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- Title
- Benjamin Lay
- Description
- Full-length portrait of the eccentric radical Quaker abolitionist, author, and hermit, his left hand slightly raised. He holds a cane and a book titled, "African Emancipation" in his other hand., Published as frontispiece in Roberts Vaux's Memoirs of the Lives of Benjamin Lay and Ralph Sandiford:...(Philadelphia: Solomon W. Conrad, 1815). (LCP Am 1815 Vaux, Log 1971.D)., Manuscript note below image: the Hermit - Nat: 1677. Ob: 1759. He was one of the first public advocates for the emancipation of the enslaved Africans. [Vide Memoirs of his life by R. Vaux.]. See page 124., Portrait of Rev. Richard Allen on recto. (LCP Yi 2, 1069.F. 276), From John Fanning Watson's Extra-illustrated Autograph Manuscript of "Annals of Philadelphia," p. 277. (LCP Yi 2, 1069).
- Creator
- Kneass, William, 1780-1840, engraver
- Date
- [ca. 1815]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Print Portraits-L [Yi 2, 1069.F.276 (verso)]
- Title
- [Road to Philadelphy]
- Description
- Racist caricature simultaneously mocking and condoning the pretentiousness and bigotry of early 19th century Philadelphia Quakers toward their "social inferiors." Shows a Philadelphia road in front of a small home with an open picket fence and a visitor arriving on horseback. In front of the fence, a dark skinned traveler, possibly an Irishman or African American, with buck teeth and carrying a knapsack and a walking stick, asks a rotund white Quaker man and his attractive prim and proper daughter, "I say, this isn't the road to Philadelphy, honey, is it?" The father responds indignantly to the "Friend," that he is not only asking a question, but also telling a lie, and of course it is the road., Attributed to E.W. Clay., Title and publication information supplied by Wainwright., Philadelphia on Stone, Clay, born in Philadelphia, was the most prolific caricaturist of the Jacksonian era. He became well known for his popular racist series, "Life in Philadelphia," published from 1828 until around 1830, which mocked upwardly mobile African American Philadelphians as ineptly attempting to imitate the white middle class., Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American political caricaturist of the Jacksonian era. (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 76, 358. (LCP Print Room, Uz A423.O), LCP holds duplicate untrimmed print: *Wainwright 315., Accessioned 1982., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
- Creator
- Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, artist
- Date
- [1830 or 1831]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department W315 [P.2179]
- Title
- Roberts Vaux
- Description
- Half-length portrait of the Philadelphia Quaker philanthropist, abolitionist, and social reformer who helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 and who wrote several pamphlets against the spread of slavery into the western territories. Vaux, attired in a white shirt, a black waistcoat, and a black jacket, looks at the viewer., Title from printed signature of sitter below image., Date inferred from content and medium., Printed below image: I am with great truth thy affectionate friend, Roberts Vaux., Accessioned 1893., 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., Newsam, a respected Philadelphia lithographer, was a deaf mute who received early art training at Philadelphia's Institute for the Deaf and Dumb.
- Creator
- Newsam, Albert, 1809-1864, lithographer
- Date
- [ca. 1840]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Portrait prints-V [5657.F.15a]
- Title
- Roberts Vaux
- Description
- Half-length portrait of the Philadelphia Quaker philanthropist, abolitionist, and social reformer who helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 and who wrote several pamphlets against the spread of slavery into the western territories. Vaux, attired in a white shirt, a black waistcoat, and a black jacket, looks at the viewer., Title from printed signature of sitter below image., Date inferred from content and medium., Printed below image: I am with great truth thy affectionate friend, Roberts Vaux., Accessioned after 1870 and before 1900., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Newsam, a respected Philadelphia lithographer, was a deaf mute who received early art training at Philadelphia's Institute for the Deaf and Dumb.
- Creator
- Newsam, Albert, 1809-1864, lithographer
- Date
- [ca. 1840]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Portrait prints-V [1885.F.23]

