to the Office./Aint it too gusting for a lady of quality to be salted so in Street by Ruffians./Blakey I say! Can’t you by the powers of your Stame Engine Shift me this coat for a new one! I trust by the looks of yours youre the very man I have been looking for since I left Kilarney., Inscribed: Pl. 2., Charles Ingrey was a premier London lithographic printer of the 1830s., LCP AR [Annual Report] 1972 p. 60., 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., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Purchase 1972.
Date: [ca. 1831]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in New York (London Set)[8025.F.2]

Title: Life in New York. "Shall I hab the honour of glanting...?"
Description: Racist and sexist caricature depicting two African American dandies attempting to attain a date with "Miss Dinah" who stands between them on a New York street. In the left, "Mr. Sancho", wearing tan pantaloons, a brown waistcoat, a high neck collar, and blue cravat, stands with his left foot pointed, and slightly bows. He holds his top hat in his left, ungloved hand and his removed glove in his right, gloved hand. He asks “Miss Dinah” to "squeze the brupt inbitation" and go to the Battery with him. "Miss Dinah," dressed in a pink gown with puffed sleeves and a lace collar, a wide-brimmed hat with pink and yellow ribbons, feathers, and a veil, as well as gloves, has her head turned to him and informs him that she has a "privyous gagement to Mr. Romio." She also holds a closed fan in her right hand. In the right, "Mr. Romio," dressed in a black top hat, striped, tan trousers, a blue waistcoat, a large pink tie, and with a monocle hanging from his neck, stands slightly bowed, and responds that as he has been standing there for three hours he hopes that she will not break her "gagemen" to him. The figures are portrayed with oversize features and their skin tone is depicted in brown hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains several lines of dialogue in dialect and the vernacular below the image: Shall I hab the honour of glanting you to the battery, this afternoon, Miss Dinah? Hope you’ll squeeze the brupt inbitation/O you allready squeezed, Mr. Sancho, only, I made a privyous gagement to Mr. Romio/hope you not going to break your gagemen, to me, I hab been standing here, for three hours., Anthony Imbert, a New York artist, was a pioneer of American lithography who was also known for his ability as a marine painter., Shane White and Graham White's Stylin': African American Expressive Culture... (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), p. 95. (LCP Ii 4, A2880.O)., 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., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Purchase 1971.
Date: [ca. 1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in New York (New York Set) [7993.F.2]

Title: Life in New York. The rivals
Description: Racist and sexist caricature depicting two African American dandies attempting to attain a date with "Miss Dinah" who stands between them on a New York street. In the left, "Mr. Sancho", wearing light blue pantaloons, a blue waistcoat, a high neck collar, and cravat, stands with his left foot pointed, and slightly bows, He holds his top hat in his left, ungloved hand and his removed glove in his right, gloved hand. He asks “Miss Dinah” to "squeze the brupt inbitation" and go to the Battery with him. "Miss Dinah," dressed in a yellow gown with puffed sleeves and a lace collar, a wide-brimmed hat with ribbons, feathers, and a veil, as well as gloves, has her head turned to him and informs him that she has a "privyous gagement to Mr. Romio." She also holds a closed fan in her right hand. In the right, "Mr. Romio," dressed in a black top hat, white trousers, a green waistcoat, a large blue tie, and with a monocle hanging from his neck, stands slightly bowed, and responds that as he has been standing there for three hours he hopes that she will not break her "gagemen" to him. The figures are portrayed with oversize features and their skin tone is depicted in black hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains several lines of dialogue in dialect and the vernacular below the image: Shall I hab the honour of glanting you to the battery, this afternoon, Miss Dinah? Hope you’ll squeeze the brupt inbitation/O you allready squeezed, Mr. Sancho, only, I made a privyous gagement to Mr. Romio/hope you not going to break your gagemen, to me, I hab been standing here, for three hours., Charles Ingrey was a premier London lithographic printer of the 1830s., Shane White and Graham White's Stylin': African American Expressive Culture...(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), p. 95. (LCP Ii 4, A2880.O)., 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., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Purchase 1968.
Date: [ca. 1831]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in New York (London Set) [7701.F]

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: Handicap race presidential stakes 1844
Description: Satire of the presidential election of 1844 depicting the potential candidates; Whig Henry Clay, and Democrats Martin Van Buren, Lewis Cass, John Calhoun, Richard M. Johnson, and John Tyler on various mounts racing for the White House. Clay riding a racoon leads the pack claiming that no one can overtake him. Van Buren follows riding a fox and holding a weather vane labeled "N" (North) and "S" (South) with the slogans "Free Trade Texas" and "Abolition Oregon" attached. He acknowledges that Lewis Cass is closing in. Cass on his hound gloats that he has finally overtaken the "old fox." Calhoun, positioned fourth, rides a lion with an enslaved African American man and child, portrayed in racist caricature, on his shoulders and bemoans his extra weight. Johnson, on foot and holding a hook, follows Calhoun stating he will "hook on" to whomever gets in. Last is Tyler, who switched political parties, trying to ride the two mounts of the "Loco Foco" (radical Democrats) donkey and the "Whig" horse., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress in year 1844 by J. Childs in the Clerk's Office in the District Court of the Southern District of N.Y., Gift of Mrs. Francis P. Garvan, 1977., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1977, p. 51-52., 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., 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: 1844
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political cartoons - 1844-55W [8366.F.36]

Title: Practical illustration of the fugitive slave law
Description: Antislavery print depicting a fight between Northern abolitionists and supporters of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. In the left, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and an African American man both raise guns to protect an enslaved African American woman who is attired in a head kerchief, earrings, a short-sleeved dress, and shoes. She raises both arms in the air and clutches a handkerchief in her right hand and exclaims “Oh Massa Garrison protect me!!!” Garrison wraps his right arm around her and says, “Don’t be alarmed, Susanna, you’re safe enough.” In the right, the white man mercenary, attired in a top hat with a star on it, who may represent the federal marshals or commissioners authorized by the act (and paid) to apprehend freedom seekers, carries a noose and shackles. He sits astride Secretary of State Daniel Webster, who is on his hands and knees clutching the Constitution and bemoaning, "This, though constitutional, is extremely disagreeable." Behind them a white man, possibly John C. Calhoun, declares "We will give these fellows a touch of Old South Carolina" and carries two volumes labeled "Law and Gospel." Another white man carries a quill and ledger and says "I goes in for Law & Order." In the background, a number of men on both sides fight. A white man lies on the ground on his back. An African American man grabs a white man enslaver by the head and holds a whip while saying “It’s my turn now Old Slave Driver.” A "Temple of Liberty" stands in the background with two flags flying which read, "A day, an hour, of virtuous Liberty is worth an age of Servitude," and "All men are created free and equal.", Title from item., Probable place and date of publication supplied by Reilly., Weitenkampf attributed this cartoon to the New York artist Edward Williams Clay, but Reilly refutes this attribution on the grounds that the draftsmanship, signature, and political opinions are atypical of Clay., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date: [1850 or 1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1851-6 [5760.F.104]

Title: The great presidential race of 1856
Description: Cartoon ridiculing the Democratic and American (Know-Nothings) Party presidential candidates James Buchanan and Millard Fillmore by depicting them in a race to win the election of 1856. Depicts Buchanan having crashed his mount (i.e, running mate John C. Breckenridge depicted as a buck) into a rickety platform marked "Democratic Platform," Slavery," and "Cuba." An enslaved African American man, portrayed with racistly caricaturized features, and wearing shackles on his ankles and worn and torn clothes, shoes, and a hat, stands upon and ridicules the "Democratic Platform." Buchanan angrily replies, "You infernal Black Scoundrel, if it had not been for you and that cursed Slavery Plank that Scared and upset my Buck, I should have won this race certain." Following Buchanan is Fillmore using his running mate Andrew Jackson Donelson, depicted as a goose, as his mount. Fillmore, the American Party candidate, carries a "Know-Nothing" lamp and fears his loss will dissolve the Union. In the distance, the Republican candidate John C. Fremont pulls ahead to the cheers of many of the spectators. Brother Jonathan, (predecessor of Uncle Sam), stands on an observation or judging deck and carries a timer’s watch. Additional spectators include white men belittling Fillmore as "spineless" and a "goose," and a white boy holding a sign inscribed, "We Po'ked Em in 44; We Pierced Em in 52; and We'll 'Buck Em' in 56." He is being hoisted by two African American men, portrayed with racistly caricaturized features, upon the back of a gruff and annoyed-looking, bearded, white man asking him if he's a "Fre'mounter.", Title from item., Artist and publication information supplied by Reilly., Political cartoon Horse sassengers! A free lunch lithographed on recto. (political cartoons - 1858 Hor, P.2275.18b)., Accessioned 1979., 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., Magee was a New York cartoonist and lithographer who eventually established his own lithographic firm in Philadelphia in 1850.
Creator: Magee, John L., artist
Date: [1856]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1858 Hor (verso) [P.2275.18a]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. "Have you any flesh coloured silk stockings...?"
Description: Racist caricature of an African American woman shopping for a pair of "flesh coloured silk stockings" in a hosiery store with a white male sales clerk speaking with a French dialect. Depicts, in the center right, the woman standing at the counter in front of the clerk who holds up a pair of gray-colored stockings from out of a rectangular box. She is attired in a pink floral patterned dress, as well as tall, wide-brimmed pink hat adorned with several flowers, greenery, and a veil and long yellow ribbon, and yellow gloves, earrings, and blue button-up boots. She rests her yellow, flower-patterned purse on the counter and holds up a monocle from the end of her neck fob to inspect the stockings that the clerk declares are of "de first qualite!" Her red parasol rests against the counter. Rows of red, blue, and yellow stockings hang on the wall behind the clerk. The clerk is attired in a blue waistcoat with tails, a yellow vest, red cravat, and white pants. In the right, an African American woman attired in a yellow polka dot dress and tall, wide brimmed yellow hat adorned with ribbons is seen in the doorway of the shop in which multi-colored curtains hang and are pushed to the side. The wheel of a carriage is seen behind the woman. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. The women’s skin tone is depicted with brown hand coloring. The man is depicted with rosy cheeks and brown, curled hair., Title from print., Date from print., Inscribed: Plate XI., Inscribed: Copy Right Secured., Contains five lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect above the image: Have you any flesh coloured silk stockings, young man? Oui Madame! here is von pair of de first qualité!, RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher
Date: May 1829
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [P.2004.39.1]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. "How you like de new fashion shirt...?"
Description: Racist caricature ridiculing the 1829 male fashion fad of striped shirts depicting an African American man-woman couple discussing the "new fashion shirt" that he is wearing. In the right, the man stands slightly turned and hands on hips. He is attired in a brown waistcoat with tails, a red vest, a blue-striped shirt, black cravat, tan pants, yellow gloves, black shoes, and a neck fob. He holds a black top hat in his left hand. In the left, "Miss Florinda," stands, forward facing, and holding a fan near the right side of her face. She wears a red and yellow headpiece over her hair that is in a top knot. She is attired in a yellow calf-length, cap sleeved dress with floral details, red and white trim, and décolleté neckline; white opera gloves; ankle-laced slippers; flower-detailed stockings; and jewelry, including earrings, necklace, and bracelets. She holds a handkerchief in her left hand and states that she finds the fashion elegant and how his wearing it within the "Abolition siety" will make him look like "Pluto de God of War!" They stand on a patch of grass. In classical mythology, Pluto is also the god of the underworld and wealth. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. Their skin tone is depicted with brown hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content., After the work of Edward W. Clay., Plate 9 of the original series published in Philadelphia., Contains seven lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect above the image: How you like de new fashion shirt, Miss Florinda? I tink dey mighty elegum_ I see you on New year day when you carry de colour in de Abolition ‘siety -You look just like Pluto de God of War!, LCP exhibit catalogue: Made in America p. 29., Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist in Jacksonian America (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 88-89. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Imbert, Anthony, 1794 or 5-1834
Date: [ca. 1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (New York Set) [P.2004.39.2]

Title: [Specimens album]
Description: Scrapbook of print specimens and proofs probably compiled by a printer associated with the Philadelphia lithographic firm Stein & Jones. Contains book and periodical plates and illustrations; sheet music covers; proof prints; collecting cards; trade cards (several glossed); bank notes, checks, billheads, and receipts; certificates; advertising calendars; and chromolithographed labels and scraps. Majority of contents include several plates from Thomas Allom's "China: In a Series of Views,..." (London, 1860), Albert Barnes's "Scenes and Incidents in the Life of the Apostle Paul" (Philadelphia, 1869), John Fleetwood's "The life of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (Philadelphia, 1871) and Daniel March's "Our Father's House , or The Unwritten Word" (Philadelphia, 1871); illustrations and plates depicting genre, religious, sentimental, historical, natural history, scientific, and scenic views from children and gift books, and periodicals, including "Leila in England" and "Leila at Home" (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1875-1880), "Peterson's Magazine" (plates engraved by Illman Brothers), "Ladies Companion," "Graham's Magazine," "Odd Fellow's Casket," "Transactions and Proceedings of American Entomological Society" and "Annals Lyceum of Natural History"; and several works printed by Stein & Jones and Cincinnati lithographers Klauprech & Menzel and Ehrgott & Fobriger, including trade cards, labels, tickets, invitations, certificates, receipts, checks, bank notes, sheet music covers, advertisements, and book illustrations., Bank notes, receipts, checks, and certificates document primarily Philadelphia and New York bank, coal, oil, steel, and real estate businesses, including Bank of Fashion, Belmont Petroleum Refinery, and Union College Bank. Trade cards, tickets, invitations, and labels represent primarily Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York, Cincinnati and Chicago businesses and organizations, including printers and art supply dealers; perfume, patent medicine, wine, dry goods, and clothing dealers; doctors and dentists; bankers and brokers; and manufacturers. The materials contain patriotic, agricultural, and transportation vignettes, views of buildings, anaglyptography (i.e., medal engraving), allegorical figures, and Centennial Exhibition (1876) imagery. Sheet music covers, predominantly printed by Ehrgott & Fobriger, depict mainly genre and Civil War scenes, portraiture, including images of entertainers, and advertisements such as "Sewing Machine Polka." Work by the Cincinnati lithographers also include several book illustrations depicting Ohio and Cincinnati asylums, institutes, seminaries, and landmarks, as well as uncut sheets of views of cemetery monuments for "The Cincinnati Cemetery of Spring Grove..." (Cincinnati, 1862). Several of the ephemera also printed by Grattan & Co., Theodore Leonhardt, and Wm. F. Murphy & Sons., Scrapbook also contains 1860s Berlin wool work patterns ("Peterson’s Ladies National Magazine"); ornate border print specimens, some with cut-out overlays; proofs and final states of textile, fruit, liquor, druggist labels, and tobacco labels printed predominantly by Stern, Jonas & Co. and Steng & Paxson and depicting romantic, patriotic, and mystical themes, including "I Am Free" logo illustrated with an African American man ; European prints, including plates from Bernard-Romain Julien "Cours Elementaire," and issued by German publisher A.H. Payne (some hand-colored); ca. 1855 Bowen & Co. plates of birds from "United States Pacific Rail Road Expedition and Survey"; color printed and numbered proof lithographs depicting Mo-Hon-Go; Shar- I-Tar-Ish; Se-Quo-Yah after plates in McKenney & Hall's "History of the Indian Tribes of North America"; Philadelphia Sketch Club signage; portraits of Catholic bishops, celebrity and political figures, and lithographers Rudolph Stein and Alfred Jones; mechanical views printed by William Boell; job printing specimen vignettes depicting masonic, military, allegorical, and patriotic imagery, transportation views, women, entertainers, agriculture, buildings, animals, and machinery; collecting cards showing George and Martha Washington, Civil War generals, celebrities, including Lydia Thompson and Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosasea, wild life, Biblical animals, fashion, and satiric scenes; and chromolithographic scrap portraits of women., Stamped on spine: Specimens., Various artists, engravers, lithographers, and printers including Ackerman; John Alexander; Thomas Allom; William Boell; John T. Bowen,; Bowen & Co.; Byram & Slack; C. E. Wemple & Co.; Donaldson Brothers ; G. Dow; Ehrgott & Fobriger; Dominque Fabronius; Grattan & Co.; The Hatch Lith. Co.; Otto Knirsch; L. H. Bradford & Co.; Klauprech & Menzel; Theodore Leonhardt; London Printing and Publishing Company; McLaughlin Bros.; Antoine [Maurin?]; A.H. Payne; Prang & Co.; Rawdon, Wright & Hatch; William H. Rease; Sarony & Major; John Sartain; Samuel Sartain; R. Trembley; J. Shobe; Steng & Paxson; Stern, Jonas & Co.; A. B. Walter; and Wm. F. Murphy & Sons., Index of general subjects illustrated available at repository., Several items found loose in album removed and housed separately., 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. 1852-ca. 1876]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *albums (flat) [P.9349], https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/digitool%3A120747?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=a3bf36a0044447b21c5b&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=0&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=0#page/3/mode/1up

Title: Mason's challenge blacking. James S. Mason & Co., nos. 138 & 140 North Front Street, Philadelphia
Description: Advertisement depicting a "shoe blacking" competition between two African American shoe shiners to promote the manufactory of blacking established in 1832 by James S. Mason. Shows two African American men, portrayed in racist caricature, holding a brush, a canister of "Mason's" blacking, and a boot, while they dance on a table. An African American man fiddler sits on a stool and plays. In the foreground, a white man holds an oversized boot. A white shoe shine boy, his pack on his back, stands behind an older man holding his arm as he points at his reflection in the boot. In the left background, a troop of white Union soldiers marches in behind a parade marshal adorned in "M" insignias. The men carry a banner reading "Mason's (Original) Challenge Blacking (Philadelphia)," as well as boots, and signs spelling "M-A-S-O-N." In the right background, a crowd of spectators, including figures likely representing Germany, the Ottoman Empire, Britain, and possibly France, stand and watch the competition attentively. Scene also includes boxes of Mason's Challenge Blacking. Following the death of Mason in 1888, his son Richard assumed the business which was in operation into the 20th century., Title from item., Date inferred from directory listings for the artist and engravers., Attributed by cataloger to Francis H. Schell, but possibly by Frederick B. Schell., 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.
Creator: Schell, Francis H., 1834-1909, artist
Date: [ca. 1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Ph Pr - 11x14 - Advertisements - M [P.2013.51]

Title: The great Republican reform party, calling on their candidate
Description: Cartoon lampooning the Republican Party's constituency of radicals and reformers who supported the first Republican presidential candidate, John C. Frémont, in 1856. In the right, Frémont receives his eclectic array of supporters and promises "You shall all have what you desire--and be sure that the glorious principles of popery, Fourier, ism, free love, womans rights, the Maine law, and above all the equality of our colored brethren, shall be maintained, if I get into the Presidential chair." In the left is a white man puritanical reformer calling for the prohibition of tobacco, meat, and alcohol; a white woman suffragist attired in bloomers, smoking a cigarette, and carrying a riding whip; a white man socialist, attired in worn and torn clothing and wanting “an equal division of property”; an older, white woman libertarian espousing free-love as a "Freemounter"; a white, Catholic priest promoting the Pope; and a racist caricature of an African American man, attired in a white collared, ruffled shirt, a black jacket with tails, black pants, and black shoes, carrying a cane who comments in the vernacular, "De poppylation ob color comes in first--arter dat, you may do wot you pleases.", Title from item., Artist and publication information supplied by Weitenkampf., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Maurer was a French-born painter and lithographer who worked for several years with the New York lithographic firm, Currier & Ives.
Creator: Maurer, Louis, 1832-1932, artist
Date: [1856]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1856-22 [5760.F.100]

Title: Not a drum was heard nor a funeral note as his corpse to the ramparts we hurried -- : Not a loco discharged his farewell shot o'er the ditch where our hero we buried
Description: Cartoon of a funeral procession portraying the erosion of Democratic support for presidential hopeful Martin Van Buren, the "Kinderhook Fox," during the election of 1844. Depicts President Tyler, instrumental in Van Buren's defeat, stating, "Thus do all our hopes end in Clay," as he steers a funeral cart carrying Van Buren, depicted as a dead fox; his son, poet Robert Tyler; and a bale of cabbages. The cart is pulled by Andrew Jackson, depicted as an old nag boasting about his part in Van Buren's death. Following the cart are the devil sobbing and bemoaning that he is Van Buren's only friend and a rotund man in a wide brimmed hat who rings a bell and calls, "Bring out your dead." In the right, two barefooted African American men gravediggers, portrayed in racism caricature and attired in torn and worn clothes, hold shovels as they stand over and comment about the open grave they have dug for Van Buren. "Here comes Pompey, we'll have this Fox earthed at last." A small cabin, with an emaciated white man in the doorway, and labeled "Loco Foco Hall" (Loco Focos were a radical branch of the Democrats who supported Van Buren) stands in the background., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the Year 1844 by James Baille in the Clerk's office of the Dist Court of the Southern District of N. York., Gift of Mrs. Francis P. Garvan, 1977., 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., Bucholzer was a New York cartoonist whose work was published by James Baillie from 1843 until 1847.
Creator: Bucholzer, H., lithographer
Date: 1844
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political cartoons - 1844-17 [8366.F.21]

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: The smokers
Description: Cartoon concerning smoking as a vice depicting a crowd scene where everyone smokes, including women and children. In the foreground, a white man sits on a wooden chair holding a pipe in hand, refers to his "illustrious predecessor," Andrew Jackson. Two white boys light their cigars together. A finely dressed white woman carrying a parasol is horrified and says, "Oh! The monsters, I'm half blinded and suffocated" as she holds her nose. An elegantly dressed African American woman holds her hand to her nose and exclaims, "What a nasty practice, it's enough to make a dog sick." In the right, a white man street peddler carries a tray of plaster busts, including a pipe smoking Jackson. "Jack Downing," cigar in hand, states he picked up the habit in France and that his lighter was made from Jackson's spectacles but thinks a loco-foco (a faction of the Democrats who were named after a type of match) would go quicker. An African American chimney sweep and an African American shoe shiner shake hands with cigars in their mouths. They are portrayed in racist caricature and speak in the vernacular about smoking. "I say Josh, wot you smoke dem long nines for, why don't you smoke Half Spanish like a gen'leman." "Cause I've called in my Shin Plasters, and suspended Specie payments!!", Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress, in the Year 1837, by H.R. Robinson, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the U.S. of the Southern Dist. of New York., Text printed on recto: Tobacco is a stinking weed, It was the Devil sow'd the seed, It drains the purse & fouls the clothes, And makes a chimney of the nose., 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.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, artist
Date: 1837
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1837-25W [5656.F.3]

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. "Dat is bery fine, Mr. Mortimer..."
Description: Racist caricature of an African American couple singing and playing guitar in a parlor. In the right, "Mr Mortimer," stands with his right hand over his heart and with his other holding a sheet of music. He wears mutton chops and is attired in a green coat with tails, red collar, blue bow tie, yellow pants, stockings, black slipper shoes, and yellow gloves. His eyes look up and his mouth is open. He sings a love song while the woman seated in the left plays a guitar decorated with pink ribbons. Her head is turned toward the man and she sits on a bench with a pink cushion. She wears a large yellow bonnet adorned with bows and with ribbons tied into a bow under her chin. She is also attired in a blue dress with long puff sleeves, trim, and a laced bodice, ankle-tied slipper shoes, as well as rings on her fingers. She comments that he sings "con a moor as de Italians say!!" The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. Their skin tone is depicted with black hand coloring. Setting also includes a carpet with a decorative pattern., Title from item., Date inferred from content and name of publisher., Contains eight lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect above the image: Dat is bery fine, Mr. Mortimer, _ you sing quite con a moor, as de Italians say!! “Take away, take away dos rosy lips, “Rich, rich in balmy treasure!_”Turn away, turn away dose eyes o blub, “Less I die wid pleasure!!!”, Inscribed: Plate 12., Inscribed: Copy right secured., Sarah Hart was a Jewish Philadelphia stationer who with her son, Abraham Hart, a future eminent Philadelphia publisher, assumed the publishing of the "Life in Philadelphia" series in 1829. She, alone, reprinted the entire series of 14 prints in 1830., First edition of print described in Daily Chronicle, December 10, 1829, p. 2., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher
Date: [1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [P.9701.4]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. "What you tink of my new poke bonnet...?"
Description: Racist caricature depicting an African American woman trying on a bonnet in the company of her African American companion, "Frederick Augustus." Depicts the woman in profile, in front of a standing mirror tilted toward her, trying on a yellow Dunstable bonnet so large that the side of her face is obscured. Her hand rests on the side of the hat adorned with a pink ribbon. Her reflection is not visible in the mirror. She wears a yellow calico dress with a white collar that covers her shoulders, black gloves, patterned stockings, and blue slipper shoes. She asks "Frederick Augustus" what he thinks. He stands behind her with his arms crossed and looks toward the mirror. He holds a walking stick under his left upper arm. A dog with a muzzle sits behind him. He responds that he does not like the style. He wears a beard and is attired in a top hat, long green overcoat with collar, red-striped pants, white gloves, and black slipper shoes. A white woman sales clerk, wearing a large top-knot hairstyle, watches the woman from behind a counter on which another Dunstable bonnet is displayed. Pink bunting is visible above the clerk’s head. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. Their skin tone is depicted with black hand coloring., Title from item., Date from item., Inscribed: Plate 14., Inscribed: Copy right secured., Contains seven lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect above the image: What you tink of my new poke bonnet Frederick Augustus? I don’t like him no how, case dey hide you lubly face, so you can’t tell one she nigger from anoder., Sarah Hart was a Jewish Philadelphia stationer who with her son, Abraham Hart, a future eminent Philadelphia publisher, assumed the publishing of the "Life in Philadelphia" series in 1829. She, alone, reprinted the entire series of 14 prints in 1830., Described in Pennsylvania Inquirer, 17 June 1830, p. 2 and ‘Life in Philadelphia, No. 14. The Dunstable Bonnet’, Pennsylvania Inquirer, 17 June 1830, p. 3., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher
Date: 1830
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [P.9701.5]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. "How you find yourself dis hot weader Miss Chloe?"
Description: Racist caricature mocking the ambitions of free Blacks depicting, "Mr. Cesar," an African American dandy asking an African American belle how she finds herself in "dis hot weader?" "Miss Chloe," responds that she is doing well, but "aspires too much!" In the left, the man stands and faces the woman, in the right, and whose back is to the viewer. The man is attired in a blue waistcoat with a black collar, a white vest, pink cravat, white pants, gloves, and black slipper shoes. He holds a walking stick perpendicular to the ground in his right hand. The woman is attired in a yellow, puff-sleeved, ankle-length dress and with a pink neckerchief, wide-brimmed yellow hat with a long veil and adorned with several pink flowers and blue ribbon, gloves, and white slipper shoes. She also wears a necklace and earrings. She holds a purse and fan in her left hand and a parasol in her right hand. The man and woman stand on a grassy knoll. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. Their skin tone is depicted with black hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Inscribed: P. 4., After the work of Edward W. Clay., Probably published by Anthony Imbert., Contains three lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: “How you find yourself dis hot weader Miss Chloe?” “Pretty well I tank you Mr. Cesar only I aspire too much!”, RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Acquired in 1968.
Date: [ca. 1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (New York Set) [7770.F.1]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. "Shall I hab de honour to dance de next quadrille...?"
Description: Racist caricature ridiculing the etiquette of attendees of an African American dance ball. Depicts, in the right and in profile, "Mr. Cato," an African American man dressed in a blue coat with tails and a black collar, white pantaloons and stockings, ruffled white shirt, yellow gloves, a gold neck fob, and black slipper shoes bowing with his hat in his hand to invite "Miss Minta" to dance. In the left, "Miss Minta," a curvaceous African American woman, forward facing, her head turned to the right, and dressed in a pink, cap-sleeved gown with an apron detail, a large pink headpiece, white opera gloves, and several pieces of jewelry, including a neck fob, bracelets, armlets, and earrings, declines his invitation because she is already "engaged for de nine next set." She also slightly holds up the lower right corner of her apron with her right hand. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. Their skin tone is depicted with black hand coloring. Scene also includes background imagery depicting other African American men and women ball attendees., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Inscribed: No. 6., Plate 5 of the original series published in Philadelphia., Probably published by Anthony Imbert of New York., Shane White and Graham White's Stylin': African American Expressive Culture... (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), p. 98. (LCP Ii4, A2880.O)., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date: [ca. 1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (New York Set) [7770.F.3]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. "Well brudder what 'fect you tink Morgan's deduction...?"
Description: Racist caricature depicting two African American masons in regalia, shaking hands, and discussing the abduction of William Morgan, a white New York mason who threatened to expose the organization's secrets. In the right, the one mason, a short, rotund man is attired in a long, blue waistcoat, black pants, a masonic apron, a red sash, yellow gloves and black slip on shoes. He holds a top hat in his left hand and shakes with his right. In the left, the other mason, a tall, thin man is attired in a long, brown waistcoat, a red cravat, brown stirrup pants over black shoes, and a masonic apron. He holds a top hat in his left hand and shakes with his right. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. Their skin tone is depicted with brown hand coloring. The men are shown standing on a patch of ground with greenery delineated by brown and green hand-coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Plate 6 of the original series published in Philadelphia., After the work of Edward W. Clay., Probably published by Anthony Imbert., Contains four lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: “Well brudder what ‘fect you tink Morgan’s deduction gwang to hab on our siety of free masons?” “Pon honour I tink he look radder black, fraid we lose de ‘lection in New York!”, Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of the Jacksonian Era. (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 97. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Acquired in 1968.
Date: [ca. 1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (New York Set) [7770.F.4]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. "What de debil you hurrah for General Jackson for?"
Description: Racist caricature of an African American "’ministration man" (supporter of incumbent John Quincy Adams) aggressively chastising an African American boy for his cheers of support for the new President, Andrew Jackson. Depicts, in the left, a man attired in a blue waistcoat, white vest, white cravat, tan pants, and tan slip on shoes holding a switch in his right hand and angrily grabbing the boy who has a frightened look on his face and is barefoot. The boy is dressed in patched tan pants, a tan jacket with an elbow patch, a white vest and a hat made from the pro-Jackson paper "The Mercury." A sword lays beside the boy and a copy of the anti-Jackson paper "Democratic Press" lays in front of the man. In the background, cityscape is visible and a large crowd is seen celebrating Jackson’s election around a flag pole. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. Their skin tone is depicted with black hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Inscribed: Plate 7., The symbol of a key is used in place of the name Clay., Place of publication inferred from location of artist., Contains seven lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: Hurrah! Hurrah for General Jackson!! What de debil you hurrah for General Jackson for ? _ You black nigger!_ I’ll larn you better_I’m a ministration man!!”, Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of the Jacksonian Era (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 97. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher
Date: [ca. 1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [P.9701.7]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. "What de debil you hurrah for General Jackson for?"
Description: Racist caricature of an African American "’ministration man" (supporter of incumbent John Quincy Adams) aggressively chastising an African American boy for his cheers of support for the new President, Andrew Jackson. Depicts, in the left, a man attired in a blue waistcoat, white vest, red cravat, tan pants, and black slip on shoes holding a switch in his right hand and angrily grabbing the boy who has a frightened look on his face and is barefoot. The boy is dressed in patched blue pants, a green jacket with an elbow patch, a red vest and a hat made from the pro-Jackson paper "The Mercury." A sword lays beside the boy and a copy of the anti-Jackson paper "Democratic Press" lays in front of the man. In the background, cityscape is visible and a large crowd is seen celebrating Jackson’s election around a flag pole. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. Their skin tone is depicted with black hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Plate 7 of the original series published in Philadelphia., After the work of Edward W. Clay., Probably published by Anthony Imbert of New York., Contains seven lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: Hurrah! Hurrah for General Jackson!! What de debil you hurrah for General Jackson for ? _ You black nigger!_ I’ll larn you better_I’m a ministration man!!”, Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of the Jacksonian Era (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 97. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Purchase 1968.
Date: [ca. 1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (New York Set) [7770.F.5]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. "How you like de new fashion shirt...?"
Description: Racist caricature ridiculing the 1829 male fashion fad of striped shirts depicting an African American man-woman couple discussing the "new fashion shirt" that he is wearing. In the right, the man stands slightly turned and hands on hips. He is attired in a green waistcoat with tails, a red vest, a blue-striped shirt, black cravat, blue pants, yellow gloves, black shoes, and a neck fob. He holds a black top hat in his left hand. In the left, "Miss Florinda," stands, forward facing, and holding a fan near the right side of her face. She wears a red and green headpiece over her hair that is in a top knot. She is attired in a yellow calf-length, cap sleeved dress with floral details, red trim, and décolleté neckline; white opera gloves; ankle-laced slippers; and jewelry, including earrings, necklace, and bracelets. She holds a handkerchief in her left hand and states that she finds the fashion elegant and how his wearing it within the "Abolition siety" will make him look like "Pluto de God of War!" They stand on a patch of dirt. In classical mythology, Pluto is also the god of the underworld and wealth. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. Their skin tone is depicted with black hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Plate 9 of the series., The symbol of a key is used in place of the name Clay., Name of the artist, faint lower right corner., Contains seven lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect above the image: How you like de new fashion shirt, Miss Florinda? I tink dey mighty elegum_ I see you on New year day when you carry de colour in de Abolition ‘siety -You look just like Pluto de God of War!, LCP exhibit catalogue: Made in America p. 29., Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist in Jacksonian America (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 88-89. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher
Date: [ca. 1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [P.9701.8]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. "Have you any flesh coloured silk stockings...?"
Description: Racist caricature of an African American woman shopping for a pair of "flesh coloured silk stockings" in a hosiery store with a white male sales clerk speaking with a French dialect. Depicts, in the center right, the woman standing at the blue and pink counter in front of the clerk who holds up a pair of gray-colored stockings from out of a rectangular box. She is attired in a pink floral patterned dress, as well as tall, wide-brimmed blue hat adorned with several flowers, greenery, and a veil and long yellow ribbon, yellow gloves, earrings, and blue button-up boots. She rests her blue, flower-patterned purse on the counter and holds up a monocle from the end of her neck fob to inspect the stockings that the clerk declares are of "de first qualite!" Her brown parasol rests against the counter. Rows of stockings, including in the color of blue, hang on the wall behind the clerk. The clerk is attired in a green waistcoat with tails, a yellow vest, red cravat, and white pants. In the right, an African American woman attired in a yellow polka dot dress and tall, wide brimmed hat adorned with blue ribbons is seen in the doorway of the shop in which blue curtains hang and are pushed to the side. The wheel of a carriage is seen behind the woman. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. The women’s skin tone is depicted with black hand coloring. The man is depicted with rosy cheeks and brown, curled hair., Title from print., Date inferred from content., Inscribed: Plate XI., Inscribed: Copy Right Secured., Probably published by Sarah Hart of Philadelphia., Contains five lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect above the image: Have you any flesh coloured silk stockings, young man? Oui Madame! here is von pair of de first qualité!, RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher
Date: [ca. 1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [P.9701.9]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. "Have you any flesh coloured silk stockings...?"
Description: Racist caricature of an African American woman shopping for a pair of "flesh coloured silk stockings" in a hosiery store with a white male sales clerk speaking with a French dialect. Depicts, in the center right, the woman standing at the blue and white counter in front of the clerk who holds up a pair of brown-colored stockings from out of a rectangular box. She is attired in a pink floral patterned dress, as well as tall, wide-brimmed pink hat adorned with several flowers, greenery, and a veil and long yellow ribbon, white gloves, earrings, and tan button-up boots. She rests her white, flower-patterned purse on the counter and holds up a monocle from the end of her neck fob to inspect the stockings that the clerk declares are of "de first qualite!" Her green parasol rests against the counter. Rows of stockings, including in the color of blue and pink, hang on the wall behind the clerk. The clerk is attired in a tan waistcoat with tails, a white vest, purple cravat, and purple pants. In the right, an African American woman attired in a blue polka dot dress and tall, wide brimmed hat adorned with ribbons is seen in the doorway of the shop in which purple and white curtains hang and are pushed to the side. The wheel of a carriage is seen behind the woman. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. The women’s skin tone is depicted with black hand coloring. The man is depicted with dark brown, curled hair., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Plate 11 of the original series published in Philadelphia., After the work of Edward W. Clay., Possibly by New York lithographer Curtis Burr Graham (1814-1890)., Contains five lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect above the image: Have you any flesh coloured silk stockings, young man? Oui Madame! here is von pair of de first qualité!, RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date: [ca. 1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (New York Set) [P.9701.10]

Title: A dead cut
Description: Racist caricature portraying a middle-class African American man-woman couple as snobs who slight a working-class African American man shoeshiner and former acquaintance. Depicts the African American shoeshiner greeting the African American couple who feign ignorance of the man's acquaintance after their return from "de Springs." The laborer, attired in a rumpled top hat, torn overcoat with tails, and patched pants holds his rod of boots in his left hand, and uses his right one to grab the hand of "Cesa." "Cesa," dressed in a flat-top cap, and heavy, long overcoat with handkerchief in the pocket, and plaid pants, looks suspiciously at their joined hands. He holds a walking stick and his companion's parasol in his other hand. He states that the shoeshiner has mistaken his identity (You must be mistaking in de person black man!). His companion, her hand around his elbow, and dressed in a Dunstable bonnet, dark-colored overcoat, and button-down shirtwaist with a collar, agrees. With her hand placed on her hip and holding a purse, she declares, "What does the imperdent nigger mean?" Figures are depicted with oversize and exaggerated features., Title from item., Publication information from duplicate in collection and advertisement in the Philadelphia Inquirer, December 30, 1829, p. 3. Advertised as entitled "A Dead Cut, or an attempt to slight old Acquaintance.", Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American political caricaturist of the Jacksonian Era (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 80-81. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)., 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. She also published complementary in subject lithographs after the work of Clay during the same period., Described in the Daily Chronicle, December 26, 1829, p. 2., Accessioned 1893., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher
Date: [1829]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | PRINT. Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [5656.F.39]

Title: A dead cut
Description: Racist caricature portraying a middle-class African American man-woman couple as snobs who slight a working-class African American man shoeshiner and former acquaintance. Depicts the African American shoeshiner greeting the African American couple who feign ignorance of the man's acquaintance after their return from "de Springs." The laborer, attired in a rumpled top hat, torn overcoat with tails, and patched pants holds his rod of boots in his left hand, and uses his right one to grab the hand of "Cesa." "Cesa," dressed in a flat-top cap, and heavy, long overcoat with handkerchief in the pocket, and plaid pants, looks suspiciously at their joined hands. He holds a walking stick and his companion's parasol in his other hand. He states that the shoeshiner has mistaken his identity (You must be mistaking in de person black man!). His companion, her hand around his elbow, and dressed in a Dunstable bonnet, dark-colored overcoat, and button-down shirtwaist with a collar, agrees. With her hand placed on her hip and holding a purse, she declares, "What does the imperdent nigger mean?" Figures are depicted with oversize and exaggerated features., Title from item., Publication information from duplicate in collection and advertisement in the Philadelphia Inquirer, December 30, 1829, p. 3. Advertised as entitled "A Dead Cut, or an attempt to slight old Acquaintance.", Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American political caricaturist of the Jacksonian Era (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 80-81. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)., 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. She also published complementary in subject lithographs after the work of Clay during the same period., Described in the Daily Chronicle, December 26, 1829, p. 2., Accessioned 1893., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher
Date: [1829]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | PRINT. Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [5656.F.39]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. "What de debil you hurrah for General Jackson for?"
Description: Racist caricature of an African American "’ministration man" (supporter of incumbent John Quincy Adams) aggressively chastising an African American boy for his cheers of support for the new President, Andrew Jackson. Depicts, in the left, a man attired in a blue waistcoat, green vest, red cravat, tan pants, and black slip on shoes holding a switch in his right hand and angrily grabbing the boy who has a frightened look on his face and is barefoot. The boy is dressed in patched blue pants, a blue jacket with an elbow patch, a red vest and a hat made from the pro-Jackson paper "The Mercury." A sword lays beside the boy and a copy of the anti-Jackson paper "Democratic Press" lays in front of the man. In the background, cityscape is visible and a large crowd is seen celebrating Jackson’s election around a flag pole. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. Their skin tone is depicted with brown hand coloring., Title from item., Date from item., Inscribed: Plate 7., Symbol of a key is used in place of the name Clay., Contains seven lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: Hurrah! Hurrah for General Jackson!! What de debil you hurrah for General Jackson for ? _ You black nigger!_ I’ll larn you better_I’m a ministration man!!”, William Simpson was a Philadelphia "fancy store" proprietor who published the first 11 prints of the "Life in Philadelphia" series. He also marketed the series as part of his "Artists' Repository.", Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of the Jacksonian Era (Phd. diss., the University of Michigan, 1980), p. 97. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher
Date: 1828
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [P.8471.3]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. "How you like de Waltz, Mr. Lorenzo?"
Description: Racist caricature ridiculing the social pretentions of attendees of an African American dance ball depicting "Mr. Lorenzo" and his woman dance partner hand in hand as they waltz. In the left, Mr. Lorenzo’s woman partner wears a pink, large, oval-shaped headpiece with several feathers, an ankle-length blue and yellow dress with pink trim, puff sleeves and a pink rope belt with tasseled ends, white gloves, white ankle-tied slipper shoes, and jewelry, including earrings and a necklace. She looks toward her dance partner and points her left foot and has her right perpendicular to it. She asks how he likes the waltz. "Mr. Lorenzo," looks down toward her and responds that he believes the waltz is "for de common people." He is attired in white pantaloons, a green coat with tails, white vest, white shirt with turned up collar, white bow tie, white gloves, white stockings, and black slipper shoes. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. Their skin tone is depicted with brown hand coloring., Title from item., Date from item., Inscribed: Plate 13., Copy right secured., Contains five lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect above the image: How you like de waltz, Mr. Lorenzo? ‘Pon de honour ob a gentleman I tink it vastly indelicate, _ Only fit for de common people!!, S. Hart and Son was a partnership between Sarah and Abraham Hart, Jewish owners of a Philadelphia stationery store who assumed the publishing of the "Life in Philadelphia" series in 1829. She alone reprinted the entire series of 14 prints in 1830., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher
Date: [1829]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [P.9697]

Title: Life in Philadelphia. "How you find yourself dis hot weader Miss Chloe?"
Description: Racist caricature mocking the ambitions of free Blacks depicting, "Mr. Cesar," an African American dandy asking an African American belle how she finds herself in "dis hot weader?" "Miss Chloe," responds that she is doing well, but "aspires too much!" In the left, the man stands and faces the woman, in the right, and whose back is to the viewer. The man is attired in a blue waistcoat with a yellow collar, a white vest, red cravat, red pants, gloves, and black slipper shoes. He holds a walking stick perpendicular to the ground in his right hand and a hat in his left hand. The woman is attired in a yellow, puff-sleeved, ankle-length dress, wide-brimmed green hat with a long veil and adorned with several yellow flowers and red ribbon, gloves, and red slipper shoes. She also wears a hair adornment, earrings, and necklace. She holds a purse and fan in her left hand and a parasol in her right hand. The man and woman stand on a grassy knoll. Clouds are visible in the background. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. Their skin tone is depicted with black hand coloring., Title from item., Date inferred from name of publisher., Inscribed: Plate 4., Contains three lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: “How you find yourself dis hot weader Miss Chloe?” “Pretty well I tank you Mr. Cesar only I aspire too much!”, Sarah Hart was a Jewish Philadelphia stationer who with her son, future eminent Philadelphia publisher, Abraham Hart assumed publication of the "Life in Philadelphia" series in 1829. She, alone, reprinted the entire series of 14 prints in 1830., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher
Date: [1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [P.9698]

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