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- Title
- Happy contraband
- Description
- Photographic reproduction of a caricature depicting a half-length, cameo portrait of an African American man playing a fife. Shows the man, posed to the right, looking up with his eyes, and holding up with both his hands, a fife to his pursed lips. He leans slightly forward, is portrayed with a furrowed brow, and is attired in a wide-brimmed hat adorned with a ribbon, white shirt with long sleeves, and a dark-colored vest. While commander of Fort Monroe, Virginia, General Benjamin Butler declared freedom seekers as "contraband of war," providing the impetus for Congress to enact the Confiscation Act of 1861. During the war, several visual materials, often satires, depicting Black persons as "contraband" were published., Title from manuscript note on verso., Date inferred from active dates of publisher., RVCDC, Philadelphia Photographic Company operated from 730 Chestnut Street circa 1864-1865 before relocating to 24 N. 8th Street. Active until about circa 1869, the firm, per advertisements, issued a catalog, sold "specialties" for albums, including "from original drawings by artists of high quality," and published "[Thomas H.] Johnson's Photographic Views of the Whole Oil Regions," as well as sold election campaign cards and badges.
- Creator
- Philadelphia Photographic Company
- Date
- [ca. 1865]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv - non-portrait -Philadelphia Photographic Company - Happy [P.2022.50]
- Title
- [Photographic reproduction of an allegorical view including Abraham Lincoln, a pavilion, and marching soldiers]
- Description
- Boudoir card depicting a photographic reproduction of an allegorical Civil War painting by Paul Philippoteaux, possibly a panel from one of his four versions of "The Gettysburg Cyclorama." Shows a figure resembling General George McClellan pointing to Lincoln, his hand on his chest and standing on the steps of a pavilion. A white and African American man stand next to Lincoln. The pavilion is comprised of a tent adorned with ornate shields and stone columns marked "Union" and "Liberty." Urns rest atop the columns. Smoke rises from them. A large statue of the figure of Liberty rises over the pavilion. Inside the pavilion, men in suits sit at a long table at which two other men, one in shirt sleeves, stand and sign documents. A crowd of men stand behind and beside the table. Near the "Liberty" column in the right, a white man breaks the shackles of a male slave as armed African Americans rush by. Troops of soldiers march around the pavilion in front of cheering men, women, and children, including blacksmiths near an anvil, flags, and a shield in the right foreground. In the left foreground, an older man holds the reigns of a rider less grey horse next to a man astride a black horse. In the left background, the U.S. Capitol is visible and in the right background ironclads sail on the ocean. French artist Paul Phillipoteaux was commissioned to create the Gettysburg Cyclorama painting in 1879. Depicting Pickett's charge, he created four versions, with the first completed in 1883 and displayed in Chicago. The second version was first shown in Boston in 1884, with the third and fourth versions shown in Philadelphia and New York in 1886. Two of the four versions are known to be extant (Chicago and Boston). Contemporary descriptions of the extant cyclorama paintings do not include the scene reproduced by Allen & Rowell, who also reproduced "The Gettysburg Cyclorama" as boudoir cards circa 1884., Date inferred from possible provenance and its year of display in Boston., Photographer's imprint printed on verso., Title supplied by cataloger., Purchased with funds for the Visual Culture Program (Junto 2015)
- Creator
- Allen & Rowell
- Date
- [ca. 1884]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - Allen & Rowell [P.2017.83]
- Title
- Fannie Virginia Casseopia Lawrence A redeemed slave child, 5 years of age. Redeemed in Virginia, by Catherine S. Lawrence; baptized in Brooklyn, at Plymouth Church, by Henry Ward Beecher, May, 1863
- Description
- Full-length studio portrait of the acclaimed emancipated slave girl. Depicts Lawrence standing behind a balustrade. She is attired in a fashionable off-the-shoulder white dress with dark stripes on the bodice and tiny polk dots on the skir also adorned with a dark trim. Dark-colored ribbons adorn the edges of her cap sleeves. A vase with flowers adorns the post of the balustrade on which Lawrence rests her elbow., Publication information from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1863, by C. S. Lawrence, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York., Photographer's imprint on verso. Includes an ornament depicting a bundled and intertwined ribbon bordered by vinery., See Kathleen Collin, "Portraits of Slave Children," History of Photography 9 (July-September, 1985), p. 187-210., Purchased with the Davida T. Deutsch African American History Fund.
- Creator
- Kellogg Brothers, photographer
- Date
- [1863]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits - sitter - Lawrence [P.2015.23.1]
- Title
- [Headquarters Lafayette - Headquarters Gen'l Porter. Farinholt's house and York River in the distance.]
- Description
- View from the Civil War showing the headquarters of General Lafayette and General Porter near Yorktown, Virginia during General McClellan's Campaign on the Peninsula. Depicts white Union soldiers, and African American men and a boy, probably freedom seekers, posed before Farinholt's dilapidated house supported by a large log. Several camp tents and the York River are seen in the background., Title from cdv photograph, Brady's Album Gallery, no. 370., Photographer given in Gardner catalogue (see LCP research file)., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1862, by Gardner & Gibson, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Columbia., During the Civil War, the U.S. government declared African American freedom seekers as "contraband of war.", Alexander Gardner was a respected photographer, businessman, and former manager of Mathew Brady's Washington, D.C. Gallery who produced the acclaimed "Photographic sketchbook of the Civil War.", Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of Civil War views. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., 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., James F. Gibson was a prominent Civil War photographer and one-time manager of Mathew Brady's Washington, D.C. gallery who also provided images for photographer Alexander Gardner's "Catalogue of photographic incidences of the war..." and "Photographic sketchbook of the Civil War."
- Creator
- Gibson, James F., 1828-, photographer
- Date
- 1862
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Small Civil War Photograph Collection - stereos - identified photo. [5779.F.6h]
- Title
- Bathsheba at bath
- Description
- Lantern slide formerly owned and probably used in art lessons by Philadelphia painter, photographer, and art teacher, Xanthus Smith. Depicts Bathsheba being bathed by an enslaved Black woman outside on the rooftop. In the center, Bathsheba, nude and attired in a jeweled headpiece, a gold necklace, gold bracelets, earrings, and rings, lounges and rests her left elbow on a pillow. Her right hand grasps grapes on a side table. A cloth is draped over her lower body and her right foot is on a marble and golden basin. A Black woman, attired in a blue and gold striped skirt, and a gold necklace, ring, earrings, and bracelets, sits on a step and dries Bathsheba’s left foot with a white cloth and holds a gold mirror up. On the ground beside her are containers of perfumes, soap, or oil. Stone walls with decorative carved flowers, lion sculptures, and red curtains on rods, as well as trees and the blue sky, are visible in the background., Title from label on mount., Part of "Old Testament" series., Gift of Edna Andrade, 1994., 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
- [ca. 1875]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Lantern Slides-Smith, Xanthus [P.9471]
- Title
- Ladies
- Description
- Lantern slide formerly owned and probably used in art lessons by Philadelphia painter, photographer, and art teacher, Xanthus Smith. Depicts a scene set in Roman antiquity of a white woman, attired in a white gown, dancing before upper-class Romans. In the center is a marble veranda with a roof comprised of a red drape with yellow fringe held up by columns. In the veranda, around a table filled with food and drink, a Roman woman and three men lounge and watch the dancer. Behind them, three enslaved Black men and a woman carry wine flasks, pour drinks, and fan. In the left, white men and women musicians play flutes and tambourines. In the background, a peacock and other birds stand and fly on the palatial building decorated with columns, sculpture, and flowers., Title from partially legible label on mount., Number 19 in "Old Roman World" series., Gift of Edna Andrade, 1994., 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
- [ca. 1875]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Lantern Slides - Smith [P.9471]
- Title
- [Benjamin F. Butler]
- Description
- Reproduction of a bust-length portrait print of the Massachusetts Governor, abolitionist legislator, and Civil War Major General. Butler, attired in uniform, sits facing slightly left. As commander of Fort Monroe, Virginia, he declared freedom seekers as "contraband of war," providing the impetus for Congress to enact the Confiscation Act of 1861., Title supplied by cataloger., Date based on depicted age of the sitter., Accessioned 1979., 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
- [ca. 1861]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits- sitter - Butler [P.2282.107]
- Title
- Emancipation
- Description
- Reproduction of a George Gardner Fish allegorical painting celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) originally photographed by Boston photographer J. P. Soule. Depicts the white female figure Columbia holding out the Emancipation Proclamation and standing between a kneeling enslaved African American man and woman (attired in a head wrap). The bare-chested man holds up the pole of an American flag, while the woman drapes the flag around her naked body. Columbia, attired in a tiara and drapey gown, also holds a bunch of sprigs of laurel, as well as stands on a whip. A partial view of a wagon wheel is visible in the left background., Title from item., Artist and photographer from copy in the collections of the Library of Congress. LC copy "Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by John Sowle [sic], in clerk's office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts.", George Gardner Fish was a Nantucket portrait painter who specialized in pastels. He exhibited at the National Academy of Design between 1858 and 1863., John P. Soule was a Boston photographer who also published stereographs and cartes de visite. He served in the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts at the end of the Civil War., Purchased with the Davida T. Deutsch African American History Fund., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
- Date
- [ca. 1863]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv - misc. - Civil War - Genre & sentimental [P.2014.22]
- Title
- Brady's Album Gallery
- Description
- Incomplete series of the "Brady Album Gallery" of Civil War views first published in 1862 by New York publishers, E. & H.T. Anthony. Contains camp scenes, views of historic residences and military fortifications, and group portraits predominately photographed by unattributed Brady technicians, James F. Gibson and George N. Barnard. Gibson and Barnard hold copyright to twenty-six of the series. Contains series No. 1, 100, 100 (variant), 289, 302 - photographed by Barnard; No. 355, 360-361, 363-372, 377-380, 382-384, 388 - photographed by Gibson; No. 423-424, 427 - copyrighted and probably photographed by Brady., Views include: the incomplete Capitol in Washington, D.C.; General McClellan's 1862 campaign on the Virginia Peninsula including Union artillery batteries near Yorktown and Union headquarters of Generals McClellan, Scott, and Lafayette; and the inflation and ascent of the Union reconnaissance air balloon, "Intrepid." Group portraits depict African American Civil War freedom seekers, Union officers, and Union soldiers., Copyrighted by Barnard & Gibson and Mathew Brady., Stamp of Philadelphia distributor, McAllister and Brother, 728 Chestnut Street, pasted on verso of two of the series., Names of the photographers supplied by "Catalogue of photographic incidents of the war from the gallery of Alexander Gardner (Washington: H. Polkinhorn, 1863)." (Transcription in LCP research file)., Gift of Jesse G. Haydock, 1981., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Forms part of Small Civil War Photograph Collection., 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
- 1862
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department small Civil War photo collection - Brady cdv's [P.9877.1-29]
- Title
- "Nick Biddle" Of Pottsville, Pa., the first man wounded in the Great American Rebellion, "Baltimore, April 18, 1861."
- Description
- Half-length portrait of the older African American volunteer Union soldier, attired in uniform. Biddle, a freedom seeker, sustained his wound - a gash to the head - as his troop, the Washington Artillerists, en route to defend the Capitol, was violently harassed by secessionists., Title from item., Forms part of: McAllister scrapbook of Civil War Portraits. [(1)5775.F]. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
- Date
- [ca. 1861]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department portrait prints - McAllister Civil War scrapbook of portraits [(1)5775.F.8]
- Title
- [Trio gem lantern slide of scenes from Uncle Tom's Cabin]
- Description
- Lantern slide with three sequential scenes from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s "Uncle Tom’s Cabin." Depicts scenes from chapters 26, 40, and 41. Chapter 26 image shows the deathbed scene of Eva St. Clair. Shows Eva in bed, seated up, holding a bouquet of flowers in her lap, and surrounded by people. Eva's parents Mr. and Mrs. St. Clare sit on either side of the bed and Miss Ophelia kneels and cries behind Mr. St. Clare. Mrs. St. Clare holds a fan, has a handkerchief in her lap, and looks toward Eva. Mr. St. Claire, rests his head in one hand, and has his other hand on the bed. In front of Eva, the enslaved men and women of the household, including Tom, kneel, stand, pray, hold handkerchiefs, and cry. The setting also includes a window with open drapes, a curtain behind Eva's bed, and a side table adorned with a vase of flowers. Chapter 40 scene represents the beating of Tom by his enslaver Simon Legree following the escape of the enslaved Cassy and Emmeline. Shows Tom, with grey hair, a grey beard, and barefooted, lying on a pile of cotton on the floor of a shed. Legree stands over him with one hand clenched in a fist toward his chest and the other clenched by his side as he raises up one of his feet. Chapter 41 scene shows an adult George Shelby visiting with the beaten and dying Tom after locating him in order to see if he "couldn't buy him back." Shows Tom lying on a pile of cotton near the opening to a shed. An open book lies near him by his hand. Shelby leans over Tom and holds his hand. In the background, outside of the opening, Legree stands, with his hands in his pant pockets and watching the men., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from format., Printed on cover glass: Gem Slide. Gem Slide., Contains ornamental pictorial details in the corners of the cover glass., Contains label with series number: 107., Gift of David Doret., RVCDC
- Date
- [ca. 1890]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Doret and Mitchell Collection - Photographs [P.2020.39.9]