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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, 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., 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]

Title: [Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning family photographs]
Description: Collection of portrait photographs of members of the African American family, possibly compiled by Mary “Mose” Venning. Includes snapshots, studio portraits, and tintypes of men, women, and children, depicted individually and as groups. Settings include residential interiors and exteriors, including stoops and back porches; the beachfront; a school yard; and military grounds. Other photographs depict Lillie Gertrude Capps Adams in a formal white dress (dated 1903), a young man in a ship’s captain’s uniform, a series of different poses with two women and a man attired for tennis in front of a summer house; and an exterior view of the dental office of “Dr. A. T. Capps.” Several images also include studio backdrops and props; animals, including a bird, dogs, and horses; and automobiles., Sitters include Lillie “Buzz” Venning Dickerson; Martha “Mattie” Venning Bowie; Mary ‘Mose” Venning; Richard DeReef Venning; and Julia Capps Venning., Title supplied by cataloger., Accompanied by black leather binder., Few of the photographs contain manuscript notes on verso., Manuscript note on verso of P.2012.37.3.19: Dear Sister - busy with exams and haven’t time to answer your letter. Time is growing very short and the men are being sent home in large numbers. All are well and hope the same of you. Percy? Regards to you and kids. This is the target range., Various photographers, including Philadelphia photographers Bell's Studio, Mitchell Studio, The Bailey Studios, and Henrici & Withers., See LCP AR [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., See LCP exhibit catalogue: African American Miscellany p. 45., Genealogical charts available at repository., 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. 1895 - ca. 1955]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning Collection [P.2012.37.3]

Title: Charles Oakford & Sons in the Continental, hats, caps, and furs, wholesale and retail, 826-828 Chestnut St., Philadelphia
Description: Illustrated trade card depicting a bust portrait of Charles Oakford. Filigree surrounds the oval-shaped portrait. Charles Oakford established his hat store in 1827 and relocated to the Continental Hotel in 1860., Manuscript list on verso includes dates and prices: Nov. 22/60: $8.33; Jan. 10/61 due 21st; Jan. 28/61: due 21st [?]; March 1/61: due 21st Feb.; March 28/61: [illegible]., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Digitized.
Creator: Steel, James W., 1799-1879, engraver
Date: [ca. 1861]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Oakford [(7)1322.F.443l]

Title: [A.C. Yates & Co. clothing trade cards]
Description: Series of illustrated trade cards for A.C. Yates & Co. clothing store, which began operations on the ground floor of the Public Ledger Building at Sixth and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia in 1876. Illustrations depict a bust portrait of William Penn and Penn's treaty with the Indians to commemorate the Penn Bicentennial (1682-1882); children walking in the snow and carrying sprigs of holly; a boy sitting on a bare tree limb under a smiling moon serenading cats from sheet music labeled "Au Clair de la lune"; couples on the beach painting, reading by moonlight, and embracing behind the privacy of a large umbrella; swans swimming with flower garlands in their beaks; a traveling hunting party, including two men mounted on horses with a large group of hounds; three bystanders watching a man paint a large sign for A.C. Yates & Co. onto a brick wall; birds; sprays of flowers; two women and a man ice skating together; children blowing bubbles; children tumbling to the ground after hoisting one another to grab canisters from the top of a pantry; putti holding grotesque masks; and a view of Fairmount Park from Belmont, showing well-dressed couples sitting and walking in the park, a horse-drawn carriage and a man riding horseback on a dirt path in the foreground, and bridges spanning the Schuylkill River in the background., Title supplied by cataloger., Printers and engravers include Hatch Lith. Co. (New York); Chas. Shields' Sons (New York); and E. Ketterlinus & Co. (Philadelphia)., Eighteen prints contain advertising text printed on versos., Two prints contains calendars for 1881 printed on versos., One print [P.9057.52] contains a manuscript note on verso: A.N. Fisher, card with which she read the three volumes of "The Dutch Republic" winter of '77 & '78. The ending of the books were nicer than the rest. Suge? of Leipsig--very good--& you couldn't help being interested in persons, places & performaces. Wm. of Orange's nearly only despicable characteristic was having spies and thru them interrupted [?]., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Digitized.
Date: [ca. 1876-ca. 1882]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Yates [1975.F.679; 1975.F.907; 1975.F.1013 & 1014; 1975.F.1016; 1975.F.1018-1032; P.8666.3i-3l; P.8666.3p; P.8666.3z; P.9057.52; P.9642.7; P.9802.12]

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