© Copyright 2020 - 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
- Raising colored infant - ry
- Description
- Racist satiric print comprised of a watercolor drawing and a photograph showing a white man in civilian clothes feeding an African American doll. The man, attired in a white shirt, a black bowtie, a gray vest, gray pants, and black shoes, sits on a wooden chair and holds a spoon to the doll, costumed in a white layette gown. A bowl labeled "Bounty" is set upon a wooden chair in the left. A photograph cut-out of a head, presumably of a white commander of an African American regiment, rests on the drawn body of the man., Title from manuscript note written on the recto., Date inferred from content., Originally part of a McAllister Civil War scrapbook of humorous views and photographs. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., Created postfreeze., 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. 1863]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Drawings & Watercolors - unidentified - R [5780.F.5c]
- Title
- Storming of Missionary Ridge
- Description
- Panoramic view showing the Union victory at the Battle of Missionary Ridge near Chattanooga, Tennessee on November 25, 1863. Shows Union troops carrying an American flag as the men break through the Confederate line. An African American Union corps drummer marches behind the soldiers. Shows Union and Confederate soldiers firing and falling in battle near brush and fallen trees, and Confederate troops retreating past a homestead in the background., Title from item., Gift of David Doret, 2002., 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.
- Creator
- Philadelphia Panorama Co., distributor
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Civil War - Campaigns & battles - Missionary Ridge [P.2002.50.3]
- Title
- Scene of camp life
- Description
- Busy scene showing numerous activities occurring simultaneously at a military camp. In the center, Union Generals look at a map while sitting and standing under a canopy made from an American flag. In the background, soldiers drill on horseback, with cannons, and in lines near rows of tents. In the left, two barefooted African American men and a child approach a Zouave. A white man soldier stands with a rifle and looks on while another white man soldier leans upon a cannon., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Create postfreeze., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of Civil War Views, Places & Events. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., Trimmed., 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. 1863]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - Civil War - Military Camps [5779.F.90f]
- Title
- Soldiers memorial. 4th Regiment. Company F. U.S. Col. Troops Mustered into the United States Service at Baltimore, Md., Aug. 4, 1863, by Col. Wm. Birney
- Description
- Stock commemorative certificate with some variations for the African American 4th Regiment, Company F troop and containing a montage of allegorical and battle scenes, patriotic motifs, and soldier vignettes above the printed names of 4th Regiment Privates, Lieutenants, Sergeants, Corporals, and Field and Staff Officers. The allegorical scene depicts the female figure of Columbia, resting upon an American shield and seated next to an American eagle that looks down on a snake it clutches under its claws. Columbia holds her head with her left hand and the "Constitution of the United States" down between her knees in the other. She is portrayed as a white woman with long dark hair, wearing a gold headpiece and white veil, and attired in a dress with a blue bodice, red skirt, and white sleeves and collar. Surrounding the central scene (counterclockwise) are views of white Union soldiers at battle and firing cannons near a harbor and across from Union forts displaying American flags; a departing white Union solder embracing his wife in front of his family, an older woman holding her grandchild, his crying son, and their dog, outside of their home in the countryside as troops march in the distance; white Union cavalry corps charging during battle; the previously depicted white Union soldier returning home, shown in mid stride and holding his cap in the air as his family heads toward him with their arms out; and white Union soldiers, with a cannon, and at battle near a trench. The scene and views within the montage are bordered and framed by portraits of George Washington, Henry Clay, and Andrew Jackson and pictorial details of American flags, flowers, and filigree., Pictorial details surrounding the names of the soldiers in the lower half of the print include outer columns composed of marble and wood trunks with one unsplit and adorned with the placard "United We Stand" and another split with stakes and adorned with the placard "Divided we fall; inner columns wrapped within the American flag; medallions depicted with red, white, and blue stripes and stars; and images of the American eagle atop an American shield that is adorned with a banner reading "E Pluribus Unum." A. Hoen & Co. printed several slightly variant copies of the Soldiers Memorial in 1866, to commemorate different regiments and with different publishers. In the upper half of the print, the montage imagery remained the same, and in the lower half of the print, the imagery for and near the columns was altered in addition to the printed names of the officers and soldiers and their placement between the columns. The 4th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry was organized in Maryland, July 15-September 1, 1863. The African American unit saw action in Virginia and North Carolina before being mustered out May 4, 1866 after the designation change to 76th U.S. Colored Troops on April 4, 1864. The Regiment lost nearly 300 officers and enlisted men while in service., Title from item., Name of publisher from publication statement: Published at Baltimore by Jos. L. Kessler., Date inferred from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1863 by Whitney & Anderson in Dist. C. of Md., Purchased with Louise Marshall Kelly Fund.
- Date
- [ca. 1863]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Certificates [P.2022.28.2]
- Title
- Soldiers Home in the city of Philadelphia. This certifies that [Charles Macalester] having contributed the sum of [fifty] dollars is constituted a [life] member of the Soldiers Home. Philada
- Description
- Certificate containing an allegorical scene depicting a central, winged female figure, seated, and surrounded by wounded soldiers and other female figures. The central figure has long, dark hair, adorned with a headband, and is attired in a toga with a drape-like shawl. Her arms are outstretched to her sides. Celestial light frames her head. In her left hand, she holds an olive branch. Broken shackles adorn her right wrist. In her lap, a loose scales of justice rests atop a sword. At her feet, a pair of white and African American soldiers and sailors sits and lies. In the left, the white soldier, a bandage on his arm, sits on a bound volume, near a canteen, and in front of the seated African American soldier. The latter wears a bandage on his head and rests the right side of his head on his right hand. The white soldier holds up a sheet of paper inscribed "Honorable Discharge" to the winged figure. The white sailor sits across from the white soldier. His head and left arm are bandaged and crutches rest by his side. He extends his right hand and holds his cap out to the winged figure. The African American sailor, prone, and partially visible behind him, does the same. American flags, on their sides and their upper poles adorned with wreaths of garland, rest among the soldiers and sailors. Four allegorical female figures, two and two, flank the central figure. To her left, one holds a basket of bounty as the other (behind her) tosses wreathes of garland. To her right, one holds a pocket watch as the other (behind her) shoots lightning from her hand. In the left background, wreathes rain upon soldiers, some in bandages, who march and carry American flags. In the right background, lightning bolts strike an ironclad ship on open waters., The soldiers home chartered in 1862, opened in December 1863, and incorporated in 1864 was an outgrowth of the relief organization, the Cooper Shop Volunteer Refreshment Saloon. The founding relief organization provided hospital care, washing, sleeping, and writing facilities to military personnel, sailors, refugees, and free people during the war. The Soldiers Home was chartered with the mission of "the providing of a temporary or permanent Home for all persons who, while in the military service of the United States of America, either upon land or sea, shall become disable from wounds, or from sickness, so that they are unable to perform the ordinary avocations of life." The Soldiers Home operated until 1889 when the Board of Managers dissolved itself and turned the home over to the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States., Title from item, Date inferred from year organization was chartered., Completed in manuscript on January 1, 1866 and signed by E. S. Hall, Secretary; Ellerslie Wallace, President; and Wm. Struthers, Treasurer., Charles Macalester was a Philadelphia financier and philanthropist. Macalester College is named for him., Gift of David Doret, 2002., For a history of the Home, including the process to transfer administration of the home to the Loyal Legion, see Ferdinand Sermiento, ed., Historical Sketch of the Soldiers' Home ... (1886) [Am 1886 Phi Sol Hom 24755.O]., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
- Creator
- Sartain, John, 1808-1897, engraver
- Date
- [ca. 1862]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Philadelphia certificates - Organizations - Soldiers [P.2002.40.1]
- Title
- View of the Philadelphia volunteer refreshment saloons
- Description
- Civil War souvenir print containing six views of the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon at the southwest corner of Washington and Swanson Avenues and the Cooper Shop Volunteer Refreshment Saloon at 1009 Ostego Street. Contains a large central view of the exterior of the Union Saloon with troops arriving, entering the dining saloon, and departing on a Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad car as crowds of people flock around them. Other views depict soldiers using the wash basins adjoining the Cooper Shop Saloon; pro-Union flags and Saloon banners; the Union Saloon's outside washing and cooking departments including an African American man carrying a pail of food; and interiors of both saloons where male and female volunteers attend to long tables of food and a large simmering vat on a hearth. Contains an eagle clutching large American flags and a pro-Union banner above the scenes. Situated at the transportation hub between the North and the South, the relief organizations provided hospital care, washing, sleeping, and writing facilities to over 1,000,000 military personnel, sailors, refugees, and freedmen during the war., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to An Act of Congress in the Year 1861 by Job T. Williams in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 806, Print trimmed., Gift of Isadore Lichstein, 1984., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Queen, a Philadelphia lithographer and pioneer chromolithographer known for his attention to detail, served in the Civil War militia from 1862 until 1863, and created several lithographs with Civil War subjects, including views of and contribution certificates for the city's relief institutions.
- Creator
- Queen, James Fuller, 1820 or 1821-1886, artist
- Date
- 1861
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **W434 [P.9001.6]
- Title
- Enlistment of Sickles brigade
- Description
- Caustic satire depicting the enlistment by notorious New York Congressman Colonel Daniel Sickles of recruits from offices near New York's crime-ridden Five Points area. The congested scene depicts several men, including African American men, clustered on a city street near a liquor store. In the left, Sickles, unwigged, stands above the crowd, and holds out Bibles in each hand. In the right above the crowd, "Mrs. Higby," wife of a New York clergyman, hands out pipes to the men (an allusion to Sickles's men being given pipes and Bibles for enlisting). A sign near Sickles reads "The Capital in danger. Sickles Brigade to the Rescue!!" A sign near Mrs. Higby reads "Pipes for the noble saviors of their country by Mrs. Higby." The "enlisting" men wear torn, worn, and patched uniforms or street clothes and hold picket signs, guns, and clubs. Within the crowd, a pit bull terrier and a white boy watch the melee, which includes a white man, attired in a uniform and a "Colonel Sickles Brigade" cap, offering an African American man a medal, who scratches his head, next to another African American man, attired in uniform and portrayed in racist caricature, and seated on a barrel. A few years before the war in 1859, Sickles gained notoriety for murdering Philip Barton Key II for having an affair with his wife Teresa Bagioli. He was acquitted based on the first successful use of the insanity defense in the U.S., Inscribed upper left corner: 6., Issued as plate 6 in Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), a series of pro-Confederacy cartoons drawn and published by Baltimore cartoonist Adalbert John Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada. The "first issue" of 10 prints (numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24), with imprint "London, 1863" were printed as etchings. The remaining 20 prints (numbered 4, 8, 9-11, 14, 17-20, 23, 25-27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 40, 45) headed "Second and third issues of V. Blada's war sketches" and dated "London, July 30, 1864" were printed as lithographs., Tile and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Research file about artist available at repository., Accessioned 1935., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
- Creator
- Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
- Date
- [1863]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Volck - Sketches - Volck 6 [2990.F.23]
- Title
- On the march to the sea
- Description
- Civil War scene from Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's notorious campaign across Georgia in 1864 and 1865 depicting the depredation and destruction of countryside near the Atlantic coast. Amidst smoke, Sherman sits on his horse, looks through a scope, and scouts the horizon. Around him, white men Union soldiers and an African American man dismantle railroad tracks, and further down the line a railroad car has been set on fire. Newly free African Americans leave on foot and by raft. In the right, an African American family of a mother, father, son, and grandfather, attired in worn and torn cloths, carry bundles as they travel over the dismantled railroad tracks. The mother holds her son’s one hand while he uses the other to rub his eyes. The father rests his hand on the back of the grandfather. Behind them, two Union soldiers cut down a telegraph pole. In the background, Union soldiers round up cattle, burn homesteads and a bridge, and fire upon retreating Confederate soldiers. In the lower margin is a portrait of Sherman., Title from item., Plate signed by Darley lower right corner., Manuscript note on verso: Acc. No. 0479; Gift Minnie Owen., See Nancy Finlay's Inventing the American past: the art of F.O.C. Darley (New York: New York Public Library, 1999), p. 28 and opp. p. 32., Accessioned 2000., 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., Ritchie, a New York painter and prolific engraver of portraits and genre scenes, produced many engravings after the works of the premier illustrator of the 19th century and native Philadelphian, F.O.C. Darley.
- Creator
- Ritchie, Alexander Hay, 1822-1895, engraver
- Date
- c1868
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC-Civil War [P.9854]
- Title
- Reading the Emancipation Proclamation
- Description
- Print depicting a white Union soldier reading the Emancipation Proclamation to families of enslaved African Americans in a cabin. The families are depicted with anxious and solemn mannerisms. Family members surround the officer near a dining table and hearth. An older boy holds a torch providing the officer with light. The father watches over the soldier's shoulder. Other figures, including a "young woman with two children, the house servant of her [enslaver], not belonging to the cabin but happened to be in on the occasion" pray, cheer, and cling to their mothers. Interior also includes a side of bacon hanging next to a ladder, a drying line with cotton balls handing from it above the hearth, and a cradle. Contains portrait of Abraham Lincoln below the image. The Emancipation Proclamation, effective January 1, 1863, granted African Americans not only their right to freedom but the right to join the Union Army., Title from item., Date from copyright statement., After painting by Henry Walker Herrick exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York in 1865. Exhibited by "possessor" Lucius Stebbins., Publisher and copyright holder Stebbins published complementary pamphlet "Emancipation Proclamation of January 1st, 1864 [sic]" that included "Description of the Engraving." Description: Old man at the right with folded hands, Grand-father; Old lady at the left with cane in hand, Grand-mother; man leaning on ladder, the father; woman with child in her arms, the mother; lad swinging his hat, oldest son; one holding torch, second son; little girl, oldest daughter; infant in the arms of its mother. Young woman with two children, the house servant of her master, not belonging to the cabin but happened to be in on the occasion. Party reading, Union Soldier. The internal view of the Cabin is true to nature. The stone chimney, garret, ladder, side of bacon, rough cradle, piece of sugar cane and cotton balls, &c, all combine to give a correct idea of the slaves' home. Lincoln Financial Foundation copy of pamphlet accessible at Internet Archive., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1993, p. 44., LCP exhibition catalogue: An African American Miscellany p. 22., Purchase 1993., 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., Lucius Stebbins (1810-1901), born in Massachussets, worked in Hartford, Connecticut, in the businesses of map coloring and subscription book publishing (American Publishing Company).
- Creator
- Watts, James W., -1895, engraver
- Date
- 1864
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC-Emancipation [P.9429]
- Title
- Specimen sheet Union, patriotic and humorous designs upon envelopes
- Description
- Advertisement containing twenty-five examples of Civil War envelope vignettes published by King & Baird. Majority of the vignettes include titles and slogans. Designs depict the American flag; liberty, the American eagle; soldiers (including the martyred Colonel Ellsworth); caricatures of Brigadier General Henry A. Wise (former governor of Virginia), Jefferson Davis, and the Southern gentry; a portrait of Washington; an abolitionist scene showing the whipping of an African American man entitled "The persuasive eloquence of the Sunny South"; and a racist caricature of an African American man on all fours carrying a whip and asking in the vernacular, "Whar's Jeff Davis?" Also contains a description of the envelopes and shipping information, as well as the scale of prices ranging from "25 Assorted Envelopes, (25 kinds)" at 25 cents to 1000 at 5 dollars., Title from item., Text printed on recto: Single copies of this sheet will be mailed free of postage, upon receipt of six cents, by King & Baird, Book and Job Printers, 607 Sansom St., Philadelphia., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of miscellaneous Civil War prints. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886 [5786.F.161a]. Accessioned 2002 [P.2002.45]., 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.
- Creator
- King & Baird
- Date
- [ca. 1863]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Civil War [5786.F.161a; P.2002.45]
- Title
- Heroes of the colored race
- Description
- Print commemorating men prominent in and representative of the advancement of African American civil rights. Depicts a central vignette of bust-length portraits of ex-Senator Blanche Kelso Bruce of Mississippi, abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and ex-Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi surrounded by four scenes of pre- and post-Civil War African American life. Includes two titled scenes, "Receiving the News of the Emancipation" depicting an older African American man, two women, and children celebrating, and "Studying the Lesson" depicting an African American man teacher instructing a classroom of children. Adorning the borders of the central vignette are a portrait of John Brown flanked by a horn of plenty and school books, and an eagle holding American flags embellished with portraits of Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, and Ulysses S. Grant. Other scenes depict enslaved African American men and women picking cotton and African American Civil War soldiers fighting a battle. Includes corner portraits of African American legislators John R. Lynch of Mississippi, Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina, Robert Smalls of South Carolina, and Charles E. Nash of Louisiana., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1975, p. 60-61., Gift of Gordon Colket, 1975., Reaccessioned as P.9615., 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
- 1881
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC - African American Heroes [8140.F]