Search results

Title: [Unidentified elderly African American man]
Description: Three-quarter length portrait of an African American man seated in a wooden Windsor chair in front of the doorway of a house with walls that are cracked with exposed wood. Sitter, wearing white hair and sideburns and attired in a white shirt, a dark-colored jacket and pants, and a dark-colored coat with paint splatters on the elbow and sleeves, holds a hat in his hand as he looks directly at the viewer., Title supplied by cataloger., Originally part of a S.W. Dwayne scrapbook., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date: [ca. 1885]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department portrait photographs - unidentified male [8836.Q.1]

Title: "She lives way down dar"
Description: Scene depicting an older African American woman giving directions to another African American woman in front of her home. At her open gate, the woman, wearing gray hair and attired in a long-sleeved, patterned dress, a plaid shawl, and a white apron, points left indicating the desired direction. The other woman, attired in a bonnet, a long-sleeved shirt, and a skirt, holds a milk can in her right hand and looks left with her back to the viewer. In the background is a wooden house with a large vine propped up on poles., Title from manuscript note by photographer on verso., Signed by photographer on verso., Alternate title from lantern slide at the Staten Island New York Historical Society., Gift of Elsie Wood Harmon, 1982., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Wood, a Philadelphia artist, turned to photography in the 1880s exhibiting his work, including genre studies of African Americans, at national and international photography exhibitions. His photographs won several prizes.
Creator: Wood, George Bacon, 1832-1909, photographer
Date: [photographed ca. 1886, printed ca. 1895]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - Wood [P.8743.177]

Title: [Portrait of an African American family]
Description: Family portrait of several generations of a middle-class African American family posed in front of a Christmas tree. The family, attired in suits and dresses, sit and stand in the living room. In the foreground, an African American boy sits on the floor, crossed legged, and smiles at the viewer. Behind him, seven men and women sit on chairs. Two young girls sit on the laps of the older men. Nine men and women stand behind the chairs. In the background, the top of a decorated Christmas tree is visible., Title supplied by cataloger., Date written on recto: Mosby 1936., Purchase 1993., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date: 1936
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department group portrait photographs - family [P.9410.31]

Title: [African American man delivering firewood to an African American woman]
Description: Depicts an older African American woman standing in her doorway receiving firewood from an older African American man. The woman, wearing white hair and attired in a long-sleeved dress, a torn and worn apron, and shoes, stands in the doorway of her wooden house with her arms crossed at her waist. In the right, the man, wearing white hair, a torn and worn coat with patches, pants, and shoes, stands with a large bundle of firewood in his hands. In the left are wooden buckets and a bowl., Title supplied by cataloger., Gift of Elsie Wood Harmon, 1982., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Wood, a Philadelphia artist, turned to photography in the 1880s exhibiting his work, including genre studies of African Americans, at national and international photography exhibitions. His photographs won several prizes.
Creator: Wood, George Bacon, 1832-1909, photographer
Date: [ca. 1886]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - Wood [P.8743.178]

Title: Vegetable dealer Bermuda
Description: Postcard depicting an older Black man with a beard, seated in a mule-drawn cart. Bunches of root vegetables, a basket, and a barrel lay behind him in the cart. A partial view of a building with three windows is visible in the background., Title from item., Date inferred from design of verso of postcard: Undivided back and "Post Card" in thin serif letters, Manuscript note written on recto: How would you like to ride [in that?] [ illegible]., Name and address of recipient in manuscript on verso: Miss Mabel McClure, 328 Preston St., W. Phila, Pa. U.S.A., RVCDC, Description reviewed 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Date: [ca. 1905]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department LCP postcards - Genre [P.2019.80.10]

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

Title: "Dat corn takes a might site a hoe'in"
Description: Depicts an older African American man, attired in torn and worn clothing, exiting through the doorway of his wooden house carrying a hoe. The man, wearing white hair and a white beard and attired in a top hat, a white shirt, a waistcoat, a torn coat, torn pants with patches, and shoes, steps down his front stairs of the dilapidated house. In front of the house is a stool with a basket on top, a broom, a small table with a wooden bushel and a bowl, and a cup rests on the windowsill., Title from manuscript note on verso., Variant of prize winner at the Philadelphia Photographic Society Exhibition 1886., Gift of Elsie Wood Harmon, 1982., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Frances Orlando's "George Bacon Wood, photographer of the 1880's: an introduction to the Wood Collection in the Library Company of Philadelphia." (Master's thesis, Philadelphia College of Art, 1985), p. 41., 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., Wood, a Philadelphia artist, turned to photography in the 1880s exhibiting his work, including genre studies of African Americans, at national and international photography exhibition. His photographs won prizes.
Creator: Wood, George Bacon, 1832-1909, photographer
Date: [ca. 1888]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - Wood [P.8743.181]

Title: Aunt Phebe at Mcaboy's, Polk Co. North Carolina
Description: Glass negative showing Phebe Mills, an older African American woman, sitting on the porch steps of the McAboy House. She is attired in a striped bonnet, a long-sleeved shirt with buttons down the front and a tie across the waist and a long skirt with ruffles at the bottom. She sits with her hands folded in her lap and looks slightly to the right. Beside her on the step lies a package wrapped in cloth. A white man, wearing a white beard and attired in a suit, sits in a rocking chair on the porch and looks towards her. Also visible is a shuttered window and an open doorway. Phebe Mills, born circa 1806, was married to Pauldo Mills, a farmer on the Columbus Mills Plantation. Originally owned by John Mills, this plantation was bought by Dr. Leland Reid McAboy in 1872 and became an inn known as the McAboy House., Time: 12:30 P.M., Light: Fair sun., Purchase 2001., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Digitization and cataloging has been made possible through the generosity of David Marriott Morris, Eleanor Rhoads Morris Cox, and William Perot Morris in memory of Marriott Canby Morris and his children: Elliston Perot Morris, Marriott Canby Morris Jr., and Janet Morris and in acknowledgment of his grandchildren: William Perot Morris, Eleanor Rhoads Morris Cox, Jonathan White Morris, and David Marriott Morris., Edited.
Creator: Morris, Marriott Canby, 1863-1948, photographer
Date: March 27, 1890
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Marriott C. Morris Collection [P.9895.1604]

Title: Aunt Phebe, Mcaboy's, N.C
Description: Glass negative showing Phebe Mills, an older African American woman, sitting on the porch steps of the McAboy House. She is attired in a long-sleeved shirt with buttons down the front and a tie across the waist and a long skirt with ruffles at the bottom. She sits with her hands balls and folded in her lap and looks slightly to the right. Beside her on the step lies her striped bonnet. A white man, wearing a white beard and attired in a suit, sits in a rocking chair on the porch and looks towards her. Also visible is a shuttered window and an open doorway. Phebe Mills, born circa 1806, was married to Pauldo Mills, a farmer on the Columbus Mills Plantation. Originally owned by John Mills, this plantation was bought by Dr. Leland Reid McAboy in 1872 and became an inn known as the McAboy House., Same as last., Time: 12:30 P.M., Light: Fair sun., Purchase 2001., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Digitization and cataloging has been made possible through the generosity of David Marriott Morris, Eleanor Rhoads Morris Cox, and William Perot Morris in memory of Marriott Canby Morris and his children: Elliston Perot Morris, Marriott Canby Morris Jr., and Janet Morris and in acknowledgment of his grandchildren: William Perot Morris, Eleanor Rhoads Morris Cox, Jonathan White Morris, and David Marriott Morris., Edited.
Creator: Morris, Marriott Canby, 1863-1948, photographer
Date: March 27, 1890
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Marriott C. Morris Collection [P.9895.1605]

Title: The old and the new – “Nothin’ but niggers nohow.”
Description: Photographic reproduction of a print drawn by Helen M. Colburn, daughter of New Jersey artist Rembrandt Lockwood, depicting an older African American woman watching and "judging" a young African American couple walking in a park. The figures are drawn with racist and caricatured features and mannerisms. Shows, in the right, the older woman, attired in a kerchief, coat, shawl, long skirt, and holding a wooden cane, and with a squinted expression looking toward the back of a fashionably-attired couple in the left. The man of the couple to the right of the woman looks down and at his companion whose back is to the viewer. She is attired in a cap, a long winter wrap, and a skirt with a short train. The man wears an imperial mustache and is attired in a cap and a long winter coat. The man and women walk on a path lined with trees and birds peck at the ground. In the far left background, a woman and child attired in winter wear and walking on the path are visible. Robinson, married to Washington U.S. Treasury clerk Rollinson Colburn, lived in the Capitol between circa 1870 and her death in 1912. In 1887 eight of her works, some purported to based on her own eye-witness accounts during the 1870s, showing African American life in the city were published as a collectible series of photographs. Occassionally, Colburn described and signed her descriptions of the scenes on the versos of the photographs., Title printed on mount., Date from copy right statement printed on mount: Copyright 1887., Written in lower right of original print: Mrs. R. Colburn 1881., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Purchased with the 2019 Junto Fund.
Date: 1887
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photos - 5 x 7 - unidentified - Events [P.2020.16.3]

Title: No. 2 The introduction
Description: Second scene based on a racist series of African American caricatures originally created for Harper's Weekly in 1878 by Sol Eytinge that satirized the courtship and marriage of and the start of families by "The Twins." The African American figures are depicted with exaggerated features and mannerisms. Scene shows the “twins,” side-by-side, curtseying to their two male suitors (one tall and one squat) who stand across the parlor. The tall one bows with his hat in hand. The suitors’ mother, portrayed with a face with many wrinkles and attired in a polka dot dress, stands between the pairs. The room is adorned with a table that holds a vase of flowers, an album, and a glass. Framed pictures, including a portrait, as well as a cuckoo clock adorn the walls near a window with a partially rolled-up window shade. The twins are attired in polka dot dresses and the men in suits., Title from item., Inscribed on original drawing: Remodeled from sketch in Harpers Weekly., Date from copyright statement in other photographs in series: Copyrighted 1881 John McGreer, Chicago, Ill., Name of artist stamped on verso: McGreer Chicago., Name of publisher from other photographs in series., Purchased with the Davida T. Deutsch African American History Fund., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 2017, p. 52., RVCDC, Desciption revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: McGreer, John, 1839-1908
Date: 1881
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - 5 x 7 - Unid. - Events [P.2017.26.2]

Title: Testimonial banquet to Ms. Eugenia M. Neal. Daughter Ruler Keystone Temple, No. 448 I.B.P.O.E.W., Dec. 8, 1930. O. V. Catto Elks Home, Philadelphia
Description: Panoramic group portrait photograph depicting over one hundred African American men and women, of all ages, at a testimonial banquet of the Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World for Eugenia Neal (1873-1949). The attendees, attired in evening wear, sit at rows of tables and a few booths in the right of the room. Attendees wear suits, tuxedos, and evening and cocktail dresses. Most of the sitters do not smile and face the camera. Some are turned away or eating. Some of the men wear their I.B.P.O.E.W. fezzes. In the right background, one woman has an arch of flowers over her. The tables are covered in white tablecloths and lined with plates of food, serving platters, and silver pitchers. In the background, at the back of the room, a small band of men musicians is seated next to a woman at a piano. Streamers and a paper bell adorn the ceiling. The O.V. Catto Elks Lodge began in 1903 as a chapter of the Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World established in 1897 with a mission to "practice charity by providing and performing charitable services in our communities throughout the world and by promoting harmony, friendship, and unity among our esteemed members." By 1926, the Lodge had over 3000 members, and in 1929, it relocated to a new building that included a boxing ring, basketball court, and rooftop garden, at 16th and Fitzwater. Eugenia Neal, born Eugenia Brisby in Virginia, worked as a typesetter in Philadelphia by 1920. Married to Moses Neal in 1896, the couple resided in Atlantic City before relocating to Philadelphia by 1910. As a Daughter Ruler, Neal lead the Keystone Temple with her male counterpart, Exalted Ruler, and "under their leadership, all Elks shall show[ed] truth in activities and live[d] to help others, while promoting Brotherly and Sisterly Love to all.", Title and date from item.
Date: [1930]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department framed graphics [P.2023.5]

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