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- Title
- The resurrection of Henry Box Brown at Philadelphia Who escaped from Richmond Va. in a box 3 feet long 2 1/2 ft. deep and 2 ft. wide
- Description
- Antislavery print celebrating the moment freedom seeker Henry Box Brown emerged from his crate in Philadelphia. Brown, with the assistance of the Vigilance Committee of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, escaped slavery by having himself shipped to Philadelphia where he emerged in the presence of abolitionists Professor Charles D. Cleveland, J. Miller M'Kim, William Still, and printer Lewis Thompson. Depicts Brown just emerging from his box with Still holding the crate's lid labeled, "Wm. Johnson, Arch St. Philadelphia, This side up with Care;" Cleveland with a saw in his right hand; M'Kim with a hatchet in one hand and using his other hand to help Still hold the lid; and Thompson pointing to Brown with his right hand as he holds in his free hand a walking stick., Title from item., Date inferred from variant described in Reilly and LCP copy described by Jeffrey Ruggles, The unboxing of Henry Box Brown (Richmond: The Library of Virginia, 2003), 114. Ruggles notes copies of the print had been received and advertised by the "Anti-Slavery Bugle" of Ohio before March 8, 1851., Variant reproduced in William Still, The underground railroad (1872) p.70. [LCP Am 1872 Still, 56405.O]., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 1975, p. 59-60., Purchase 1975., 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., Call number in location based on Reilly entry., Kramer was a German born painter and lithographer who worked with the Rosenthals, a prominent Philadelphia family of lithographers, by 1850 and through the early 1850s.
- Creator
- Kramer, Peter, 1823-1907, artist
- Date
- [ca. 1850 - ca. 1851]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1850-4R variant [8183.F]
- Title
- Whig equestrian exercises - ground and lofty tumbling
- Description
- Cartoon mocking 1852 Whig Presidential candidate General Winfield Scott, his abolitionist supporters, and the antithetical party platform. Shows the candidate and his supporters as performers at a horse circus. In the right, Scott, in uniform, struggles to straddle the horse "Slavery Compromise" (i.e., the Fugitive Slave Act) and "Tariff Free Soil" (i.e., prohibition of the extension of slavery) as his exclaims, “If the Southern horse don’t moderate his pace, I shall be down presently and break all my bones! Whoa! Whoa!" Nearby, abolitionist and New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley, fearing he will not "strike on his feet this time" flips head-long into a "Tribune Dung Heap of Abuse and 'isms" next to the "Tribune Building" adorned with signs that promote Scott for president and "No journeyman cut throats." In the background, the "Higher Law Vaulters," advocates of New York Senator William Seward's 1850 quote that a higher law than the Constitution should exist in regard to slavery, jump over the horse "Constitution." Vaulters include Whig political boss Thurlow Weed, Seward, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, and abolitionist Wendell Phillips. Also shows in the left foreground, New York Times editor and Scott supporter Henry J. Raymond depicted as a harlequin brandishing a billboard announcing the acts., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Purchase 2006., 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. 1852]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - [1852] Whi [P.2006.6.2]
- Title
- All on hobbies, gee up, gee ho!
- Description
- Cartoon depicting the possible candidates for the presidential election of 1840, riding hobby horses symbolizing their issues. President Van Buren leads the pack cheering on his "old hickory nag," "Sub Treasury," named after his financial program, which allowed independent agencies to administer federal funds. Politicians following Van Buren include: bullionist Senator Thomas Hart Benton on "Specie Currency," his "golden poney" which carries "more weight than any of them"; Senators Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, leading opponents to Van Buren's fiscal policy, bickering over their shared horse named after the defunct "United States Bank"; South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun riding his "consistent" horse "State Rights and Nullification"; 1836 presidential nominee William Henry Harrison, attired in uniform, on his "Anti-Masonic" horse that keeps a "pretty easy pace" but may "lose his wind" if another scandal like the abduction and murder of mason William Morgan does not occur; and Congressman John Quincy Adams steering away from the group on his "Ebony" horse "Abolition.", Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entd accordd to Act of Congress in the year 1838, by H.R. Robinson, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York., Artist's initial lower left corner., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Described in Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American political caricaturist of the Jacksonian era (PhD diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 205., Accessioned 1989., 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
- Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, lithographer
- Date
- 1838
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1838-1 [P.9249.8]
- Title
- Handicap race presidential stakes 1844
- Description
- Satire of the presidential election of 1844 depicting the potential candidates; Whig Henry Clay, and Democrats Martin Van Buren, Lewis Cass, John Calhoun, Richard M. Johnson, and John Tyler on various mounts racing for the White House. Clay riding a racoon leads the pack claiming that no one can overtake him. Van Buren follows riding a fox and holding a weather vane labeled "N" (North) and "S" (South) with the slogans "Free Trade Texas" and "Abolition Oregon" attached. He acknowledges that Lewis Cass is closing in. Cass on his hound gloats that he has finally overtaken the "old fox." Calhoun, positioned fourth, rides a lion with an enslaved African American man and child, portrayed in racist caricature, on his shoulders and bemoans his extra weight. Johnson, on foot and holding a hook, follows Calhoun stating he will "hook on" to whomever gets in. Last is Tyler, who switched political parties, trying to ride the two mounts of the "Loco Foco" (radical Democrats) donkey and the "Whig" horse., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress in year 1844 by J. Childs in the Clerk's Office in the District Court of the Southern District of N.Y., Gift of Mrs. Francis P. Garvan, 1977., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1977, p. 51-52., 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., Clay, born in Philadelphia, was a prominent caricaturist, engraver, and lithographer who created the "Life in Philadelphia" series which satirized middle-class African Americans of the late 1820s and early 1830s.
- Creator
- Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, artist
- Date
- 1844
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political cartoons - 1844-55W [8366.F.36]
- Title
- Fixing a block-head to the Constitution or putting a wart on the nose of old ironsides
- Description
- Satire of President Andrew Jackson who is represented as a figurehead that is being placed on "Old Ironsides" (i.e. the ship "Constitution") by African American sailors. The white commander, attired in uniform with his back to the viewer, stands beside a bucket of grog and offers the sailors a "double allowance of grog." To the right, eight African American sailors, portrayed in racist caricature and speaking in the vernacular, hoist the figurehead up with ropes. In the left, two African American sailors steady the base of the figurehead with rope and one remarks, "...dey'd better run him up to the yard arm like dey do de pirate." The figurehead of Jackson, who was often criticized for his broad interpretation of the constitutional powers of the executive branch, holds a paper inscribed "My interpretation of the Constitution." In the right, a white man military fifer and a white man drummer play the "rogue's march" instead of "Hail Columbia." Cartoon references the event in July 2, 1834, when mariner Samuel W. Dewey decapitated the figurehead in the middle of the night. The figurehead of Andrew Jackson was added to the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) in March/April 1834., Title from item., Incorrect publication date of 1832 supplied by Weitenkampf., 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 2023., 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., Imbert, a pioneer of lithography in New York City, printed city views and also painted marinescapes.
- Creator
- Imbert, Anthony, 1794 or 5-1834, lithographer
- Date
- [1834]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1834 Fix [5760.F.73]
- Title
- A foot-race
- Description
- A satire of the 1824 presidential election showing the candidates; John Quincy Adams, William Crawford, Andrew Jackson, and Henry Clay engaged in a foot race to win the presidency. A crowd cheers them on and remarks about the candidates reflecting the regional and partisan views in the country. A Westerner attired in stovepipe hat with a powder horn exclaims, "Hurra for our Jacks-"son."" Former President John Adams cheers, "Hurra for our son "Jack."" An Irish man, portrayed in caricature and attired in torn and worn clothes, says, "Blast my eyes if I dont "venter" a "small" horn of rotgut on that "bald filly" in the middle [Adams]." A French man states, "Ah hah! Mon's Neddy I tink dat kick on de "back of you side" is worse den have no dinner de fourt of july." Two African American men, portrayed in racist caricature, look on and one remarks “Now old Hickory cuts dirt.” In the background is a "Presidential Chair" with a purse "$25,000 per Annum" and the White House., Title from item., Artist and publication date supplied by Reilly., NYPL copy copyrighted October 6, 1824., 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., Johnston, known as "the American Cruikshank" was a respected comic illustrator, engraver, and lithographer.
- Creator
- Johnston, David Claypoole, 1799-1865, artist
- Date
- [1824]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1824-4 [5760.F.28]
- Title
- "Your plan and mine."
- Description
- Racist satire criticizing the 1864 presidential candidates, Democrat General George McClellan's and incumbent Abraham Lincoln's, divergent peace policies depicting each in a scene with Jefferson Davis and an African American Union soldier. The first scene depicts McClellan offering an olive branch, a frightened kneeling African American soldier, and a promise of non-interference to a scowling, armed Jefferson Davis, attired in torn and worn clothing. Davis acknowledges the branch, accepts the soldier, and expresses his satisfaction about the renewed ability for Southern domination of the government. The soldier, whose head Davis clutches, questions with horror McClellan's proposition to send him back to slavery after his service to the Union. The opposite scene depicts Lincoln pointing a bayonet at a cowering Davis who begs for readmission to the Union. Lincoln, on behalf of the nation, demands unconditional surrender and declares the end of slavery. The observing African American soldier replies in the vernacular that Davis will not have anything to do with him anymore., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress A.D. 1864, by Currier & Ives, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of N.Y., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of materials related to George McClellan and Abraham Lincoln. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War., 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
- Currier & Ives
- Date
- 1864
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1864-18W [5793.F.4]
- Title
- Pap, soup, and chowder
- Description
- Depicts the 1852 presidental Whig candidate Winfield Scott, President Millard Fillmore, and Secretary of State Daniel Webster riding on the shoulders of newspaper editors. In the center, General Winfield Scott, attired in a military uniform, sits on New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley's shoulders. Scott holds a bowl labeled, "soup," which spills down Greeley's neck. A white man representing the South, pulls on Scott's arm who says, "don't budge another step towards the White House, yonder, until you satisfy me about my fugitive slave." Scott replies, "I will give you every satisfaction about your Fugitive slave after I have arrived at the White House." In the right, Daniel Webster sits on the shoulders of Courier & Enquirer editor J. Watson Webb and eats a bowl of chowder. In the left, Millard Fillmore eats a bowl of "government pap" while sitting on the shoulders of the New York "Mirror" editor. In the background, Franklin Pierce on horseback carries a flag that reads, "The Union and the Compromise" and travels towards the White House. A rifle and a knife lie on the ground., Title from item., Date and publisher from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1852 by P. Smith, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southn Distt of N,Y,, Text printed on recto: For sale at No. 2 Spruce St. N.Y. Address of Currier & Ives firm in 1852., RVCDC
- Date
- 1852
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1852 - 17W [P.2023.61.1]
- Title
- The Freedman's Bureau! An agency to keep the negro in idleness at the expense of the white man. Twice vetoed by the president, and made a law by congress. Support Congress & you support the negro. Sustain the president & you protect the white man
- Description
- Racist campaign poster in support of Democratic candidate Heister Clymer published during the Pennsylvania gubernatorial election of 1866 attacking his Republican opponent James White Geary and the Republican Congress's support of the Freedmen's Bureau. Depicts an oversize figure of an African American free man, portrayed in racist caricature with grotesque features, lazing on his back under the quote in the vernacular, "Whar is de use for me to work as long as day make dese appropriations." The figure is surrounded by imagery, including scenes, quotes, and a table, condemning the legislature's financial support of African Americans. Scenes include a white man chopping wood as "the white man must work to keep his children and pay his taxes"; a white man farmer plowing his field for "in the sweat of thy face thou eat thy bread"; and a view of a building similar to the Capitol under the heading "Freedman's Bureau! Negro Estimate of Freedom!" The building is inscribed with divisive words and terms including: "Freedom and No Work"; "Goods to eat & drink. Uncle Sam will have to keep me"; "Idleness"; "White Women"; "Apathy" and a list of foods stereotyped as part of the African American diet. Also includes a table listing appropriations issued by Congress in support of the Freedman's Bureau; a quote indicating the inequity of Civil War veteran's bounties in favor of African Americans; and a statement disapproving of the cost of the Freedman's Bureau to the "Tax-payers of the Nation.", Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Readex July 2013 update: This political cartoon is now housed in the Print Room; formerly Lib. Company. Afro-Americana, 3815., 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
- [1866]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *political cartoons - 1866-6 [(6)5777.F.79]
- Title
- Where's my thunder?
- Description
- Cartoon comparing the Senate chamber with a courtroom to satirize the Senate's response to Henry Clay's controversial and long-debated Compromise of 1850. Depicts Webster stealing the "Fugitive Slave Act" out of the pocket of Clay, who snoozes at his desk in the Senate (an allusion to the Senate's predominately positive reception of abolitionist Senator Webster's controversial support of the Act). In the background, Senators scowl, nap, and look on in anguish, including Lewis Cass of Michigan and Henry S. Foote of Mississippi. Cass, proponent of popular sovereignty and the extension of slavery, exclaims "Ain't tha man done yet." Foote, who proposed a special committee to revise Clay's omnibus bill, brandishes a club (probably an allusion to his violent confrontation with rival Thomas Hart Benton over his proposal). Contains several lines of text describing the larceny trial of "Defendent" Webster and "Complainant" Clay, including "loud applause" during Webster's departure of the "Court-room" compared to Clay's scarcely noticed exit. Also contains note: "(See Police Report in the Daily Screamer).", Title from item., Date inferred from content., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., 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., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
- Date
- [1850?]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1850-3W [6691.F.]
- Title
- The shackle broken - by the genius of freedom
- Description
- Print containing a montage of vignettes and quotes supportive of African American civil rights centered around a scene of "Hon. Robert B. Elliott, of South Carolina, delivering his great speach [sic] on 'civil rights' in the House of Representatives, January 6, 1874" to the packed floor of white and African American Congressmen and balcony of spectators. Contains an American flag inscribed with the quote, "What you give to one class, you must give to all. What you deny to one class, you shall deny to all;" scenes of African American soldiers, officers, and sailors; statues of Lincoln holding his "Emancipation Proclamation" and Senator Charles Sumner holding his "Bill of Civil Rights;" and quotes referring to African American participation in the Civil War. Also contains a scene espousing "free labor is the present, slave labor is the past" with an African American family at their homestead where they "toil for [their] own children and not for those of others.", Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1874 by E. Sachse & Co. Baltimore in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington., LCP exhibition catalogue: Negro History #213., Accessioned 1999., 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., E. Sachse & Company, a Baltimore lithographic firm active until the 1870s, was operated by Edward Sachse (also a painter), his brother William, and relative Theodore. The company produced numerous folio sized views.
- Creator
- E. Sachse & Co., lithographer
- Date
- 1874
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Political Cartoons - 1874-1 [P.9653]
- Title
- Senate chamber U.S.A. Conclusion of Clay's speech in defense of slavery
- Description
- Cartoon satirizing an 1839 anti-abolition speech by the congressional orator Henry Clay focusing on his conflicting views on the abolition of slavery. Clay, despite deploring the institution of slavery, was an enslaver who was against immediate national abolition. Depicts Clay, in front of the Mason-Dixon line, coming to an agreement with John Calhoun, his chief congressional rival and leading senatorial supporter of slavery, about the issue of slavery. They both stand on past abolitionist resolutions and a prostrate enslaved African American man who quotes a verse from the Bible's book of Micah 7:8 that he will "arise." Clay's remarks "North" of the line reflect his abolitionist rhetoric; those "South" of the line refer to him being an enslaver. Calhoun states his pleasure in Clay's awakening to the societal benefits of slavery., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Accessioned 1979., 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
- [1839]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1839-24w [P.2275.18]
- Title
- The Fifteenth Amendment. Celebrated May 19th 1870
- Description
- Commemorative print celebrating the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment depicting a large central scene of the May 19, 1870 Baltimore parade surrounded by several portraits and vignettes. A float of young African American girls leads the parade in view of the city's Washington Monument. The parade consists of African American Zouave drummers, men in top hats on horseback, and ranks of troops. The portraits of African American civil rights supporters framing this scene include President Grant; Martin Robison Delany, the first African American Major; Frederick Douglass; Mississippi Senator Hiram Revels; Vice-President Schuyler Colfax; Abraham Lincoln; and abolitionist John Brown. The numerous vignettes, all captioned, include scenes of an African American classroom, an African American congregation, an African American wedding, an African American officer, an African American man reading to his family, African American masons, and an African American man voting., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the year of 1870 by Thomas Kelly in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington., LCP exhibition catalogue: Negro history, p. 78., Purchase 1968., 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., Beard was a respected illustrator most well known for his nature illustrations.
- Creator
- Beard, James C., designer
- Date
- 1870
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *political cartoons - 1870-4 [7765.F]
- Title
- The people putting responsibility to the test or the downfall of the kitchen cabinet and collar presses
- Description
- Cartoon predicting the dire consequences to follow President Jackson's withdrawal of federal funds from the Bank of the United States. Depicts a riot in which Supreme Court Justice John Marshall warns that "the day of retribution is at hand" as anti-bank fiscal advisors Reuben Whitney and Thomas Ellicott use a rope to pull down a statue of Justice, depicted as a white woman holding scales and stepping on a snake, from a pedestal labeled "Constitution." An angry mob of white men farmers, laborers, and tradesmen carry instruments including axes, pitchforks, and shovels and papers labeled, “Broken Bank.” They fight and demand the recharter of the bank, shouting "Send back the deposites! Recharter the Bank!" and "Come back old responsibility." In the right, Jackson escapes on the back of "Jack Downing" cursing Postmaster General Kendall, "By the Eternal Major Downing; I find Ive been a mere tool to that Damn'd Amos [Kendall] and his set, the sooner I cut stick the better." In the left background, under "Senate Chamber," Henry Clay gloats to Daniel Webster and John Calhoun, "Behold Senators the fulfilment of my predictions." In the left foreground, two African American men, portrayed in racist caricature and speaking in the vernacular, predict freedom and the ascension to the throne of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, "Hurrah! for Massa Garison, den he shall be King!" A Jewish banker, portrayed in caricature, undercuts a sailor offering him a ten dollar bank note, "Mine Got that ish one of the Pet Bankhs I'll give you one Dollar for the Ten." In the right foreground, newspapers supportive of Jackson, "collar presses," symbolized as dogs with human heads labeled "Evening Post, N. York Standard, Journal of Commerce, Albany Argus," run away chained together., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the Clerk's Office for the Southern District of New York by T.W. Whitley in the year 1834, and for sale at 104 Broadway., 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., Whitley was a mid-19th-century New York landscape and figure painter who also wrote about art and drama for the New York Herald.
- Creator
- Whitley, T. W. (Thomas W.), artist
- Date
- 1834
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1834-7 [1884.F.3]
- Title
- The great November contest. Patriotism vs bummerism
- Description
- Racist cartoon depicting the 1868 Presidential Election as a carriage race between the "patriotic" Democrats and the "bum" Republicans who support Reconstruction. Depicts the elegant Democratic carriage with the banner "This is a White Man's Government" pulled by the horses with the heads of Horatio Seymour and Francis P. Blair racing passed the stalled Republican wagon steered by the asses with the heads of nominees Ulysses Grant and Schuyler Colfax. In the Democrats' carriage are four allegorical figures: Liberty, depicted as a white woman holding the Constitution and a banner which reads "Our Glorious Union Distinct, like the Billows, One, Like the Sea' This is a White Man's Government!"; Navigation, depicted as a white woman holding a miniature ship; Agriculture, depicted as a white woman holding sheaves of wheat and a scythe; and Labor, represented by a bearded white man with a hammer and flywheel. The Republican wagon passengers include radical Thaddeus Stevens, the grim reaper, and an African American man and woman couple, portrayed in racist caricature and speaking in the vernacular. Massachusetts Republican representative Benjamin F. Butler tries to push the stalled wagon passed the bones of those who paid "The Price of Nigger Freedom" and the rocks of "Ruined Commerce," "Debt," and "Negro Supremacy.", In the background, a cheering crowd brandishing American flags near the U.S. Capitol await the winning Seymour and Blair while on the building's other side a group of African American men dance. In the left foreground, Henry Ward Beecher and Horace Greeley play a shellgame looking for Grant and an African American man and woman, attired in torn and worn clothes, discuss another man returning to his former enslaver. In the right foreground, an African American man sits behind a table labeled, "Pompey Smash, Salt River Line Ticket Agent" and sells tickets to "Salt River" (i.e., political disaster) to a white man with a bag labeled, "J.G.B. Boston Carpet Bagger." Behind them, two African American men and a drunken white man holding a bottle talk about the Republican wagon., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to an Act of Congress in the year 1868 by Bromley & Co. in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the U.S. for the southern District of New York., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
- Date
- 1868
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Political Cartoons - 1868-15 [5760.F.125]
- Title
- The result of the Fifteenth Amendment, and the rise and progress of the African race in America and its final accomplishment, and celebration on May 19th A.D. 1870
- Description
- Print commemorating the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment containing a large central scene of the celebratory parade held in Baltimore in May surrounded by several bust portraits and vignettes. Parade is led by several African American Zoaves down Monument Street, which is lined with African American and white men, women, and children spectators. Bust-length portraits of African American civil rights supporters above and to the sides of this scene include Abraham Lincoln; Baltimore jurist Hugh Lennox Bond; abolitionist John Brown; Vice-President Schuyler Colfax; President Grant; Pennsylvania representative Thaddeus Stevens; Maryland representative Henry Davis; Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner; Martin Robinson Delaney; Frederick Douglass; and Mississippi Senator Hiram Revels. Vignettes include a plantation scene depicting enslaved African American men and women working in a cotton field while a white man stands looking on titled, "we are in bondage, deliver us!; a Civil War battle with African American troops; a classroom with an African American man teacher and African American students titled, "Education will be our pride"; an African American congregation; and a parade of African American Masons holding banners., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1870 by Metcalf & Clark, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington., Purchase 1968., 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
- 1870
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *political cartoons - 1870-2 [7764.F]
- Title
- [ Montage of caricatures satirizing Southern Democrats]
- Description
- Includes six captioned vignettes critically satirizing Southern democrats, copperheads, Jefferson Davis, and Andrew Johnson. Shows Democrats represented as an overseer forcing "Black Republicans" depicted as fleeing enslaved African American men, women, and children to vote their "Ticket in the South"; white men soldiers loading a cannon representing "General Grant giving the Rebel Copperhead Democrats some more grape"; Jefferson Davis fleeing in his "wife's petticoats"; "Johnson on a "Bender," after the Impeachment Trials; a skull and cross bones to symbolize that "Copperheads and Rebel Democrats are Poison"; and Johnson attired in torn and worn clothes and carrying a sack on his back as he is "Travelling for Tennessee." Several of caricatures also used as Civil War envelope designs., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content., Created postfreeze., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of Civil War miscellanies. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., 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. 1868]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons [ca. 1868] - Mon [(2)5786.F.176a]
- Title
- Liberty, the fair maid of Kansas-in the hands of the "Border Ruffians."
- Description
- Cartoon addressing the Democratic administration's responsibility for the violence in Kansas following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Depicts Democratic leaders as violent, proslavery invaders known as "Border Ruffians." In the center, a drunken President Franklin Pierce, armed with a tomahawk, knife, pistol, and rifle, hovers over "Liberty," depicted as a white woman, and tramples the American flag draped on her shoulders. Senator Lewis Cass, armed with a tomahawk, sword, knife, and rifle, looks at Liberty with his tongue sticking out. Liberty stretches her arms out and exclaims, “O Spare Me Gentlemen, Spare Me!!” They assure her that she will not be harmed. In the right, Senator Stephen Douglas scalps a dead, white man farmer, who carries a scythe in his left hand. In the left, Secretary of State William Marcy, attired in a “fifty-cent" trouser patch (a joke used by his political enemies referring to his use of state funds to repair his pants when he served as an associate justice for the Supreme Court of New York,) empty the pockets of a slain, white man settler. Presidential candidate James Buchanan, stating "Might makes right," steals the dead man’s watch. In the left background, a white woman settler, made insane by the violence, mistakes a border ruffian for her husband as they mock her, "Ho! ho! She thinks I'm her husband, we Scalped the Cus and she like a D--m fool went Crazy on it, and now she wants me to go to heaven with her, ha! ha! ha!" In the distance are additional scenes of violence and murder., Title from item., Artist and publication information supplied by Reilly., 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., 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., Magee was a New York cartoonist and lithographer who eventually established his own lithographic firm in Philadelphia in 1850.
- Creator
- Magee, John L., artist
- Date
- [1856]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1856-9 [5760.F.90]
- Title
- "The irrepressible conflict" or the Republican barge in danger
- Description
- Cartoon predicting doom for the Republican Party whose moderate antislavery factions intentionally caused radical abolitionist William Seward to lose the presidential nomination at the National Convention in 1860. Depicts the "Republican Barge" with Lincoln at the helm being tossed on rough sea near a rocky shore. Within the boat Horace Greeley, Missouri Congressman Edward Bates, and Globe editor Francis Blair disparage Seward and the "Irrepressible Conflict" (a catchphrase from an 1858 Seward speech referring to the conflict within the Union over slavery) he has caused as they throw him overboard. The hoisted Seward warns that he alone can save the boat. An African American man, portrayed as a racist caricature and attired in a white collared shirt, a bowtie, a striped waistcoat, pants, and a "Discords Patent Life Preserver" wrapped around his chest, says in the vernacular, “if de boat and all hands sink, dis Nigger sure to swim, Yah! Yah!” Additional passengers, including Massachusetts Governor Nathaniel Banks and "Courier" editor James Webb, comment on the breakers ahead and the improbability of being saved. Brother Jonathan (predecessor to Uncle Sam) anxiously stands on the shore admonishing them not to throw out Seward but to “heave that tarnal Nigger out.”, Probably drawn by Louis Maurer., Verso stamped: L.A. De Vries., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1860 by Currier & Ives in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern Distt of N.Y., Purchase 1960., 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
- Currier & Ives
- Date
- 1860
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1860 - 28 [6418.F]
- Title
- An heir to the throne, or the next Republican candidate
- Description
- Racist cartoon using African American side-show performer William Henry Johnson to lampoon the extent to which the Republican party supported the rights of African Americans as a part of their Election Platform of 1860. In the left, depicts editor of the Tribune, Horace Greeley, who says, "Gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you, this illustrious individual in whom you will find combined, all the graces, and virtues of Black Republicanism, and whom we propose to run as our next Candidate for the Presidency." In the center, Johnson, depicted with a bald and tapered head and attired in a long-sleeved shirt, shorts, and black shoes, leans on the spear that he holds in both hands and asks in the vernacular, "What, can dey be?" In the right, candidate Abraham Lincoln leans on a rail and says, "How fortunate! that this intellectual and noble creature should have been discovered just at this time, to prove to the world the superiority of the Colored over the Anglo Saxon race, he will be a worthy successor to carry out the policy which I shall inaugurate." In the background is a poster that reads, "Barnum’s What is it. Now exhibiting." William Henry Johnson was born in Liberty Corners, New Jersey to William and Mahalia Johnson, who were formerly enslaved. As Johnson’s head was smaller and sloped, agents from van Emburgh's Circus in New Jersey exhibited him with a story that he was caught in Africa and was a "missing link." P.T. Barnum then exhibited him with the names "Zip the Pinhead" and "What is it.", Probably drawn by Louis Maurer., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1860, by Currier & Ives, in the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Southn Distt of N.Y., Accessioned 1970., 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
- Currier & Ives
- Date
- 1860
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1860-33R [7922.F]
- Title
- The man that blocks up the highway
- Description
- Cartoon satirizing President Andrew Johnson and his reconstruction policies as sympathetic to Southerners and an obstruction to Radical Republican policies and African American civil rights. Depicts Johnson with jackass ears standing at a road block labeled "veto" and greeting pardoned former Confederates, including an unrepentant white man counterfeiter and two white men ruffians. The ruffians brag about the murder of major-generals, curse the Yankees, and threaten an overthrow of the North and nullification of civil rights after the re-establishment of a Southern presence in the Congress. As Johnson welcomes the Southerners, he orders Secretary of State William Seward, attired as a servant, to pass around whiskey, belittles the barred "Radical Republicans," and boasts about his veto power. Behind the "veto" barricade, carriages driven by Republicans and labeled "Freedman's Bu[reau]," "Civil Rights," and "[Recon]struction," including one attended by an African American man portrayed in racist caricature, stand idle (an allusion to Johnson's vetoes of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the renewal of the Freedman's Bureau). The drivers compare Johnson with Marc Anthony who was "blowing before the People about his great love for the Constitution while conspiring with Caesar for the overthrow of the Republic." In the right, near crates of "Southern Appointments" and "Southern Pardons," John Bull and French dictator Napoleon III stand. Napoleon praises Johnson, proclaiming him "Emperor Americane." Also includes, a shack adorned with the sign "Andy Johnson Tribune of the People" in the background., Title from item., Date inferred from content., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
- Date
- [1866]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1866-5W [5760.F.111]
- Title
- Political "Blondins" crossing Salt River
- Description
- Cartoon lampooning the perilous nature of the platforms of the 1860 presidential candidates caused by the divisive issue of the extension of slavery to the territories. Depicts the candidates' various methods to cross the "Salt River" (i.e., political disaster) between the "North" and "South." Republican Abraham Lincoln, near the "South," wobbles at the end of a too short rail. The rail, balanced on the "Abolition Rock," is unsuccessfully weighed down by the precariously balanced "Tribune" editor, Horace Greeley. Lincoln curses Greeley who is "accustomed" to the "Salt River." Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas attempts to balance on the tightrope "Non Intervention," and yells for "Help" from the excessive weight of "Squatter Sovereignty" on his balancing pole. Southern Democrat Samuel Breckenridge rides the shoulders of the President and "old public functionary" James Buchanan as he crosses the tightrope "Slavery Extension." Constitutional Unionists John Bell and running mate Edward Everett stand on the "Constitutional Bridge" mocking and pitying the other candidates who are not satisfied with the bridge built by the "patriots of 76" which connects the "two shores in an indissoluble bond of union.", Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1860, by Currier & Ives, in the Clerk's office of the District Court, for the Southn Dist of N.Y., Manuscript note on recto: "Blondin celebrated for having walked over Niagara Falls on a tightrope, gave the idea for this caricature." On June 30, 1859, Jean Francois Gravelet Blondin, a professional tight-rope artist trained under P.T. Barnum, was the first man to successfully cross the falls., 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
- Currier & Ives
- Date
- 1860
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1860-30W [6428.F]
- Title
- The Cincinnati platform, or the way to make a new state in 1856
- Description
- Antislavery cartoon criticizing presidential nominees James Buchanan and John C. Breckenridge's support of pro-slavery forces over freesoilers in the violent political struggle in "Bleeding Kansas" during the Democratic Convention of 1856 in Cincinnati. Depicts a pro-slavery militia, carrying a flag labeled "Kansas and Liberty," that has marshalled a group of shackled, enslaved African American men who wear loin-cloths. Several of them clasp their hands together and look with pleading expressions at the white militiaman, behind them, and who carries a whip in his left hand and drives them forward. They march toward a settlement, which has a "Free Soil and Fremont" flag where homes burn and settlers and cattle lay wounded or dead. In the right is the corpse of an assaulted, white mother, who lies on the ground with her breasts exposed. Her naked, dead baby lies face down over her left arm. In the upper left, Buchanan and Breckenridge, standing in front of seated convention delegates on a platform, oversee the violence and comment about the freesoilers being a curse to the country who would surely leave if forced to work for "10 cents a day.", Title from item., Date inferred from content., Copyright statement printed on recto: Entered in according to act of congress in the Clerk’s Office of the district Court for the Eastern District of Penna. By I. [sic.] Childs., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
- Date
- [1856]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1856-10W [5760.F.95]
- Title
- Immediate emancipation illustrated
- Description
- Critical satire of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which was founded on the principle of immediate abolition by Arthur Tappan and William Lloyd Garrison, who are depicted discussing the society's principles with an unnamed abolitionist, possibly Lewis Tappan. Above their heads is the banner "Anti Slavery Society Founded Anno Domini MDCCCXXXIII." The seated Garrison comments on the origin of the bundle of Italian linen at his feet, which is to be used for his newspaper "the Emancipator." In the right, the figure of a leopard rests upon a pedestal marked "Fanaticism. Brought the Inquisition upon Spain. Beggary upon Italy. And may drench America in blood!!" (an allusion to the idiom a leopard cannot change its spots and to the Spain and the Iberian War, 1807-1814). In the left, a Black man, labeled "Emancipated Slave," is portrayed in racist caricature and is naked except for a leaves wrapped around his waist. He chases an insect calling, "Food," while carrying a knife. In the background, a scene labeled "Insurection (sic) in St. Domingo! Cruelty, Lust, and blood!" depicts Black people using swords and axes to kill white people, including a white woman on the ground. A building burns behind them., Title from item., Date supplied by Weitenkampf., Probably the "A Caricature" cited in the Emancipator (New York, N.Y.), October 19, 1833 and Liberator (Boston, Mass.), November 2, 1833., The "Emancipated Slave" figure is similar to the figure depicted in the lithograph by Alfred Ducôte, "An Emancipated Negro" ([London]: Thomas McLean, 1833). Copies in the collections of National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London., Purchase 1986., 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
- [1833]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1833 - 27W [P.9140]
- Title
- Arre st of the slave George Kirk
- Description
- Cartoon portraying the arrest during the New York case of the freedom seeker George Kirk. Kirk, enslaved by Georgia enslaver Charles Chapman had concealed himself on a Savannah brig traveling to New York City. While docked in New York, Kirk was discovered and beaten before being sheltered at the American Anti-Slavery Society office on Nassau Street. He had taken refuge at the office following his being ordered to be returned to Georgia on a legal technicality after having been previously freed by the court. In response, abolitionists including, lawyers Lois Napoleon and John Jay, editor of the "National Anti-Slavery Standard" Sydney Howard Gay, and sugar refinery proprietor Dennis Harris conceived a plan to secure Kirk's freedom through his concealment and transport from the Nassau Street office in a box addressed to abolitionist Rev. Ira Manley in Essex, New York. Kirk was discovered and arrested during the transport. Kirk was later freed through a legal argument presented by Jay. Depicts a horse-drawn dray labeled "D. Harris" on which Kirk, portrayed in racist caricature, is within a crate. Kirk is being pulled by police from the crate. "Tracts" fly out from the wooden box and its cover marked "Rev. Ira Manley, Essex, New York. This side up with Care" has fallen to the side of the dray. Kirk exclaims "Gorra mighty massa you take away my bref! dis child didn't come into de box hisself! de bobalitionists put him in it!!" White police men reach for him and make comments and threats, including smelling "a rat"; shaking "the life out of (Kirk)"; and the "Carman" having a "rather black job." The white carman, his hands on the reins of the horse and looking back, responds "It ain't anything else." Scene also includes a middle-class Black woman holding a parasol and middle-class Black man, who with a monocle to his eye, exclaims "Ponhona. Here's a game!! while standing near a group of white men abolitionists also witnessing the moment. The frowning abolitionists, including possibly Elias Smith, make comments and observations, including about Kirk being again "in the hands of Philistines"; having to take out "another habeus corpus ... at any expense"; and Manley being disappointed in "not receiving his consignment." Elias Smith procured a writ of habeus corpus for Kirk before his first court appearance., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entd according to Act of Congress in the year 1846 by H.R. Robinson, in the Clerk's office of the Distt Court of the U. States, for the southn District of New York., RVCDC, Clay, born in Philadelphia, was a prominent caricaturist, lithographer, and engraver who created the "Life in Philadelphia" series which racistly satirized middle-class African American Philadelphians in the late 1820s and early 1830s.
- Creator
- Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, artist
- Date
- 1846
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1846-7W [P.2024.43.1]
- Title
- Scent to the legislature
- Description
- Racist cartoon expressing disdain for African Americans who were elected to office as a result of Reconstruction. Depicts a bust-length portrait of an African American man legislator, portrayed in racist caricature with grotesque features, attired in a white collared shirt, a plaid bowtie, a waistcoat, and a jacket, smiling. He is flanked by two white men legislators who hold their noses as though he had a bad "scent." Many African American legislators were targeted as the source of corruption in politics during the era., Title from item., Date of publication of 1868 is used as the content suggests that the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment has occurred. Weitenkampf suggests an earlier date of 1865 arguing that African Americans were elected to office during the early era of Reconstruction, 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
- Date
- [1868?]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1868 Sce [5760.F.117]
- Title
- Southern chivalry - argument versus club's
- Description
- Cartoon critically addressing the Brooks-Sumner Affair in which Southern Congressman Preston S. Brooks caned antislavery Senator Charles Sumner in the Senate on May 26, 1856. Brook's "chivalrous" attack on Sumner was a reprisal for Sumner's two-day speech, "The Crime against Kansas," which attacked the violence occurring in Kansas over the issue of slavery; the South; and Brook's uncle, Andrew Butler. Depicts Sumner, head bloodied, quill in his raised hand and clutching a paper symbolically inscribed "Kansas.," He is held to the ground by Butler whose face is obscured by his raised arm and hand that holds his cane above his head. Butler is posed in mid-strike. Members of Congress observe in the background, some laughing, some scowling, with one member raising his hands in surrender from another who has his fist and cane raised., Title from item., Date inferred from content., 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., 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., Magee was a Philadelphia lithographer who established his own lithographic firm in Philadelphia in 1850.
- Creator
- Magee, John L., artist
- Date
- [1856]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1856-3W [5760.F.105]
- Title
- Practical amalgamation
- Description
- Racist print promoting anti-abolitionists' fears of multiracial personal relationships. Depicts a parlor scene where two inter-racial couples court on a couch. In the left, an attractive white women sits on the lap of an African American man. The man, depicted in racist caricature with grotesque facial features, holds a guitar in his right hand as she engages him in a kiss. In the right, a rotund African American woman holds a fan in her right hand as she is wooed by a slender white man on his knees who kisses her left hand. Portraits of abolitionists Arthur Tappan, Daniel O'Connell (a radical Irish abolitionist), and John Quincy Adams are hung on the wall behind the couch. A white and black dog are in the left corner., Title from item., After E.W. Clay's Practical amalgamation (New York: Published and sold by John Childs, Lithographer, 119 Fulton Street, upstairs, 1839]., Purchase 1970., 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
- 1839
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1839 - Pra 2 [7897.F]
- Title
- An affecting scene in Kentucky
- Description
- A racist cartoon ridiculing Kentucky congressman Richard M. Johnson, the 1836 Democratic vice-presidential candidate, for his common-law marriage to Julia Chinn, a multiracial woman. Depicts Johnson, with the "New York Courier and Enquirer" falling from his hand, as he grieves over the "scurrilous attacks in the newspapers on the mother of my children." His daughters, Adaline and Imogene, attired in evening dresses, comment on his "affected state" and hold a framed portrait of their mother, attired in a turban. Surrounding Johnson are Democrats pledging support, including a postmaster, a well-dressed African American man, who speaks in the vernacular, and a gaunt white man abolitionist holding the Connecticut newspaper the "Emancipator." Another white man supporter comments on Johnson's agitated state., Title from item., Publication information supplied by Reilly., Purchase 1958., 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
- [1836]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1836-15 [6277.F]
- Title
- Not a drum was heard nor a funeral note as his corpse to the ramparts we hurried -- : Not a loco discharged his farewell shot o'er the ditch where our hero we buried
- Description
- Cartoon of a funeral procession portraying the erosion of Democratic support for presidential hopeful Martin Van Buren, the "Kinderhook Fox," during the election of 1844. Depicts President Tyler, instrumental in Van Buren's defeat, stating, "Thus do all our hopes end in Clay," as he steers a funeral cart carrying Van Buren, depicted as a dead fox; his son, poet Robert Tyler; and a bale of cabbages. The cart is pulled by Andrew Jackson, depicted as an old nag boasting about his part in Van Buren's death. Following the cart are the devil sobbing and bemoaning that he is Van Buren's only friend and a rotund man in a wide brimmed hat who rings a bell and calls, "Bring out your dead." In the right, two barefooted African American men gravediggers, portrayed in racism caricature and attired in torn and worn clothes, hold shovels as they stand over and comment about the open grave they have dug for Van Buren. "Here comes Pompey, we'll have this Fox earthed at last." A small cabin, with an emaciated white man in the doorway, and labeled "Loco Foco Hall" (Loco Focos were a radical branch of the Democrats who supported Van Buren) stands in the background., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the Year 1844 by James Baille in the Clerk's office of the Dist Court of the Southern District of N. York., Gift of Mrs. Francis P. Garvan, 1977., 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., Bucholzer was a New York cartoonist whose work was published by James Baillie from 1843 until 1847.
- Creator
- Bucholzer, H., lithographer
- Date
- 1844
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political cartoons - 1844-17 [8366.F.21]
- Title
- Jim Crow, the American mountebank performing at the Grand Theatre
- Description
- Full-length, caricatured portrait depicting Thomas D. Rice, known as the "father of American minstrelsy." Depicts Rice in Blackface as his African American racist shyster character of "Jim Crow" during his first performance in London. He is portrayed with exaggerated features and mannerisms. He dances and sings a version of the minstrel standard, "Jim Crow," in front of an audience of white British men, including the King. The song, which pokes fun at Americans, refers to William Blackstone and William Pitt Chatham, two influential English jurists, who wrote about early American law and politics. Blackface minstrelsy is a popular entertainment form, originating in the United States in the mid-19th century and remaining in American life through the 20th century. The form is based around stereotypical and racist portrayals of African Americans, including mocking dialect, parodic lyrics, and the application of Black face paint; all designed to portray African Americans as othered subjects of humor and disrespect. Blackface was a dominant form for theatrical and musical performances for decades, both on stage and in private homes. Jim Crow (mid to late 19th century) was a Minstrel character representing enslaved/rural Black manhood as foolish, lazy, interested in shirking labor., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Text printed on the recto: I come from America a long time ago, Since which I larn to wheel about & jump Jim Crow, Him used to study Blackstone ebry morn & arter noon, Me charm de House where Chatham died & dance inde saloon. Wheel about & turn about & do jis so. Ebry time I wheel about I jumpt Jim Crow., Description of Blackface minstrelsy and minstrel characters from Dorothy Berry, Descriptive Equity and Clarity around Blackface Minstrelsy in H(arvard) T(heater) C(ollection) Collections, 2021., Accessioned 1982., 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
- [1836]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1836 Jim [P.8738]
- Title
- Southern ideas of liberty. New method of assorting the mail, as practised by southern slave-holders, or attack on the post office, Charleston, S.C
- Description
- Print portraying the violent suppression of Southern abolitionism. Depicts a riotous mob around a gallows from which a white man hangs. It is overseen by Judge Lynch, depicted with donkey's ears and holding a whip while stepping on the Constitution. He is seated upon bales of cotton, sugar, and tobacco and sentences a white man abolitionist to be hanged by the neck. The abolitionist is grabbed and drug to the gallows by two white men., Print portraying a raid of anti-abolitionists on the Charleston Post Office in July 1835. Depicts white men removing and then pilfering mail-bags from the ransacked post-office and throwing to the ground abolitionist newspapers including "The Liberator," "Atlas," and "Commercial Gazette" while a riotous mob burns the papers. Posted on the Post Office is a broadside titled "$20,000 Reward for Tappan" referring to the bounty placed by the city of New Orleans upon Arthur Tappan, founder and president of the American Anti-Slavery Society., Title from item., Advertised in 1836 editions of the abolitionist newspapers The Liberator, published in Boston, and Emancipator, published in New York., Text printed on recto: Sentence passed upon one for supporting that clause of our Declaration viz. All men are born free &equal. “Strip him to the skin! give him a coat of Tar & Feathers! Hang him by the neck, between the Heavens and the Earth!!! as a beacon to warn the Northern Fanatics of their danger!!!!”, Purchase 1981., 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
- [ca. 1835]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1835-2 & 3 [P.8658]
- Title
- Johnny Q., introducing the Haytien Ambassador to the ladies of Lynn, Mass. Respectfully inscribed to Miss Caroline Augusta Chase, & the 500 ladies of Lynn who wish to marry Black husbands
- Description
- Anti-abolition print satirizing the Lynn Female Anti-Slavery Society which was successful in its petition to the state legislature to abolish race-proscriptive laws, including a ban on interracial marriage. Depicts a parlor where the Society's members, composed of unattractive white women and African American men, have gathered to be introduced to the fictitious Haitian Ambassador, General Marmalade, by John Quincy Adams. The ambassador, portrayed in racist caricature and attired in an uniform and powdered wig, takes his hat off and bows as he holds a monocle up. He lasciviously addresses the women in the crowd in broken French and vernacular, "Mesdames votre trés humble serviteur! me no speak much Anglish-En regardant ces charmants bontons de rose de Lynn l’eau vient dans la bouche! Excuse bot de charming rose buds ob Lynn make vater in my mouse." The women await their introduction and remark about the ambassador's "lovely" and "beautiful" features, as well as his overall attractiveness. African American men, portrayed in racist caricature and attired in elegant suits, stand behind the women and comment in the vernacular about the ambassador, "Demd fine specimen of a man! pon honor." In the right background, a white man servant and a white woman servant enter the room carrying trays of food and drinks., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1839, by John Childs, in the clerk's office, in the District Court for the Southern District of New York., Caroline Augusta Chase headed the Lynn Female Anti-Slavery Society., Purchase 1959., 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., Clay, born in Philadelphia, was a prominent caricaturist, engraver, and lithographer who created the "Life in Philadelphia" series which satirized middle-class African Americans of the late 1820's and early 1830's.
- Creator
- Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, artist
- Date
- 1839
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1839-25w [6333.F]
- Title
- Practical amalgamation
- Description
- Racist print promoting anti-abolitionists' fears of multiracial personal relationships. Depicts a parlor scene where two interracial couples court on a couch. In the left, an attractive white women sits on the lap of an African American man. The man, depicted in racist caricature with grotesque facial features, holds a guitar in his right hand as she engages him in a kiss. In the right, a rotund African American woman holds a fan in her right hand as she is wooed by a slender white man on his knees who kisses her left hand. Portraits of abolitionists Arthur Tappan, Daniel O'Connell (a radical Irish abolitionist), and John Quincy Adams are hung on the wall behind the couch. A white and black dog are in the left corner., Title from item., First of a series of five., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 2015, p. 41., Purchase 1957., 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., Clay, born in Philadelphia, was a prominent caricaturist, engraver, and lithographer who created the "Life in Philadelphia" series which satirized middle-class African-Americans of the late 1820s and early 1830s.
- Creator
- Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, artist
- Date
- 1839
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1839-Pra 1 [6207.F]
- Title
- John Brown exhibiting his hangman
- Description
- Cartoon depicting the imaginary execution of former Confederate President Jefferson Davis with the ghost of John Brown as his executioner. Jefferson, holding a sour apple and attired in a women's dress and bonnet, swings imprisoned in a birdcage which hangs from a gallows. To the left of the cage Brown rises from a hole in the earth and points accusingly at Davis. In actuality Davis had no direct involvement with Brown's execution. Beneath the cage, African American men and women minstrel figures, portrayed in racist caricature, rejoice, dance, clap, and thumb their noses at Davis., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress in 1865 by G. Querner in the Clerk's Office of the Sup. Court D.C., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook related to Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War., 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
- 1865
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoon - 1865-16R [5795.F.b]
- Title
- The great American steeple chase for 1844
- Description
- Cartoon depicting the presidential election of 1844 as a steeple chase race to the White House. Henry Clay, guided by the American eagle as he laments about the death of Harrison, leads the chase atop his half-horse/half-alligator mount. He is followed by: Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster, uneager to leave his cooking cauldron of "Chowder"; South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun, astride his "nullification Coota Turtle," which is stuck in a "Clay Bank"; former President Van Buren, on a fox, taking a "crooked and dirty" shortcut to avoid Calhoun; an "Old Solider," possibly James K. Polk attempting to "turn" his donkey to the "right way"; Richard M. Johnson, who has fallen off of his "old amalgamation nag," an allusion to his controversial multiracial wife; and a fallen man, possibly abolitionist Supreme Court Justice John McLean, wishing that he had a drop of "Democratic blood to let out." In the background, General Winfield Scott, astride a horse, and Commodore Charles Stewart, who sails a boat, discuss their lack of desire to be president. Inside the White House, Richard Tyler, a scroll inscribed "Irish Repeal" in his pocket, shakes and warns his sleeping father of the approaching "Philistines." Tyler responds smugly that he will be re-elected or "veto the whole concern," an allusion to his excessive use of the veto to stop the establishment of another national bank., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to an act of Congress in the year 1843 by H. R. Robinson in the clerk's office in the District court for the Sc District of N.Y., Artist's initial lower left corner., Publication information supplied by Reilly., LCP copy trimmed., Described in Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American political caricaturist in the Jacksonian era (PhD diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 249-50., Purchase 1958., 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
- Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, lithographer
- Date
- 1843
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1843-8 [6264.F]
- Title
- A " dodge" that won't work
- Description
- Satire of 1872 Liberal Republican presidential nominee Horace Greeley's attempt to court the African American vote despite his condemnation of civil rights policies under Reconstruction. Depicts Greeley with former Confederate President Jefferson Davis hovering behind him holding shackles and a whip (a reference to Greeley's partial payment of Davis' prison bond). Greeley asks the two African American men if they will vote for him, "Of course Sam and Ceasar, you’ll vote for me your old friend Horace Greely?" The men reply that they will vote for Ulysses Grant. "No Mr. Greely we can’t vote for you, for behind you we see Jeff Davis and behind him is the old lash and bondage." "We vote, as all true hearted colored men will vote; for Mr. Lincoln’s friend General Grant who conquered the rebellion & secured our freedom.", Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1872 by Currier & Ives in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington., 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., John Cameron was a Scottish lithographer who worked for several years with the renowned New York lithographic firm Currier and Ives.
- Creator
- Cameron, John, approximately 1828-, lithographer
- Date
- 1872
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1872 - 6W [P.2275.2]
- Title
- The two platforms
- Description
- Racist poster attacking radical Republican support of African American suffrage by comparing the platforms of Democratic candidate and white supremacist Heister Clymer and radical Republican candidate John White Geary during the 1866 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election. Depicts the side-by-side bust portraits of a white man titled "Clymer's Platform is for the White Man" and an African American man, portrayed in racist caricature with grotesque features, titled "Geary's Platform is for the Negro." Contains three lines of text above the image which reference the other "Radical" Republican candidates who support "Negro Suffrage" and two lines below which declares "Read the Platforms. Congress says, the Negro must be allowed to vote, or the states be punished.", Title from item., Date of publication supplied by Reilly., RVCDC, Purchase 1998., 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
- [1866]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Political Cartoons - 1866-8 [9387.F]
- Title
- Abraham's dream! "Coming events cast their shadows before."
- Description
- Cartoon lampooning Lincoln's belief in prophetic dreams and fear of losing the presidential election of 1864. Above the dreaming, sleeping body of Lincoln, Democratic candidate George McClellan arrives at the White House. He witnesses Liberty, depicted as a white woman, hurling the decapitated head of an African American man, portrayed in racist caricature, at a fleeing Lincoln as he states, "This don't remind me of any joke!!" Lincoln is attired in a plaid Scotsman's cap and cape, an allusion to his disguise in response to an assassination threat before his first inauguration, and carries an inscribed scroll, "To whom it may concern," a reference to his written edict that he would only receive, not seek, offers of peace from the Confederacy., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress, A.D. 1864, by Currier & Ives, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York., Probably drawn by Louis Maurer., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War., 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
- Currier & Ives
- Date
- 1864
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1864-41 [6374.F]
- Title
- The chivalry at the English court
- Description
- Cartoon mocking Southern secessionists who sought foreign aid for the Southern Confederacy by depicting white men emissaries from the "Gentlemen colony of South Carolina" asking Queen Victoria if she can spare a King. The South Carolinians stand before the throne and present bales of “Cotton” to the Queen. Behind them a contingent of enslaved African American children, portrayed as racist caricatures, carry an umbrella, a fan, a serving tray of “julips,” and hold the tail of the emissary’s jacket. In the right, Queen Victoria sits on her throne surrounded by white boys and flanked by a lion and a unicorn. She responds that her family is small but possibly a "Coburg" relation may satisfy their needs., Title from item., Publication date supplied by Weitenkampf., Text printed below image: May it please Your Majesty, We, the Republicans of the Gentlemen Colony of South Carolina are desirous of having a Royal Master; would You graciously please to spare us a King out of your illustrious house? Her Majesty. Thank you Gentlemen, but my Family is small, you know; -- perhaps one of my Coburg Relations may accommodate you, I can recommend them, they give Satisfaction in every Place., Accessioned 1899., 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
- [1860]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1860-6W [5780.F]
- Title
- The dis-united states. Or the Southern Confederacy
- Description
- Cartoon mocking the inherent dissension within the newly formed Confederacy depicting the Confederate state leaders as conniving self-opportunists led by the Governor of the first state to secede, South Carolina's Francis Pickens. Pickens, armed with a whip and pistol, is astride the back of an enslaved African American man on all fours, and demands as a "file leader," obedience from Stephen R. Mallory of Florida, William Yancey of Alabama, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, Joseph Brown of Georgia, and an unidentified white man from Louisiana. The Confederates seated upon representations of their state interests (a wrecked hull, bales of cotton, and a barrel of sugar) ignore Pickens and demand acquiescence to their different state needs including coastal control, control of profits from the sale of cotton, and increased bonds and duties as compensation for separating from the Union., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Date of publication supplied by Reilly., Purchase 1964., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War., 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
- Currier & Ives
- Date
- [1861]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1861-6R [6612.F]
- Title
- The times
- Description
- Satire depicting the economic depression and social misery of the working class following the Panic of 1837. Depicts a figure symbolizing President Jackson composed of a hat, spectacles, and pipe called "Glory" overlooking a city street. Lining the street is a hotel for sale; a Custom House doing no business; "The Mechanics Bank" during a run; the pawn shop of "Shylock Graspall"; a liquor store in front of which an African American shoe shiner greets another African American man; the Sheriff's office doing an active business; and attorney "Peter Pillage" being collected by his horse drawn carriage. In the foreground peaches and flour are for sale at exorbitant prices; several white men laborers sit and stand idle including a mason, sailor, carpenter, and driver; a widowed white mother and child beg a banker for money; and reminiscent of Hogarth's "Gin Lane," a white woman and a child lay on a straw mat next to a white man drunkard and seated militiaman. Visible in the background are an almshouse, "Bridewell" Debtor Prison, an idle wharf, and a deflating balloon marked "Safety Fund" symbolizing Van Buren's failed New Bank insurance program., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1837, by H.R. Robinson in the clerk's office of the District Court of the United States of the Southern District of New York., LCP exhibition catalogue: Made in America #52., 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., Clay, born in Philadelphia, was a prominent caricaturist, engraver, and lithographer.
- Creator
- Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, artist
- Date
- 1837
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1837-8 [5760.F.75]
- Title
- Fate of the radical party
- Description
- Cartoon predicting that the radical members of the Republican Party will be responsible for the party's defeat in the 1868 presidential election. Depicts a steaming locomotive in the shape of a bottle labeled "A Radical Cure - Lowell Bitters" in which Massachusetts representative Benjamin F. Butler is encased. The train heads toward the "Dutch Gap" being dug by incumbent Andrew Johnson holding a shovel of "Veto" dirt (reference to Johnson's numerous vetoes of radical reconstruction policies). Riding on and in the train are: Presidential nominee Ulysses S. Grant who smokes from the pipe-shaped train's smoke stack which is adorned with the head of an African American man, portrayed in racist caricature; Thaddeus Stevens as the engineer; and Vice-Presidential nominee Schuyler Colfax. On the tracks in the background, an African American man, portrayed in racist caricature, sits on a stool and writes atop the pedestal "Fame," and the "Constitutional Line" train proceeds to the White House "Depot.", Title from item., Date of publication supplied by Weitenkampf., Purchase 1979., 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
- [1868]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1868-14w [P.8503]
- Title
- Political caricature no.3. The abolition catastrophe, or the November smash-up
- Description
- Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1864 by Bromley & Co. New York in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York., Text printed on recto: Single Copies sent pr. mail post paid 25 cts; 5 Copies $1.00; 50 express $9.00; 100 $16.00. Express charges paid by purchaser. Address: Bromley & Co., Box 4265 New York City. Write your address: Post Office, County and State plainly., Third in a series of four., McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War., 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., Cartoon criticizing the Republican's self-destructive support of abolitionism during the presidential election of 1864 depicting the "Union" train of Democrats steaming toward the White House passing the wrecked Republican train. Candidate George McClellan engineers the smooth running Democratic train powered by "Democracy" and adorned with the flag "Constitution." Several of the passengers including Horatio Seymour praise McClellan as others mock the Republican Party's demise. The Republican train has crashed into several rocks symbolic of the war including "Abolitionism," "Confiscation," and "Emancipation." The crash ejects Abraham Lincoln. Several African Americans, who are depicted in racist caricature and speak in the vernacular, are crushed and maimed. Tossed and injured prominent Republican passengers include Edwin Stanton; Horace Greeley; Henry Ward Beecher who holds an African American baby; Charles Sumner; William Seward; John McKeon; Benjamin Butler and Thurlow Weed; many of whom pray for help. "John Bull," Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, and France's Napoleon III observe and comment on the crash's effect on the puppet empire of Mexico. Another observer, recently resigned Secretary Salmon P. Chase, expresses relief that he left the Republican train in the "nick of time."
- Date
- 1864
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1864-39R [5793.F.2]
- Title
- Worship of the North
- Description
- Graphic cartoon steeped in Confederate bitterness toward the "Republican" North depicting a scene of Northern idolatry of the African American. Worshippers near a mound of skulls surround a blood-stained altar upon which lies the shackled sacrificed body of American youth. The altar, with a bust of Lincoln dressed as a clown overhead, is constructed from Northern principles such as "Puritanism," "Free Love," and "Negro Worship." Behind the altar an African American man idol, barefoot and bare-chested and portrayed in racist caricature, sits upon the "Chicago Platform." Near the idol stands the statue of "St. Ossawattomi" (i.e., John Brown). The worshippers include General Scott, General Halleck and a loot-laden General Butler, as well as Secretary Edwin Stanton, John Fremont, a knife wielding Henry Ward Beecher, a torch carrying Charles Sumner, Horace Greeley with a censer, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, praying and kneeling atop a volume of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Printed in the top corners is "Ego.", Published in: Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), pl. 1., Issued as plate 1 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., Title and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Accessioned 1979., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War., 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., Aldabert Volck (1828-1912), i.e., V. Blada, was a prominent Southern cartoonist from Baltimore who is best known for his 1863 work "Sketches from the Civil War," later republished circa 1886 by Porter & Coates in Philadelphia under the title "Confederate War Etchings."
- Creator
- Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
- Date
- [1863]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1863 - Wor [P.2275.6]
- Title
- The abolition Garrison in danger & the narrow escape of the Scotch Ambassador
- Description
- Anti-abolition print celebrating the 1835 attack on William Lloyd Garrison in Boston by "gentleman of property and standing" preceding his scheduled speaking engagement before the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. Depicts Garrison at the center of an angry mob of white men. He has a noose around his neck and his newspaper "The Liberator" in his pocket and yells, "Help Children of Africer - help brothers." Scottish abolitionist George Thompson, who was rumored to be the Society's speaker, flees the scene attired in a women's clothes. He states with a Scottish burr that he will not be a "Martyr in sie black cause." As the mob screams, "Down with the incendiary abolitionists," and calls for Garrison's lynching and arrest, Garrison is being pulled by the noose by several of the rioters and steps upon editions of the "Evening Post" and "Human Rights," serials sympathetic to the abolitionist cause., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Text on recto: Boston Oct. 21st, 1835., Purchase 1958., 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
- [1835]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1835-10W [6259.F]
- Title
- The Salt River gazette---extra, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 1867 The Great Negro Party--born, 1856--died Oct. 8, 1867
- Description
- Cartoon publicizing the death of the "Great Negro Party" (i.e., Republican Party) as a result of the defeat of several Republican candidates to Democrats in the Philadelphia local elections of 1867. Depicts a series of racist captioned vignettes and caricatures. Includes the head of an African American man above a coffin inscribed with the life and death dates of the party (1856-Oct. 8, 1867); “a Scene at the Broad St. League House” depicting a white man minister forced to perform an interracial marriage between a white woman and an African American man; and a scene entitled "The Work of Congress repudiated by the People" showing an African American man lounging and watching white men labor to pay their taxes. Also includes an African American man dandy commenting in the vernacular on his making electors sick "dis time"; and a scene titled "Statue to be erected in front of the Union League House" showing the sculpture of an older African American woman on a ragged horse. The African American dandy caricature originally appeared as an illustration titled "S.S. Sanford in One of his Great Delineations of Ethiopian Character" in "Our Day," an 1860 circular that advertised his Sanford Opera House. The statue caricature originally appeared in the "Original Comicalities" section of the June 1854 edition of "Graham's Magazine" and was titled "Woolly Equestrian Statue of the late Mrs. Joyce Heth." Mrs. Heth, an early attraction of P.T. Barnum from 1835 until 1836, claimed that she was over 100 years old and a nanny to George Washington., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Originally part of McAllister scrapbooks of views of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania views and political miscellany. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., 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
- [1867]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1867-1W [5759.F; (2)1322.F.77]
- Title
- The follies of the age, vive la humbug!!
- Description
- Critique of the social climate of the year of 1855 mocking several of the year's fads, social movements, and major events, many specific to the city of Philadelphia. Depicts several individual scenes occurring on an active street lined by businesses near a river. Depictions include: a scene representing the case of Jane Johnson, an African American woman freedom seeker aided by abolitionist Passmore Williamson; a group of ragged and armed white men filibusters holding the banner "Sam" rushing off to free Central America from European control; a stand where one is "allowed to drink 48 glasses of Lager Beer" where a white man police officer tries to stop a white man drunkard; a group of white women Mormons on a cart headed to "Salt Lake City"; a white man hugging two white women as his angry wife looks on and calls them "Ceresco free-lovers" after the Utopian society that lasted until 1855; two motley groups of local militias drilling; a caricature of the popular French actress Rachel who had an inauspicious debut in Philadelphia; and groups of individuals partaking of "water cures" and "sea baths." In the background the Camden Amboy train crash of 1855 is depicted as well as the destruction by fire of the Philadelphia steamer "John Stevens.", Title from item., Date inferred from content., Accessioned 1998., 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
- [1855?]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1855-Fol [P.9624]
- Title
- Arms of ye confederacie
- Description
- Civil War print using the allegory of a coat of arms to criticize slavery and Southern culture. Depicts the shield adorned with symbolic Southern imagery, including a mint julep, pistol, whip and manacles, and enslaved African Americans, including a woman with a baby, working in the field. The shield is flanked by a white man plantation owner, attired in spurs and smoking a pipe, and a bare-chested, barefooted, enslaved African American man in manacles. Above the shield stands a rooster between the Confederate flag and a flag with a skull, cross-bones, and the number 290. Above the rooster is a streamer inscribed "Servitudo Esto Perpetua." In the background, white men plantation owners play cards, two white men duel, and an auction of enslaved people is in progress., Title from item., Possible date of publication supplied by Reilly., RVCDC, Accessioned 1979., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War., 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
- Tilley, H. H., engraver
- Date
- [1862?]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1862-13R [P.2275.9]
- Title
- Slavery as it exists in America : Slavery as it exists in England
- Description
- Racist, anti-abolition print challenging Northern abolitionists' view of slavery by favorably contrasting the living conditions of enslaved African American people in America with that of British industrial workers. First image depicts enslaved men, women, and children playing music, singing, and dancing during a hoe-down while Southerners and Northerners observe and comment about how the false reports to the North about the hardships of slavery will now be rectified. Second image portrays a British cloth factory where several emaciated white factory workers, attired in torn and worn clothes, have gathered, including a woman and her children referring to themselves as slaves; two workers discussing running away to an easier life in the coal mines; and workers commenting on their premature aging. A rotund priest and tax collector observe. Soldiers march in the background. Below the image is a small portrait of the "English Anti-slavery Agitator" George Thompson., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1850 by J. Haven in the clerk's office of the District Court of Mass., Manuscript note on verso: Deposited April 9, 1851, Recorded vol 26. pag, 145., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1967, p. 55., 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., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
- Date
- 1850
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1850-6 [P.9675]

