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Title: Offering a substitute. A scene in the office of the provost marshall
Description: Cartoon addressing the impropriety surrounding the purchase of substitute draftees during the Civil War. Depicts four wealthy gentlemen attempting to find substitutes in a draft office. To the right, near an "Avoid the Draft" notice, a gentleman offers a wad of cash to a possible substitute. The man dressed in working man's clothes informs him, "I'm looking for a substitute myself." In the center, two gentlemen, one holding several bills, the other overweight and bemoaning "I walk but one square I chafe," display for inspection their wretched, raggedly dressed substitutes to two Union officers, including a doctor. The physician accepts a "Lee veteran" despite his extreme thinness and missing teeth, while the second officer tells the portly man that he would prefer him to the substitute and that "one days march will take down his fat and a little tallow will remove the chafing." To the left, the fourth gentleman, crying into a handkerchief, tells an officer that he would rather "bleed for his wife" than for his "suffering country." In the background, bandaged and ailing men line up in front of the marshall., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War.
Date: [1862]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1862-15W [P.2275.17]

Title: Offering a substitute. A scene in the office of the provost marshall
Description: Cartoon addressing the impropriety surrounding the purchase of substitute draftees during the Civil War. Depicts four wealthy gentlemen attempting to find substitutes in a draft office. To the right, near an "Avoid the Draft" notice, a gentleman offers a wad of cash to a possible substitute. The man dressed in working man's clothes informs him, "I'm looking for a substitute myself." In the center, two gentlemen, one holding several bills, the other overweight and bemoaning "I walk but one square I chafe," display for inspection their wretched, raggedly dressed substitutes to two Union officers, including a doctor. The physician accepts a "Lee veteran" despite his extreme thinness and missing teeth, while the second officer tells the portly man that he would prefer him to the substitute and that "one days march will take down his fat and a little tallow will remove the chafing." To the left, the fourth gentleman, crying into a handkerchief, tells an officer that he would rather "bleed for his wife" than for his "suffering country." In the background, bandaged and ailing men line up in front of the marshall., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War.
Date: [1862]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1862-15W [P.2275.17]

Title: The nigger emperor of Nicuragua [sic] on his throne Attended by Chatfield & his Black guards witnessing the detention of the steamer Prometheus, by the English brig of war Express, at San Juan
Description: Racist political cartoon satirizing the fictitious "Nigger Emperor" of Nicaragua during the "Prometheus-Express" incident of November 1851, which threatened the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 between the United States and Britain to abstain from attempting dominion of Central America. Depicts the Emperor as a Black man, partially undressed, attired in a military uniform with epaulettes, a black plumed hat, a sword on his waistband, and black boots. He sits atop a barrel labeled “Jamaica Rum.” He has one boot off that exposes his sock. His trousers are off and draped over his right arm. He smiles with a cigar in his mouth and carries a bottle labeled “Brandy” in his left hand. He looks towards Frederick Chatfield, the United Kingdom’s consul in Central America from 1834 to 1852, standing in the right. Chatfield holds his hands up and says, “They shall pay the money or be blow to attoms for their temerity, let me again entreat your Majesty to condesend (sic) to draw your breeches over your imperial shins.” The Emperor gestures with his right hand to the two ships in the harbor and replies in the vernacular, “Nebber mine, Massa Chatfield, wedder to warm for wear beechum, Yankee hab to cum back and pay money to dis nigger, ya, ya, ya.” Behind the Emperor, several Black guards, attired in tall hats, smile and stand in formation. Also in the print is a small black dog sniffing the Emperor’s sock., The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 made Greytown, Nicaragua a free port, denying the British revenue. To circumvent this, the British charged harbor fees. On November 21, 1851, Cornelius Vanderbilt’s ship Prometheus refused to pay the British harbor fees. The British brig o’war Express fired three shots across the bow of the Prometheus. Vanderbilt then paid. However, when the ship arrived in New York he took his case to the U.S. government with the U.S. wanting Britain to withdraw from Central America. In early 1852, the Nicaraguan government sought to assert its authority over the Miskito kingdom. On April 30, 1852, Secretary of State Daniel Webster and British minister John Crampton negotiated a settlement that made Greytown a free city, protected the rights of the Miskito Indians, and established the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua along the San Juan River., Title from item., Erroneously dated 1839 by Weitenkampf., Appears in The old soldier, New York, February, 1852., Likely drawn by John L. Magee, who worked at 69 Nassau Street at this time., 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator: Magee, John L., artist
Date: [1852]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1851-28 [5760.F.107]

Title: The happy negro
Description: Satiric print depicting a "happy" enslaved family in a tropical setting, probably the West Indies. Shows an enslaved man strumming his banjo seated next to his wife and child near palm trees and a flower bush. A dog sleeps near its bowl at their feet and grass-roofed huts are visible in the background. Also contains prose below the image comparing and contrasting the white man's and enslaved person's joys and cares. The white man "full of care, has heart no light, he great deal want, he little get, he sorry, so he fret" whereas the negro 'hub no care, heart is light, me tink not what tomorrow bring, me happy so me sing.", Holland published a series of cartoons critical of the decadence of the West Indies plantation society of the early 19th century., 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., Lib. Company. Annual report, 2005, p. 62-65., Purchase 2005., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., RVCDC
Date: [August] 1 1810
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1808-Hap [P.2005.28.3]

Title: West India fashionables On a visit in style. Taking a ride
Description: Satiric print mocking the decadent state of West Indian plantation society containing two views depicting enslaved people performing gratuitous tasks for traveling white enslavers. "On a Visit in Style" shows an enslaver, his wife, and her white lady's maid seated in the cab and rear of a horse-drawn gig. The gig displays a crest comprised of a goblet and whips. One enslaved man guides and another steers the horse that is adorned in netting to protect it from flies. An enslaved man and woman follow the carriage. They carry the enslaver's trunks on their heads. Also shows a windmill and sugar refinery in the background. "Taking a Ride" shows a white couple riding on horses, which are adorned with protective netting, past a sugar refinery and enslaved men and women working in a field. The white woman wears a huge bonnet obscuring her face. An enslaved man guides her horse while another holds its tail and uses a branch to fend off flies. The white man who wears an extremely wide-brimmed hat also has an enslaved man fending away flies from his horse's tail. George suggests that the enslaved people are to be assumed as the progeny of the enslaver as they all have the same unusually shaped nose., Publisher's advertisement printed below image: Of Mr. Holland may be had the following West India Prints, Johnny Newcome in the Island of Jamaica_ A Grand Jamaica Ball_ Martial Law in Jamaica_The Blessings of Jamaica_and a Segar Smoking Society in Jamaica. 5s each_A large portrait of Rachel Pringle of Barbadoes 7s. 6_Likewise Gillray's sale of English Beauties in the East Indies 7s 6d., 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., Purchase 2005., RVCDC., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Lib. Company. Annual report, 2005, p. 62-65.
Date: November 1, 1807
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1807-Wes [P.2005.28.2]

Title: The question settled
Description: Cartoon depicting Abraham Lincoln as "Old Abe," a white cat who drives "Jeff," (i.e., Jefferson Davis) depicted as a grey striped cat with a noose around his neck from the "United States" food dish. The black cat, "Contraband," (i.e., African American Civil War freedom seeker) makes his way into the dish from the other side. The plate rests upon the Union flag and a map depicting the lower Southern States blockaded by figures of Union ships., Title from item., Possible date of publication supplied by Weitenkampf., During the Civil War, the U.S government declared African American freedom seekers as "contraband of war.", Purchase 1970., 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.
Date: [1862?]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1862-12W [7870.F]

Title: An affecting scene in Kentucky
Description: A racist cartoon ridiculing Kentucky congressman Richard M. Johnson, the 1836 Democratic vice-presidential candidate, for his common-law marriage to Julia Chinn, a multiracial woman. Depicts Johnson, with the "New York Courier and Enquirer" falling from his hand, as he grieves over the "scurrilous attacks in the newspapers on the mother of my children." His daughters, Adaline and Imogene, attired in evening dresses, comment on his "affected state" and hold a framed portrait of their mother, attired in a turban. Surrounding Johnson are Democrats pledging support, including a postmaster, a well-dressed African American man, who speaks in the vernacular, and a gaunt white man abolitionist holding the Connecticut newspaper the "Emancipator." Another white man supporter comments on Johnson's agitated state., Title from item., Publication information supplied by Reilly., Purchase 1958., 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: [1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1836-15 [6277.F]

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 Salt River gazette---extra, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 1867 The Great Negro Party--born, 1856--died Oct. 8, 1867
Description: Cartoon publicizing the death of the "Great Negro Party" (i.e., Republican Party) as a result of the defeat of several Republican candidates to Democrats in the Philadelphia local elections of 1867. Depicts a series of racist captioned vignettes and caricatures. Includes the head of an African American man above a coffin inscribed with the life and death dates of the party (1856-Oct. 8, 1867); “a Scene at the Broad St. League House” depicting a white man minister forced to perform an interracial marriage between a white woman and an African American man; and a scene entitled "The Work of Congress repudiated by the People" showing an African American man lounging and watching white men labor to pay their taxes. Also includes an African American man dandy commenting in the vernacular on his making electors sick "dis time"; and a scene titled "Statue to be erected in front of the Union League House" showing the sculpture of an older African American woman on a ragged horse. The African American dandy caricature originally appeared as an illustration titled "S.S. Sanford in One of his Great Delineations of Ethiopian Character" in "Our Day," an 1860 circular that advertised his Sanford Opera House. The statue caricature originally appeared in the "Original Comicalities" section of the June 1854 edition of "Graham's Magazine" and was titled "Woolly Equestrian Statue of the late Mrs. Joyce Heth." Mrs. Heth, an early attraction of P.T. Barnum from 1835 until 1836, claimed that she was over 100 years old and a nanny to George Washington., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Originally part of McAllister scrapbooks of views of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania views and political miscellany. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., 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: [1867]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1867-1W [5759.F; (2)1322.F.77]

Title: West India luxury!!
Description: Satiric print mocking the decadent state of West Indian plantation society containing five vignettes, one with text, depicting slothful white enslavers being lavishly catered to by Black and multiracial enslaved people. Vignettes include: "A West India Nabob" (i.e., man of wealth) as he lounges on his couch, attired in a wide brimmed hat, surrounded by his entourage of enslaved women; enslaved men being used as a "Portable Boot Jack" by their white man enslaver; the white women enslaver showing "Creolean Patience" as she waits for her enslaved marketing person to be told by her enslaved attendant to pick up her nearby fallen needle; the white women enslaver telling "Quashebah come and take my Head in again" from her open window; and a white man enslaver enjoying "One of the Luxuries" of slavery as enslaved women simultaneously comb his hair, wash his feet, fan him, and serve him goblets of wine., Title from item., Described in David Kunzle's The Early comic strip: Narrative strips and picture stories in the European broad sheet from c. 1450 to 1825 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973), p. 374-5., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 2000, p. 37-38., Purchase 2000., 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: April 1808
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political cartoons - 1808-Wes [9455.F]

Title: Emancipation: the past and the future
Description: Emancipation print contrasting African American life during and after slavery. Central scene portrays the interior of a free person’s home where several generations of the family socialize around a "Union" stove as the mother cooks. The horrors of slavery are depicted through scenes of the flogging, branding, selling, and capturing of enslaved people. The forthcoming results of freedom are depicted through scenes of the exterior of a free person’s cottage, African American children attending public school, and African Americans receiving payment for their work. Also depicted are: a baby angel freeing the shackles of a kneeling enslaved man as the angel, who has the year 1863 above his head, is held by Father Time; Thomas Crawford’s statue of freedom; and the hellhound Cerberus fleeing liberty., Title from item., Originally published in Harper's weekly, January 24, 1863., 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., Nast was a cartoonist and illustrator most known for his work for the 19th-century periodical "Harper's Weekly."
Creator: Nast, Thomas, 1840-1902, artist
Date: 1865
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Political Cartoons - 1865-3 variant [(10)1540.F]

Title: The past and the future
Description: Emancipation print contrasting African American life during and after slavery. Central scene portrays the interior of a free person's home where several generations of the family socialize around a "Union" stove as the mother cooks. The horrors of slavery are depicted through scenes of the flogging, branding, selling, and capturing of enslaved people. The forthcoming results of freedom are depicted through scenes of the exterior of a free person's cottage, African American children attending public school, and African Americans receiving payment for their work. Also depicted are: a baby angel freeing the shackles of a kneeling enslaved man as the angel is held under the year 1863 by Father Time; Thomas Crawford's statue of freedom; and the hellhound Cerberus fleeing liberty. The Great Central or Sanitary Fair of 1864 was organized by the Philadelphia division of the United States Sanitary Commission to raise money for their soldier relief organization. Although emancipation was a popular theme of the fair, African Americans were excluded from the exhibition., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Inscribed: Price [Fif?]ty Cents., Originally published in "Harper's weekly," January 24, 1863., LCP exhibition catalogue: African American Miscellany, p. 22., Accessioned 1987., 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: Nast, Thomas, 1840-1902, artist
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Political Cartoons - 1865-3a variant [P.9177.30]

Title: Oh! Massa Jeff. dis sesesh fever will kill de nigger
Description: Cartoon depicting the ill effect of secession on enslaved people. In the dwelling of the enslaved African American men, Jefferson Davis, attired in a broad-brim hat and with the Union flag hanging from his pocket, checks the pulse of an emaciated, bedridden African American man with "Bond Plasters" on his chest. An angst-ridden enslaved African American man stands behind the bed and weeps as he holds a bottle of medicine. On the wall behind him are three posters advertising various medicines: "Dr. Jeffy's Celebrated Bond Plasters ...," "The Great Southern Remedies," "Dr. Jeffy's Celebrated Lettres du Marque A Radical Remedy for all Constitutional Afflictions.", Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1861 in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the Southern District of Ohio., Purchase 1961., 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.
Date: 1861
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1861-22W [6449.F]

Title: A West India sportsman Make haste with the sangaree Quashie and tell Quaco to drive the birds up to me - I'm ready
Description: Satiric print mocking the decadent state of West Indian plantation society showing enslaved people catering to a white enslaver on a hunting trip. Shows the white man, seated under an umbrella, his feet up, his gun in his hand, as he is fanned by a long-sleeved shirt and sarong-clad enslaved man behind him. Other enslaved people (a woman, young men, and a child) keep flies away from platters of meat displayed on a table and a basket of tropical fruit; butler a large glass of sangaree; and drive birds from a field. Also shows jugs of liquor, including royal punch, sangaree, and rum, lined near the grinning "sportsman." The rum jug has toppled over near empty bottles strewn on the ground near a broken jug of water. In the distance, another white enslaver holds a gun and lies on a settee while an enslaved woman holds an umbrella over him. All the figures are depicted with exaggerated features., Publisher's advertisement printed below image: Of Mr. Holland may be had the following West India Prints, Johnny Newcome in the Island of Jamaica_ A Grand Jamaica Ball_ Martial Law in Jamaica_The Blessings of Jamaica_and a Segar Smoking Society in Jamaica. 5s each_A large portrait of Rachel Pringle of Barbadoes 7s. 6_Likewise Gillray's sale of English Beauties in the East Indies 7s 6d., Title from item., 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., RVCDC., Purchase 2005., Lib. Company. Annual report, 2005, p. 62-65., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date: November 1, 1807
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1807- Wes [P.2005.28.1]

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: An heir to the throne, or the next Republican candidate
Description: Racist cartoon using African American side-show performer William Henry Johnson to lampoon the extent to which the Republican party supported the rights of African Americans as a part of their Election Platform of 1860. In the left, depicts editor of the Tribune, Horace Greeley, who says, "Gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you, this illustrious individual in whom you will find combined, all the graces, and virtues of Black Republicanism, and whom we propose to run as our next Candidate for the Presidency." In the center, Johnson, depicted with a bald and tapered head and attired in a long-sleeved shirt, shorts, and black shoes, leans on the spear that he holds in both hands and asks in the vernacular, "What, can dey be?" In the right, candidate Abraham Lincoln leans on a rail and says, "How fortunate! that this intellectual and noble creature should have been discovered just at this time, to prove to the world the superiority of the Colored over the Anglo Saxon race, he will be a worthy successor to carry out the policy which I shall inaugurate." In the background is a poster that reads, "Barnum’s What is it. Now exhibiting." William Henry Johnson was born in Liberty Corners, New Jersey to William and Mahalia Johnson, who were formerly enslaved. As Johnson’s head was smaller and sloped, agents from van Emburgh's Circus in New Jersey exhibited him with a story that he was caught in Africa and was a "missing link." P.T. Barnum then exhibited him with the names "Zip the Pinhead" and "What is it.", Probably drawn by Louis Maurer., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1860, by Currier & Ives, in the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Southn Distt of N.Y., Accessioned 1970., 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: Currier & Ives
Date: 1860
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1860-33R [7922.F]

Title: Emancipation
Description: Emancipation print depicting a series of scenes contrasting African American life during and after slavery. Central scene portrays the interior of a free person's home where several generations of the family socialize around a "Union" stove as the mother cooks. Below this scene is a portrait of Lincoln and above it a depiction of Thomas Crawford's statue of freedom, as well as the hell hound Cerberus fleeing Liberty. Scenes to the right display the horrors of slavery including the flogging, branding, selling, and capturing of enslaved people. Scenes to the left display the forthcoming results of freedom including the exterior of a free person's cottage, African American children attending public school, and African Americans receiving payment for their work., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by J.W. Umpehent, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania., Originally published in Harper's weekly, January 24, 1863., McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., 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., Nast was a cartoonist and illustrator most known for his work for the 19th-century periodical "Harper's Weekly."
Creator: Nast, Thomas, 1840-1902, artist
Date: 1865
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1865-3R [5792.F]

Title: Immediate emancipation illustrated
Description: Critical satire of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which was founded on the principle of immediate abolition by Arthur Tappan and William Lloyd Garrison, who are depicted discussing the society's principles with an unnamed abolitionist, possibly Lewis Tappan. Above their heads is the banner "Anti Slavery Society Founded Anno Domini MDCCCXXXIII." The seated Garrison comments on the origin of the bundle of Italian linen at his feet, which is to be used for his newspaper "the Emancipator." In the right, the figure of a leopard rests upon a pedestal marked "Fanaticism. Brought the Inquisition upon Spain. Beggary upon Italy. And may drench America in blood!!" (an allusion to the idiom a leopard cannot change its spots and to the Spain and the Iberian War, 1807-1814). In the left, a Black man, labeled "Emancipated Slave," is portrayed in racist caricature and is naked except for a leaves wrapped around his waist. He chases an insect calling, "Food," while carrying a knife. In the background, a scene labeled "Insurection (sic) in St. Domingo! Cruelty, Lust, and blood!" depicts Black people using swords and axes to kill white people, including a white woman on the ground. A building burns behind them., Title from item., Date supplied by Weitenkampf., Probably the "A Caricature" cited in the Emancipator (New York, N.Y.), October 19, 1833 and Liberator (Boston, Mass.), November 2, 1833., The "Emancipated Slave" figure is similar to the figure depicted in the lithograph by Alfred Ducôte, "An Emancipated Negro" ([London]: Thomas McLean, 1833). Copies in the collections of National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London., Purchase 1986., 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: [1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1833 - 27W [P.9140]

Title: A grand slave hunt, or trial of speed for the presidency, between celebrated nags Black Dan, Lewis Cass, and Haynau
Description: Cartoon criticizing presidential candidates Daniel Webster (i.e., Black Dan) and Lewis Cass's avid support for the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law during the election of 1852. Shows Webster, carrying a copy of the Fugitive Slave Law and a flag, leading a group of white men, including the lagging Michigan Senator Lewis Cass; the infamously cruel Hungarian General Baron Haynau with a pitcher of "Barclay Best" on his head (a symbolic reference to the brewery workers who attacked him in England); and President Millard Fillmore holding a Fugitive Slave Bill. They pursue an enslaved African American woman who runs clutching a baby in her arms and holding the hand of her young son. Additional figures in the background include Horace Mann, Massachusetts Congressman and opponent of the Compromise of 1850; an orator resembling Webster bombasting Mann before a group of kneeling white men admirers; a preaching white man minister with Bible in hand; and an African American woman freedom seeker with her child being tugged between a yelling man and a white man mercenary carrying handcuffs., Title from item., Date of publication supplied by Weitenkampf., Purchase 1967., 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: [1852]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1852-7W [P.9676]

Title: Worship of the North
Description: Graphic cartoon steeped in Confederate bitterness toward the "Republican" North depicting a scene of Northern idolatry of the African American. Worshippers near a mound of skulls surround a blood-stained altar upon which lies the shackled sacrificed body of American youth. The altar, with a bust of Lincoln dressed as a clown overhead, is constructed from Northern principles such as "Puritanism," "Free Love," and "Negro Worship." Behind the altar an African American man idol, barefoot and bare-chested and portrayed in racist caricature, sits upon the "Chicago Platform." Near the idol stands the statue of "St. Ossawattomi" (i.e., John Brown). The worshippers include General Scott, General Halleck and a loot-laden General Butler, as well as Secretary Edwin Stanton, John Fremont, a knife wielding Henry Ward Beecher, a torch carrying Charles Sumner, Horace Greeley with a censer, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, praying and kneeling atop a volume of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Printed in the top corners is "Ego.", Published in: Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), pl. 1., Issued as plate 1 in Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), a series of pro-Confederacy cartoons drawn and published by Baltimore cartoonist Adalbert John Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada. The "first issue" of 10 prints (numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24), with imprint "London, 1863" were printed as etchings. The remaining 20 prints (numbered 4, 8, 9-11, 14, 17-20, 23, 25-27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 40, 45) headed "Second and third issues of V. Blada's war sketches" and dated "London, July 30, 1864" were printed as lithographs., Title and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Accessioned 1979., 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., Aldabert Volck (1828-1912), i.e., V. Blada, was a prominent Southern cartoonist from Baltimore who is best known for his 1863 work "Sketches from the Civil War," later republished circa 1886 by Porter & Coates in Philadelphia under the title "Confederate War Etchings."
Creator: Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
Date: [1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1863 - Wor [P.2275.6]

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