[Scene on Atlantic City boardwalk near Lindley's baths.]
Title
[Scene on Atlantic City boardwalk near Lindley's baths]
Description
Scene depicting the busy Atlantic City boardwalk with many promenaders. Several businesses line the boardwalk including a photographic studio, Adams Bath Houses, Lindley's Baths, and Shimamura & Company. Through the glass storefront window at Shimamura & Co., numerous vases and framed works are visible. Men, women, and children promenaders include two African American girls attired in white dresses and hats; three women attired in Japanese kimono carry parasols and one carries a fan; members of a band; and a white boy carrying a sign for "Cleveland's Iron Pier." In the left, a large American flag flies. An observation tower with people is seen in the background. Shingo Shimamura, along with several Japanese partners including Y. Mayebara, and Takemura, opened Shimamura and Co. in 1888 at Tennessee Avenue and the Boardwalk, Atlantic City. The store sold Japanese art and decorative arts. In 1906, Shimamura opened another store at 579 Broadway, New York City., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from attire of the people., Purchase 1989., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date
[ca. 1895]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - unidentified - Cities [P.9260.590]
Philharmonic T[h]eatre, Islington. Every evening at eight. [Sa]turday at three and eight. Sam Hague's Ori[gi]nal Slave Troupe at St. James's Hall, Li[me] Street, Liverpool. Every evening at 8, Saturdays at 3 & 8, all the year round. Positively for four we
Title
Philharmonic T[h]eatre, Islington. Every evening at eight. [Sa]turday at three and eight. Sam Hague's Ori[gi]nal Slave Troupe at St. James's Hall, Li[me] Street, Liverpool. Every evening at 8, Saturdays at 3 & 8, all the year round. Positively for four weeks on[ly] commencing Monday, Feb. 14th. Terminat[ing] [on] March 11 [ ] been re-built since the fire), St. James Hall, Liverpool, March 13th, 1876
Description
Advertising print depicting a racist scene to promote Sam Hague's Original Slave Troupe after their dislocation from their permanent home theatre, St. James Hall, following a fire in 1875. Shows a rhinoceros, a bell on his tail, pulling a cart on which members of the minstrel troupe, portrayed as Black men and women caricartures, perform. On the head of the animal, a man sits, his legs straight out while he holds the pole of a banner designed as an American flag and that is marked with advertising text for the troupe. On the animal's back, men and a woman stand, play hand instruments, and dance on a raised plank. On the cart, men play string and wind instruments, including a bass and trombone, as well as one man, bare-chested and in boxing pants, holds up an open umbrella, on which another man sits and plays the drum. The men figures are attired in suits and/or shirt sleeves and pants. The woman figure wears a kerchief, long-sleeved shirt, with the sleeves pulled up and apron-like, checkered skirt. Scene also includes blades of grass and a flowering plant in the foreground. Sam Hague's Original Slave Troupe evolved from the Georgia Slave Troupe Minstrels for which Samuel Hague assumed part management in 1866. Within the year, the troupe of formerly enslaved individuals, including singers, comedians, and minstrels, traveled to Great Britain to tour the country. In 1869, Hague acquired St. James Hall in Liverpool as a permanent home for the company, as well as a site to organize touring companies. In 1875, the hall was razed by fire and for the next year, the Troupe performed from other theatres such as Philharmonic Theatre, Islington. By this time, the Troupe was mainly comprised of white performers who performed in Blackface and Hague had managed the Troupe with a few different partners., Blackface minstrelsy is a popular entertainment form, originating in the United States in the mid-19th century and remaining in American life through the 20th century. The form is based around stereotypical and racist portrayals of African Americans, including mocking dialect, parodic lyrics, and the application of Black face paint; all designed to portray African Americans as othered subjects of humor and disrespect. Blackface was a dominant form for theatrical and musical performances for decades, both on stage and in private homes., Title from item., Date inferred from promotional text on item., RVCDC, Description of Blackface minstrelsy from Dorothy Berry, Descriptive Equity and Clarity around Blackface Minstrelsy in H(arvard) T(heater) C(ollection) Collections, 2021., Print torn in half and with sections missing.
Date
[1876]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC - Advertisements - Samuel Hague [P.2022.57.1]
Portrait album of well known 19th-century African American men of Philadelphia
Title
[Portrait album of well-known 19th-century African American men of Philadelphia]
Description
Photograph album containing identified portrait photographs, bust-length, half-length, and full-length, of twenty-one prominent Philadelphia African American men. Named sitters in order of inclusion in album include veteran Harmon Richardson attired in a military uniform; educator and activist Octavius Catto; civil rights activist Edwin Chew (son of John and Charlotte Henson Chew); janitor and later undertaker Guy M. Burton with musician Ed[ward] H. Johnson and Terry V. Hall; musician Joseph G. Anderson; Civil War veteran and waiter Taylor Aldridge; Johnson al-Jube holding a basket; laborer Parker T. Smith; Jeremiah V. Hall; George Hall; waiter William I. Lancaster; barber James Keith; caterer Henry Tobias; Cheslea Bass, barber and partner to James Keith, with caterer Andrew F. Stevens; Edwin Lewis; Jas. H. Williams ae.[sic] Rush; Thomas Proctor; and restauranteur/caterer Ja[me]s B. Page. Musicians Edward Johnson and Joseph G. Anderson were members of Francis Johnson's band in the 1830s and 40s., Title supplied by cataloger from label on spine., Date from content and medium of photographs., Cardboard binding with torn spine label inscribed: Portraits of Well Know[n]. Insides of binding covers include scribbles and a pasted partial scrap of a flower., Photographs are loose or attached to album pages within binding., Sitters, and occasionally their profession, identified by manuscript notes on verso of photograph or album page. Some notes include statement "deceased," including for sitters Harmon Richardson, Edwin Chew, Octavius Catto, Edward H. Johnson, Terry V. Hall, Joseph G. Anderson, Johnson al-Jube, George Hall, James H. Williams, and James Page., Mostly unidentified photographers with identified Philadelphia photographers John L. Gihon and Parlor Gallery., Portrait photograph of Octavius Catto reproduced after a circa 1871 portrait photograph taken by African American Philadelphia photographer Gallo W. Cheston and/or Philadelphia photographers Broadbent & Phillips. See "Amy Cohen's Catto the Forgotten Hero" at catto.ushistory.org/. See also Harper's Weekly 15 (October 28, 1871), p. 1005 and a copy of the original portrait at https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2006.8. Photograph stamped on verso: Kean Archives, Phila., Portrait photograph of Taylor Aldridge inscribed on verso: Nov. 27 '83., Verso of album page with portrait photograph of Edwin Lewis inscribed: July '83., Verso of album page with portrait photograph of James Page printed: Sharpless Bros. Dry Goods, Chestnut and Eighth Sts. Philadelphia., Purchase 1990., Description revised 2023., Access points revised 2023., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date
[ca. 1865-ca. 1885]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums [P.9304]
Portrait Album of Well-Known 19th-Century African American Men of Philadelphia
Title
[Portrait album of well-known 19th-century African American men of Philadelphia]
Description
Photograph album containing identified portrait photographs, bust-length, half-length, and full-length, of twenty-one prominent Philadelphia African American men. Named sitters in order of inclusion in album include veteran Harmon Richardson attired in a military uniform; educator and activist Octavius Catto; civil rights activist Edwin Chew (son of John and Charlotte Henson Chew); janitor and later undertaker Guy M. Burton with musician Ed[ward] H. Johnson and Terry V. Hall; musician Joseph G. Anderson; Civil War veteran and waiter Taylor Aldridge; Johnson al-Jube holding a basket; laborer Parker T. Smith; Jeremiah V. Hall; George Hall; waiter William I. Lancaster; barber James Keith; caterer Henry Tobias; Cheslea Bass, barber and partner to James Keith, with caterer Andrew F. Stevens; Edwin Lewis; Jas. H. Williams ae.[sic] Rush; Thomas Proctor; and restauranteur/caterer Ja[me]s B. Page. Musicians Edward Johnson and Joseph G. Anderson were members of Francis Johnson's band in the 1830s and 40s., Title supplied by cataloger from label on spine., Date from content and medium of photographs., Cardboard binding with torn spine label inscribed: Portraits of Well Know[n]. Insides of binding covers include scribbles and a pasted partial scrap of a flower., Photographs are loose or attached to album pages within binding., Sitters, and occasionally their profession, identified by manuscript notes on verso of photograph or album page. Some notes include statement "deceased," including for sitters Harmon Richardson, Edwin Chew, Octavius Catto, Edward H. Johnson, Terry V. Hall, Joseph G. Anderson, Johnson al-Jube, George Hall, James H. Williams, and James Page., Mostly unidentified photographers with identified Philadelphia photographers John L. Gihon and Parlor Gallery., Portrait photograph of Octavius Catto reproduced after a circa 1871 portrait photograph taken by African American Philadelphia photographer Gallo W. Cheston and/or Philadelphia photographers Broadbent & Phillips. See "Amy Cohen's Catto the Forgotten Hero" at catto.ushistory.org/. See also Harper's Weekly 15 (October 28, 1871), p. 1005 and a copy of the original portrait at https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2006.8. Photograph stamped on verso: Kean Archives, Phila., Portrait photograph of Taylor Aldridge inscribed on verso: Nov. 27 '83., Verso of album page with portrait photograph of Edwin Lewis inscribed: July '83., Verso of album page with portrait photograph of James Page printed: Sharpless Bros. Dry Goods, Chestnut and Eighth Sts. Philadelphia., Purchase 1990., Description revised 2023., Access points revised 2023., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date
[ca. 1865-ca. 1885]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums [P.9304]
[Stevens-Cogdell and Sanders-Venning family portrait collection]
Title
[Stevens-Cogdell and Sanders-Venning family portrait collection]
Description
Primarily studio portraits and snapshots of members of the Venning line of the middle-class Philadelphia African American family descended from the 19th-century white South Carolinian Richard Walpole Cogdell (1787-1866), and Sarah Martha Sanders (1815-1850), a Black enslaved woman. Includes professionally photographed group portraits depicting the family's participation in the Philadelphia African American music community of the early 20th century, including: the Mendelssohn Singing Society; Sid Stratton's Orchestra; the Treble Clef Mandolin and Guitar Club; and the Soap Box Social, a minstrel club associated with the African American political club, Citizen's Republican Club. Other formal portraiture includes the graduation portrait for the South Philadelphia High School for Girls class of 1921, including Lillie Venning and contralto Marian Anderson, and a group portrait of the Citizens Republican Club (ca. 1910). Collection also contains studio portraits and snaphots photographed during family summer excursions to Pleasantville and Atlantic City, New Jersey; portraits of family friends and family members through marriage; silhouettes of members of the Cogdell family cut by Master Hankes, i.e., Jarvis F. Hanks (ca. 1828); and an album (ca. 1860-ca. 1913) containing portraits of members of the Venning family and of unidentified sitters., Sitters include members from the Cogdell family, the Venning family, the Capps family, and the Saunders family. Cogdell family members include: Cecilia Cogdell, wife of Richard Walpole Cogdell, and three of their sons - James Gordon Cogdell, George Burgess Cogdell, and John Walpole Cogdell. Venning family members include: Richard Cogdell and Sarah Sanders' daughter, Julia Sanders Venning, her husband Edward Y. Venning (a contractor), and his brother, Richard DeReef Venning (a government clerk). Julia Sanders Venning and Edward Y. Venning's children - Louise Sanders Venning, Miranda Cogdell Venning (a school principal), Oliver Casey Venning (family historian), George Edward Venning (postal worker), Sarah (Sallie) Venning (Holden) (substitute teacher), and her husband William B. Holden (caterer). George Edward Venning and Julia Capps Venning's children - Mary Venning, Martha Venning (Bowie), and her husband Charles Bowie. Capps family members include: Julia Capps Venning's father Augustus Capps (butler), and her siblings, Lillie Capps Adams (educator/musician), Oscar Capps (post office clerk), Adolphus Capps (an undertaker), Berkley Capps (bellman), and Meta Capps (Thomas). Other sitters include family members George Saunders; Agnes Saunders; Georgine Rex Saunders (Chew); Mary Saunders (Patterson) (soprano and music instructor of Marian Anderson); Susan Saunders (Williams); Richard Sanders Chew; and Charles Sanders Chew; and acquaintances African American bibliophile and Tribune columnist William C. Bolivar, African American undertaker Joseph Seth, African American banker Andrew Stevens, Jr. (P.9367.28 &29), and Mrs. and Dr. Perry., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content., Date of silhouettes inferred from active dates in Charleston, S.C. of silhouettist Jarvis F. Hanks. See Charleston Courier, March 13, 1828, 2 and "For A Few Days," Charleston Courier, March 31, 1928, 3., Various photographers, including the following Philadelphia photographers: Bell Studio; Frederick Gutekunst; H.D. Garns & Co.; Moses S. Hagaman; Charles Hagemann & Co.; Frank W. Harris, Jr.; Miles & Foster; Parlor Gallery; Charles M. Sullivan; and Daniel Slutzky Studio., Sitters identified by descendants, from manuscript notes on versos, and/or accompanying photographic prints., P.9367.32, ca. 1900 pastel portrait of possibly Clara, nurse to children and grandchildren of Sarah Sanders and R. W. Cogdell, after ca. 1875 tintype photographed by J. Fenton (729 South St., Phila.), P.2012.37.1.23b, Richard DeReef Venning Album, Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning Collection., P.9367.29, Treble Clef Orchestra sitters include Robert Coleman/William Cole?; Louise Venning; Joseph Seth; Susan Saunders Williams; Howard Carter; Andrew Williams; Mrs. William Morris; William Morris; Walter Williamson; Helen Stevens Bayton; Joseph Abele; William Patterson; Harry Warwick; John William; Beulah Myers; Dr. Agnes Berry Montier; and Andrew Stevens Jr., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 1991, p. 26-31., Gift of descendants Cordelia H. Brown, Lillie V. Dickerson, Mary Hinkson Jackson, and Georgine E. Willis in honor of Phil Lapsansky., LCP exhibit catalogue: African American Miscellany p. 45., Genealogical chart available at repository., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Middle-class African American family active in the Philadelphia African American political, social, educational, and cultural community from the 1850s to the 20th century. The family was involved in several prominent local African American institutions, including the St. Thomas P.E. Church, Church of the Crucifixion, Central Presbyterian Church, the Colored Institute of Youth, and the Citizens Republican Club.
Date
[ca. 1830 - ca. 1940, bulk 1910-1925]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | PRINT. Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning Collection [P.9367.1-51]

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