Primrose
Title
Primrose The celebrated piebald boy, a native of the West Indies; publicly [sic] shewn in London 1789
Description
Full-length portrait of John Richardson Primrose Bobey, a young Black man with the pigmentation disorder vitiligo, born enslaved in Jamaica, and inspected and exhibited as a specimen of science throughout England. Shows the young man standing on a shoreline. He stands with palm trees in the distance. He is dressed in a loincloth knotted on his left hip and adorned with tassels. White patches are visible on his legs, torso, and down the center of his head. In his right hand, he holds up a captioned portrait broadside of himself as a boy and points to it with his left hand bent at the elbow and from in front of his waist. The broadside depicts the very young Bobey with primarily white skin above text reading "A Child born at Gros Islet, in the Island of St. Lucia, of Black Parents, Taken from a model of the infant colored from nature," and at the museum of T. Pole, Surgeon, Grace Church, in London." In adulthood in London, Bobey advocated for his freedom from enslavement and was a proprietor of a menagerie and a member of several societies, including the Free Masons., Title from item., Manuscript note on recto: Presented T. Pole Surgeon, London, to the Library of Philadelphia., Publication information inferred from broadside illustrated in image and address of London publishers Wm. Darton & Jos. Harvey., Noted in LCP Minutes, v. 3, p. 230-231., Biographies of sitter in Karl Pearson, A monograph on Albinism (London: Cambridge University Press, 1911-1913) and William Granger, The new wonderful museum, and extraordinary magazine: ... (London: Printed for R.S. Kirby, 1804), v. 2, p. 711-714., Pole, a Philadelphia-born Quaker physician, was also an artist who illustrated his own text "An Anatomical Instructor, an Illustration of the Modern and Most Approved Methods of Preparing and Preserving the Different Parts of the Human Body, and of Quadrupeds, by Injection, Corrosion, ... (London, 1790)., 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., Descripton revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Gift of Thomas Pole, 1790., RVCDC
Date
[ca. 1789]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | PRINT. *portrait prints - Primrose [901.F.27]
Rev. Richard Allen, founder of the American Methodist Episcopal Church, in the United States of America, 1779.
Title
Rev. Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in the United States of America, 1779
Description
Half-length portrait of the African American bishop, seated, and holding a book, possibly the Bible, in front of a curtain. He looks slightly to the left and points to an open page of the book with his right hand and clasps the upper edge of the other side of the book with his left hand. Allen is attired in a collared shirt, a vest, and a jacket. Allen was the first African American bishop as well as founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was born in Philadelphia and was enslaved by Benjamin Chew. He worked as a wood-cutter during his ordination. A full-length portrait of the white Quaker abolitionist and little person Benjamin Lay is on the verso. Lay is attired in a tricorn hat, a long shirt and jacket, britches, and boots. He holds a cane and book in his right hand., Manuscript note on border: "The curiosity of the portrait below is that it was made for the first Black Bishop in the UStates and perhaps the world! He is indeed a self created Bishop; nevertheless, as such he has now, in his 65 years, in 1824, probably created 100 ministers, by his ordination! He was born & bred in Philada. He was originally a slave of Benjn Chew's Esqre & learnd the trade of a Shoemaker; & like St. Paul, 'labored with his own hands,' while he ordained-", Title from item., Date form item., In John Fanning Watson's Extra-illustrated autograph manuscript of "Annals of Philadelphia", p. 276., Gift of John F Watson, June 1830., 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
1813
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Watson's Annals manuscript [Yi2 1069.F.276]
Cornwallis is taken!
Title
Cornwallis is taken! The watchman's cry - Philadelphia 1781
Description
Print commemorating the surrender in 1781 of British General Cornwallis at Yorktown depicting the watchman's purported moonlit announcement of the event on October 22nd at the Philadelphia residence of Thomas McKean, the president of Congress. Near the "Geo. Washington" tavern, the white watchman, one hand raised, a lantern in the other, his mouth open and with a few teeth missing, cries the news to the crowd of men, women, and children surrounding him and McKean. McKean, wearing a silken robe, chin in hand listens. His face portrayed with a look of contemplation. The crowd, many in nightclothes hold candlesticks, pray, cheer, and listen solemnly. Included in the crowd are a white man veteran with a prosthetic wooden peg leg, an African American boy, an African American woman caregiver holding presumably McKean's baby in the doorway, a white man and woman couple facing each other and holding hands, white women in shawls and elegant robes, a seated Native American woman attired in moccasins, and a white man portrayed with a frowned expression near behind the watchman., Title from item., Date inferred from duplicate with variant imprint in the collections of the American Antiquarian Society.., Gift of Mrs. Francis P. Garvan, 1978., 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
Doney, Thomas, engraver
Date
[ca. 1856]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC-American Revolution [8384.F.23]
Washington's triumphal entry into New York, Nov. 25th, 1783
Title
Washington's triumphal entry into New York, Nov. 25th, 1783
Description
Historic scene from the close of the American Revolution depicting General Washington, carrying his hat in his right hand and holding the reins in his left hand, on horseback and triumphantly parading his troops through a crowded New York City street on November 25, 1783. Following him closely on horseback are his principal officers: Governor George Clinton, General Frederick William Augustus, Baron von Steuben, General Thaddeus Kosciusko, General Gilbert Motier De La Fayette, Alexander Hamilton, General Henry Knox, General Israel Putnam, General Nathaniel Greene, and General Horatio Gates. Army personnel in the back carry the St. George cross flag, the New England Pine Tree flag, and the Washington life banner. The exuberant spectators, comprised of prominent figures and everyday citizens, line both sides of the thoroughfare and cheer from the street, balconies, and windows and include: Martha Washington; the society ladies of the Republican Court including Mrs. Cornelia [Tappan] Clinton, Mrs. Anne Willing Bingham, Mrs. Elizabeth [Schuyler] Hamilton, Mrs. Sarah [Livingston] Jay, Mrs. Polly Caton, and Mrs. Abigail Adams; Native Americans of the Six Nations including Chief Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant); General Benjamin Lincoln; Thomas Mifflin; John Marshall; Reverend David Jones; Stephen Hopkins; Miss Bingham; Miss J. Marshall; Mrs. Hamlin; the personification of a free press as an older white man reporter; continental guards; an African American woman peddler seated and holding a basket of grapes; and an older white man veteran with a crutch., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the Year 1860 by Geo T. Perry in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania., Copyrighted by George T. Perry., Pamphlet titled Description of the print entitled Washington's triumphal entry, New York, November 25th, 1783 (Philadelphia: George T. Perry, 1861) describes and provides a key to figures in the engraving. Copy of Library of Congress original housed with print. Link to digital version below in Koha Catalog., Peter C. Marzio's Chromolithography 1840-1900: The democratic art, pictures for 19th-century America (Boston: David R. Grodine, 1979), p. 27 and 283., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1973, p. 44-45., Accessioned 1979., 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
Inger, Christian, lithographer
Date
1860
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department ***GC-American Revolution [P.2279], https://www.loc.gov/item/10031942/