Search results

(1 - 4 of 4)

Title: Ellen Craft, the fugitive slave
Description: Half-length portrait taken circa 1849-50 of Craft attired in the persona of Mr. William Johnson, a young, infirm enslaver. Shows the light-complexioned, multiracial Craft with one arm in a sling and wearing short hair, spectacles, a top hat, a jacket, a shirt, and a cravat. Craft and her husband William escaped slavery in Macon, GA in December 1848 by posing as a planter and his dedicated man servant. The couple arrived in Philadelphia on Christmas Day, relocating to Boston, and later London. Craft wore a sling to conceal her inability to write, as well as a poultice tied to her chin and around her head to further disguise her gender. The chin poultice was "left off in the engraving, because the likeness could not have been taken well with it on" (Craft, 35). Before publication as the frontispiece to the Craft's memoir, the portrait was separately issued and advertised by English abolitionists., Title from item., Published in Running a thousand miles for freedom; or the escape of William and Ellen Craft from slavery (London: Wm. Tweedie, 1861), frontispiece [Am 1861 Craft, 71339.D]., Purchased with the Davida T. Deutsch African American History Fund., Hale and Schoff worked within blocks of the office of the abolitionist newspaper "The Liberator" in Boston. Additionally, Hale, Schoff, and Andrews were all members of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 2014, p. 37., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: J. Andrews & S. A. Schoff, engraver
Date: [ca. 1850-ca. 1861]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department portrait prints - C [P.2014.61]

Title: "I'm a farder"
Description: Set of four collecting cards depicting racist caricatures of African Americans to satirize fatherhood and the question of paternity. Titles are in the vernacular. Includes "I'm a Farder" showing a dapperly-dressed African American man, attired in a white collared shirt, a red tie, a gray waistcoat, a blue jacket, and blue-and-white striped pants. He talks to his "Aunty," an African American woman, attired in a red and yellow head kerchief, hoop earrings, a green and red shawl, a red dress, and a white apron, and holding her hands to her chest; "Aunty Says Der Am Two" showing the man with a sheepish look and his hands in his pockets while "Aunty" smiles; "And Dat One Am kinder White" showing the man aghast and standing straight up as "Aunty" holds out her hands in a near gesture of comfort; and "If Dat Chile Dont Change Color Der'l Be Trouble in Dis Yer Fam'ly" showing the man forlorn, hands in pockets, and looking down at this two infants being held by "Aunty" in her lap, while she sits in a chair under a placard reading "Bless Our Home." The baby in the left has a dark skin tone, and the baby in the right has a light skin tone., Copyrighted., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Purchase 2012., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Purchased with funds from the Albert M. Greenfield Foundation., 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: [ca. 1880]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - Genre [P.2012.23.1-4]

Title: Marriage certificate. We are one forever. This certifies that [Green Allen] and [Mary E. Foster] were united in holy matrimony by me according to the ordinance of God, laws of the state of [Mich] at [Decatur] on the [30] day of October. In the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and [79] [Isaac Moss Minister of the Gospel. Witnesses [Sarah A. Foster] [David Moss]
Description: Marriage certificate containing the bust-length, carte-de-visite studio portrait photographs of Green T. Allen, Jr. and Mary E. Foster surrounded by text, pictorial details, and a geometrically-shaped border. Allen and Foster identified as multiracial in census records. Allen's portrait depicts the young man, looking to the right, and attired in a jacket with a notch lapel, a multi-colored tie, and white shirt with lapel collar. He also has a mustache and wears his hair short and greased flat. Foster's portrait (hand-colored) depicts the young woman, looking to the right, and attired in a garment with ruffle details at the shoulder and a neckerchief with fringe. She wears her long, wavy hair pulled back in the front and loose in the back. She also wears earrings. Between and around the portraits are pictorial details depicting flowers, grapes, vinery, doves (in nests), and scrollwork. Allen, son of Cass County, Michigan farmer Green Allen, Sr. was also a farmer, and a Justice of Township later in life. Allen, Jr. and Mary E. (Foster) Allen, daughter of a Decatur, Michigan farmer, had two children, son Charles F. Allen (1880-1971) and daughter Ethel May Allen Goens (1886-1942). Green T. Allen Jr.'s father was a founder of the prominent Black community of Southwest Michigan that settled in the area via the Underground Railroad., Title from item., Date of printing inferred from manuscript date., Completed in manuscript to Green Allen and Mary E. Foster on October 30, 1879. Signed Isaac Moss, Sarah A. Foster, and David Moss. Sarah A. Foster, later Cannon, was the sister of Mary E. Foster. Isaac Moss was a farmer and reverend. David Moss, son of Isaac Moss, was a farmer., Contains newspaper clipping from a ca. 1918 March edition of "The Cassopolis (Mich.) Vigilant" on verso. Clipping is backing for portrait photographs., RVCDC, W.P. Cooper was a teacher by the 1870s and had previously attended law school.
Creator: Cooper, W.P, 1822-1888, designer
Date: [completed 1879, printed ca. 1875]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Certificates - Marriage [P.2024.46.1]

Title: Perilous escape of Eliza and child
Description: Print of a scene from Stowe's popular, anti-slavery novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," originally published in 1851. Depicts the character Eliza, an African American woman freedom seeker, escaping from Kentucky to Ohio across the icy Ohio River. Eliza, depicted barefoot and with a light skin tone, clutches her son Harry to her breast and straddles two blocks of ice as she looks behind her at the irate white man enslaver on the shore near the tavern from which she has fled., Title from item., Purchase 1997., 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., Stong was a prolific New York mid 19th-century lithographer, wood engraver, and publisher who mainly published stock prints.
Creator: Strong, Thomas W., lithographer
Date: [ca. 1853]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Fictional Characters [P.9524.2]

Main menu