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Title: [Group portrait of members of the First Association of Spiritualists, Philadelphia]
Description: Depicts the members, including two African American women, on the steps of their temple completed in 1901 at 12th and Thompson Streets. Shows the men and women standing on the sidewalk, on the steps, and in front of the open door before the entrance. Mounted on the brick wall is a plaque that reads, Temple First Association of Spiritualists. Rev. Will. J. Erwood…” The First Association of Spiritualists was a religious group that began as a benevolent society in 1852 in search of spiritual truth through spirit guides, seances, and science., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from postcard type and attire of the sitters., Azo postcard., See Robert Bogdan and Todd Weseloh’s “Real Photo Postcard Guide: The People’s Photography,” (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2006), p. 223., Gift of Chris Boas, 1990., 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., Keith was a Philadelphia photographer who specialized in portraiture, mainly of working-class Philadelphians in South Philadelphia and Kensington from the late 1910s to the 1940s.
Creator: Keith, John Frank, 1883-1947, photographer
Date: [ca. 1917]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photographs - Keith [P.9295]

Title: [Group portrait of members of the First Association of Spiritualists, Philadelphia]
Description: Depicts the members, including two African American women, on the steps of their temple completed in 1901 at 12th and Thompson Streets. Shows the men and women standing on the sidewalk, on the steps, and in front of the open door before the entrance. Mounted on the brick wall is a plaque that reads, Temple First Association of Spiritualists. Rev. Will. J. Erwood…” The First Association of Spiritualists was a religious group that began as a benevolent society in 1852 in search of spiritual truth through spirit guides, seances, and science., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from postcard type and attire of the sitters., Azo postcard., See Robert Bogdan and Todd Weseloh’s “Real Photo Postcard Guide: The People’s Photography,” (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2006), p. 223., Gift of Chris Boas, 1990., 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., Keith was a Philadelphia photographer who specialized in portraiture, mainly of working-class Philadelphians in South Philadelphia and Kensington from the late 1910s to the 1940s.
Creator: Keith, John Frank, 1883-1947, photographer
Date: [ca. 1917]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photographs - Keith [P.9295]

Title: Girl standing in front of the First Association of Spiritualists Temple, Philadelphia
Description: Portrait of a teenage girl wearing a summer dress trimmed with lace and a bow around her head standing in front of the First Association of Spiritualists Temple, located at 12th and Thompson Streets in Philadelphia. A partially visible sign on the wall behind her reads: "will be observed in this temple Sunday, March 28th, Special music & Singing.", Photographer's imprint stamped on verso: John Frank Keith, 824 Sentner St., Crescentville, Phila., Pa., Kruxo postcard., See Robert Bogdan and Todd Weseloh’s “Real Photo Postcard Guide: The People’s Photography,” (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2006), p. 231., Keith was a Philadelphia photographer who specialized in portraiture, mainly of working-class Philadelphians in South Philadelphia and Kensington from the 1910s to the 1940s.
Creator: Keith, John Frank, 1883-1947, photographer
Date: ca. 1915
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Photographs-Keith [P.2008.10.43]

Title: The greatest wonder of the age! Intense excitement Natural laws set at defiance! A course of lectures will be delivered on human electricity at the Assembly Buildings, corner of Tenth and Chestnut Streets, Saturday evening, Jan'y 7, 1865 and every evening until further notice. These lectures will be illustrated by the most extraordinary displays! astounding phenomena, and physical manifestations! through Mrs. Ferris and the brothers and sister Eddy: and which set at defiance gravitation and other known laws. ... A committee will be selected nightly by the audience Doors open at half-past 6. To commence at half-past 7. Admission, 50 cents. Reserved front seats, 75 cents may be secured daily at the box office, from 10 to 12 A.M., and from 3 to 5 P.M
Description: Printed area, including double-rule border, measures 42.7 x 16.3 cm., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War.
Creator: Assembly Buildings (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Date: [1865]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare PB Phi Assembly 1865 (6)5761.F.29b (McAllister)

Title: The greatest wonder of the age! Intense excitement Natural laws set at defiance! A course of lectures will be delivered on human electricity at the Assembly Buildings, corner of Tenth and Chestnut Streets, commencing on Thursday evening, January 5, 1865 and every evening until further notice. These lectures will be illustrated by the most extraordinary displays! astounding phenomena, and physical manifestations! through Mrs. Ferris and the brothers and sister Eddy: and which set at defiance gravitation and other known laws. ... A committee will be selected nightly by the audience Doors open at half-past 6. To commence at half-past 7. Admission, 50 cents. Reserved front seats, 75 cents may be secured daily at the box office, from 10 to 12 A.M., and from 3 to 5 P.M
Description: Printed area, including double-rule border, measures 42.4 x 16.4 cm., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War.
Creator: Assembly Buildings (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Date: [1865]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare PB Phi Assembly 1865 (6)5761.F.29a (McAllister)

Title: Davis, Mary F., active 19th century.
Description: In The magic staff : an autobiography of Andrew Jackson Davis (New York, 1857), plate opposite p. [19]., Facsimile signature: Mary F. Davis., Mary Fenn Davis divorced her first husband, Samuel G. Love (1821-1893), in order to marry celebrity spiritualist Andrew Jackson Davis (1826-1910) in 1855. In 1885, Andrew Jackson Davis had their marriage annulled after he discovered that he had made a mistake thirty years earlier when he determined that he and Mary Fenn Davis were soul mates. He then married Della E. Markham (1839-1928). Already a temperance lecturer when she met Andrew Jackson Davis, Mary Fenn Davis worked alongside her husband in writing and editorial projects during their marriage., Waist-length portrait of Mrs. Davis, dressed simply with a lace collar and a brooch at her neck.
Date: [1857?]

Title: The black Republicans at their devotions
Description: Cartoon exploiting the stereotypes of the factions comprising the recently formed antislavery political party, the Republicans, before the Presidential Election of 1856. Depicts a meeting of the party members singing "Du da, du da." In the left is a white man, attired in a brimmed hat, a white collared shirt, a white waistcoat, and a black jacket and carrying a paper that reads, “Bobtail Hoss.” He represents a "puritanical bigot" abolitionist “who goes strongly in favor of stealing negroes.” In the center is a white man, attired in a white collared shirt, a black bowtie, a black waistcoat, and a black jacket, who is a "disciple of Free Love and Fremont" (i.e., John C. Fremont, the Republican presidential nominee). In the right, is a white man, wearing long hair and a beard and attired in spectacles, a ruffled, white collar shirt with a brooch, and a black jacket, who represents the "long bearded spiritualist." In the left foreground is an African American man, portrayed in racist caricature, who remarks in the vernacular, “Mass mos’ as good as brudder Bones.” In the background, more people sing “Du da,” including a woman, attired in spectacles, and described as “a hooked nosed, masculine crocodile, who is descanting upon woman’s rights and niggers’ wrongs.” Also visible is a statue of a man holding a staff atop a pedestal labeled “Du da.”, Title from item., Date inferred from content., Text printed on recto, below image: “The Mustang colt is young and strong, Du da du da; His wind is good, his knees not sprung, Du da du da da!” The artist has given in this group a representative of nearly all the isms that go to make up the pie-bald conglomeration of which the Black Republican party is composed. Here is the long-bearded spiritualist, who, like his candidate, has more hair than brains; then we have the genuine Aminidab Sleek, or the true disciple of Free Love and Fremont; then there is the sour, morose, puritanical bigot, who goes strongly in favor of stealing negroes, because their services can be secured at a much lower rate than he would have to pay white men; the darkey, emerging from below, is grinning with ferocious delight at the ‘Du da du,’ which is to exalt niggers above “sassy white people;” there is a wide and foul-mouthed slang-monger, in the back-ground, who goes in for free discussion on one side; a hooked nosed, masculine crocodile, who is descanting upon woman’s rights and niggers’ wrongs, because he is too lazy to work. There is the picture—look at it. Du da du. Nero fiddled while Rome was burning. Black Republicans sing foolish songs while the glorious fabric which our fathers reared in peril and blood, is dissolving in the fires of fanaticism. They make no appeal to our reason, but to our imagination; the reason and the judgment is not addressed, only our passions and our prejudices. They cannot sing a mere political adventurer into the Presidential chair., Originally part of American political caricatures, likely a scrapbook, accessioned 1899. Collection primarily comprised of gifts from Samuel Breck, John A. McAllister, and James Rush., 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date: [1856]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1856-Bla [5760.F.94]

Title: Fox sisters.
Description: In Illustrated news, vol. 1, no. 5 (Jan. 29, 1853), p. 80., Signed: [undeciphered monogram] del., Waist-length portraits of the spiritualists Kate (i.e., Catherine) and Margaretta (i.e., Margaret) Fox; Margaretta has her arm around Kate.
Date: [1853?]

Title: Mettler, Semantha Beers, 1818-1880.
Description: In Green, F.H. Biography of Mrs. Semantha Mettler, the clairvoyant (New York, 1853), frontispiece., Facsimile signature: Semantha Mettler., Waist-length portrait of the medium, wearing a dress with a lace collar.
Date: [1853?]

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