© Copyright 2025 - The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1314 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. TEL (215) 546-3181 FAX (215) 546-5167
For inquiries, please contact our IT Department
- Title
- Men playing cards on stoop, Philadelphia
- Description
- Group portrait of six men and three children sitting on a stoop and chairs in Philadelphia. Of the six men, four hold playing cards, three smoke cigarettes, and two hold glasses of beer. Two young girls, one holding an infant, stand in the background., Photographer's imprint stamped on verso: John Frank Keith, 2042 N. 6th St., Phila., Kruxo postcard., See Robert Bogdan and Todd Weseloh’s “Real Photo Postcard Guide: The People’s Photography,” (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2006), p. 231., Keith was a Philadelphia photographer who specialized in portraiture, mainly of working-class Philadelphians in South Philadelphia and Kensington from the 1910s to the 1940s.
- Creator
- Keith, John Frank, 1883-1947, photographer
- Date
- ca. 1913
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Photographs-Keith [P.8649.4]
- Title
- Time's footsteps for 1881. C. Goodall & Son, London
- Description
- Illustrated trade card for London board game and playing card publisher C. Goodall & Son depicting a man on bended knee, handing a woman a freshly-picked flower., Calendar for 1881 printed on verso., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Digitized.
- Date
- 1881
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Goodall [1975.F.368]
- Title
- The Smile that was childlike
- Description
- Print depicting characters from Bret Harte’s 1870 poem “Plain Language from Truthful James” later reprinted as “The Heathen Chinee.” The narrative of the poem focuses on two white men, Bill Nye and “Truthful James,” and a Chinese man named Ah Sin playing the card game Euchre. Bill and James believe Ah Sin is “childlike” and does not comprehend how to play the game. The print shows Bill and James standing in the left on a dirt road and showing playing cards to Ah Sin, who looks on with his hands in his pockets. Ah Sin is depicted in racist caricature and wears a queue hairstyle, a conical hat, gold hoop earrings, a blue tunic and pants, and cloth, slip-on shoes. In the background are mountains and a partial view of a cabin. Later in the poem’s narrative, Bill cheats playing the game by having cards up his sleeve. When Ah Sin plays a card that James already has, it is discovered that Ah Sin is also cheating with decks of cards hidden in his sleeves. Bill proceeds to fight Ah Sin. Bret Harte’s poem “Plain Language from Truthful James,” satirizing anti-Chinese sentiment, was originally published in the Overland Monthly Magazine in September, 1870. It became widely popular and was reprinted and republished as “The Heathen Chinee” in several illustrated series in pamphlet and loose print form., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Print contains registrations marks., See related: GC-Genre [P.2007.39.24]., Gift of David Doret.
- Date
- [ca. 1870]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC-Genre [P.2007.39.23]
- Title
- The Smile that was childlike
- Description
- Print depicting characters from Bret Harte’s 1870 poem “Plain Language from Truthful James” later reprinted as “The Heathen Chinee.” The narrative of the poem focuses on two white men, Bill Nye and “Truthful James,” and a Chinese man named Ah Sin playing the card game Euchre. Bill and James believe Ah Sin is “childlike” and does not comprehend how to play the game. The print shows Bill and James standing in the left on a dirt road and showing playing cards to Ah Sin, who looks on with his hands in his pockets. Ah Sin is depicted in racist caricature and wears a queue hairstyle, a conical hat, gold hoop earrings, a blue tunic and pants, and cloth, slip-on shoes. In the background are mountains and a partial view of a cabin. Later in the poem’s narrative, Bill cheats playing the game by having cards up his sleeve. When Ah Sin plays a card that James already has, it is discovered that Ah Sin is also cheating with decks of cards hidden in his sleeves. Bill proceeds to fight Ah Sin. Bret Harte’s poem “Plain Language from Truthful James,” satirizing anti-Chinese sentiment, was originally published in the Overland Monthly Magazine in September, 1870. It became widely popular and was reprinted and republished as “The Heathen Chinee” in several illustrated series in pamphlet and loose print form., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Print contains registrations marks., See related: GC-Genre [P.2007.39.24]., Gift of David Doret.
- Date
- [ca. 1870]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC-Genre [P.2007.39.23]

