Comic Valentine Collection
Title
Comic Valentine Collection
Description
In both the United States and England, the market for comic valentines rivaled that for sentimental valentines, with their sales numbers about equal in the 1840s and 1850s. Sentimental valentines were more expensive, ranging in price from twenty-five cents to thirty dollars. A single comic valentine cost about a penny, hence their other nickname "penny dreadfuls." "Dreadful" is an appropriate term, but "crude," both in content and printing, is perhaps more accurate. Many were printed from wood blocks, with the color added by hand (often with stencils). The later examples were reproduced lithographically, but imitated the look of woodcuts. Sometimes the same image was used more than once with different doggerel verse. The recipients typically threw them away, so few survive. Bibliographically, they are challenging because they rarely list the artists' or publishers' names or the date of publication. The illustration technique is not always obvious, even with magnification. Working under the NEH-funded McAllister Project, Linda Wisniewski scanned the valentines. During a 2006 internship funded by the Fels Foundation, Elizabeth Donaldson created the records for the collection. Thanks to Linda and Betsy, digital versions of these remarkable pieces of ephemera are available here for further study.
Comic Valentines
Title
McAllister Comic Valentines
Description
Comic valentines, very popular in the United States beginning in the early 1840s, are quite different from the lacy, heart-shaped cards that one associates with the holiday today. The cartoons and verses poke fun at various occupations (lawyers, doctors, preachers, butchers, etc.), ethnicities (Black, Irish, German, etc.), human frailties (fat, thin, ugly, nosy, two-faced, etc.), romantic aspirations, habits and pastimes, political activities, and participation in the American Civil War. The Philadelphia collector John A. McAllister assembled the collection and donated it to the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1884., In both the United States and England, the market for comic valentines rivaled that for sentimental valentines, with their sales numbers about equal in the 1840s and 1850s. Sentimental valentines were more expensive, ranging in price from twenty-five cents to thirty dollars. A single comic valentine cost about a penny, hence their other nickname "penny dreadfuls." "Dreadful" is an appropriate term, but "crude," both in content and printing, is perhaps more accurate. Many were printed from wood blocks, with the color added by hand (often with stencils). The later examples were reproduced lithographically, but imitated the look of woodcuts. Sometimes the same image was used more than once with different doggerel verse. The recipients typically threw them away, so few survive. Bibliographically, they are challenging because they rarely list the artists' or publishers' names or the date of publication. The illustration technique is not always obvious, even with magnification. Working under the NEH-funded McAllister Project, Linda Wisniewski scanned the valentines. During a 2006 internship funded by the Fels Foundation, Elizabeth Donaldson created the records for the collection. Thanks to Linda and Betsy, digital versions of these remarkable pieces of ephemera are available here for further study., Provenance: The Comic Valentine collection was donated to The Library Company of Philadelphia in 1884 by John Allister McAllister.
Creator
McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, creator
Date
1840-1880?
Pore lil' Mose sends his Pa a valentine. [graphic] / R.F. Outcault.
Title
Pore lil' Mose sends his Pa a valentine
Description
Racist cartoon containing vignettes about an African American family, portrayed in racist caricature, with the boy prankster Pore Lil' Mose giving valentines to his gal Happy Lil' Sal and his Pa. In the left, shows Miss Sally Sunbeam, portrayed in caricature and wearing her hair in pigtails with yellow bows and attired in a pink dress with a white ruffled collar, yellow stockings, and boots, standing with her dog. She smiles and holds up the valentine while Mose looks on from behind a fence. Below is a vignette depicting Pa angrily holding and reading his “comic” valentine, “Moses Pryor shif’less coon quit his job de first of June never works again till fall hates to ever work at all.” Mose’s mother, attired in a red headkerchief with white polka dots, a yellow shawl, and a blue dress, smiles as she looks over Pa’s shoulder. A younger brother, attired in a red and white sailor shirt with a green bow and green pants, stands behind Pa and scowls with his hands in his pockets. The next vignette, shows Mose fleeing the kitchen with only his legs visible running out the door as a mule looks on. Pa, tripping over the cat, flies through the air head down and legs up and carrying a stick in his hand. Ma leans back with her hand on her head as the plates, cutlery, and coffee pot are thrown from the kitchen table. In the top right is a portrait of Uncle Jack, wearing white hair and attired in a black top hat, a white and red striped shirt, a yellow vest with red polka dots, blue pants, red socks, and brown shoes, standing with his hands in his pockets. The image of Pa’s valentine depicts a racist caricature of an African American man stealing a chicken at night under the moonlight. Contains 21 lines of text written in the vernacular explicating the scenes ending with the line "Pore Lil' Mose.", Title from item., The "Por Lil' Mose" series was published in the New York Herald from 1901 until 1902., Purchase 1978., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Richard Felton Outcault (1868-1928) is renowned as the creator of the first published full page comic. He is also the creator of "Buster Brown."
Creator
Outcault, Richard Felton, 1863-1928, artist
Date
[ca. 1901]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1901 Por [8391.F]