© Copyright 2025 - The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1314 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. TEL (215) 546-3181 FAX (215) 546-5167
For inquiries, please contact our IT Department
- Title
- Jeff . Davis in prison
- Description
- Anti-Davis cartoon invoking the travesties at Confederate war prisons to satirize the incarcerated former Confederate president as a pompous, sniveling ingrate. Shows Davis, attired in a suit, and his feet shackled, in his cell, in front of a table containing his modest meal and complaining to the prison doctor. He bemoans his being unaccustomed to such living and that "you must order some more healthy food, or I shall starve to death." The doctor responds it is "good healthy food, such as our soldiers are fed on" and that their recent achievements prove it is "tolerably healthy." In the left, an older African American man cook, portrayed in racist caricature, announces in the vernacular "Massa Jeff! de dinner is ready." Two Union soldiers retort and reply "It's unhealthy is it! You didn't think that a pint of cornmeal was unhealthy when we were at Andersonville." The other angrily remembers "Rotten sowbelly and mouldy hard tacks was considered 'healthy food' when I was in "Libby" and Belle Island., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1865 by Gibson & Co. in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio., Purchase 2008., 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 cartoons - 1865-Jef [P.2008.5.1]
- Title
- Jeff . Davis in prison
- Description
- Anti-Davis cartoon invoking the travesties at Confederate war prisons to satirize the incarcerated former Confederate president as a pompous, sniveling ingrate. Shows Davis, attired in a suit, and his feet shackled, in his cell, in front of a table containing his modest meal and complaining to the prison doctor. He bemoans his being unaccustomed to such living and that "you must order some more healthy food, or I shall starve to death." The doctor responds it is "good healthy food, such as our soldiers are fed on" and that their recent achievements prove it is "tolerably healthy." In the left, an older African American man cook, portrayed in racist caricature, announces in the vernacular "Massa Jeff! de dinner is ready." Two Union soldiers retort and reply "It's unhealthy is it! You didn't think that a pint of cornmeal was unhealthy when we were at Andersonville." The other angrily remembers "Rotten sowbelly and mouldy hard tacks was considered 'healthy food' when I was in "Libby" and Belle Island., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1865 by Gibson & Co. in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio., Purchase 2008., 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 cartoons - 1865-Jef [P.2008.5.1]
- Title
- Goal, in Walnut Street Philadelphia
- Description
- Active street scene at Sixth and Walnut streets with a view of the Walnut Street Jail, completed in 1776, after the designs of Philadelphia architect Robert Smith. Depicts several individuals, including a child, lining Sixth Street witnessing a large wood shed on wheels, possibly the first edifice of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, being moved by a team of horses. A dog runs in the street and another sits next to a spectator in the right foreground. The prison closed and was razed in 1835, the prisoners relocated to Moyamensing Prison. The first edifice of Bethel Church, a former blacksmith shop, was transported to Sixth and Lombard streets., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Illustrated in S. Robert Teitelman's Birch's views of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: The Free Library of Philadelphia, 1982, rev. 2000), pl. 24., Accessioned 1979., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
- Creator
- W. Birch & Son
- Date
- 1799
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Birch's views [Sn 24/P.2276.56]
- Title
- City of Philadelphia, 1867 Presented by Gould & Co
- Description
- Advertisement souvenir print distributed by the Philadelphia furniture dealers containing a montage of 3 panoramas, 3 views, and 2 allegorical vignettes. Panoramas show schematic views of Philadelphia, and the views show Independence Hall, 1867 and Gould & Company's Union Depots located at N.E. cor. 9th & Market Sts. and at 37 & 39 N. Second Street. Panoramic views predominately show the Eastern, Western, and Central portions of the city from across the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers. Major landmarks are visually highlighted and identified by text below the images. Includes (lower view) the U.S. Mint, Market St. Bridge, Academy of Music, St. Mark's Church, Academy of Natural Science, Pennsylvania College, New Chestnut St. Bridge, Deaf & Dumb Asylum, Naval Asylum, Alms House, County Prison, Insane Asylum, Nth. Pennsylvania Bridge, Woodland Cemetery, U.S. Arsenal, Gray's Ferry Bridge, Navy Yard, Pennsylvania Hospital, and League Island; (center view) Laurel Hill Cemetery, Fairmount Park, Girard College, Fairmount & Water Works, Wire Bridge, Eastern Penitentiary, House of Refuge, Blind Asylum, [Central] High School, Cathedral (Sts. Peter & Paul), 7th Presbyterian Church, Gas Works, and Philadelphia Library (Library Company); (upper view) Merchant's Exchange, Girard Bank, Custom House, Smith's Island, Post Office, State House, Continental Hotel, Penn Cottage, Girard Hotel, Christ Church, Masonic Hall, Penn Treaty Monument, Petty's Island, Reading Coal Depot, and Port Richmond. Panoramas also contain maritime traffic., Vignettes show an allegorical view of "Peace" represented by a social gathering with food, drink, and music in a parlor and one of "War" represented by a marine battle. "Union Depot" vignettes show the busy storefronts. Merchandise lines the sidewalks of the businesses in which patrons enter, and in front of which heavy street and pedestrian traffic passes. Traffic includes horse and hand-drawn carts loaded with crates and furniture. Also shows the Market Street depot covered in advertising text. Independence Hall view contains heavy street traffic. Horse-drawn carts, carriages, delivery wagons, and omnibuses congest the street aside laborers pushing hand-carts, people on horseback, and pedestrians crossing the street. Pedestrians also walk in front of Independence Hall. American flags adorn the storefronts and Independence Hall. Other pictorial elements include the allegorical figure of peace, a cannon surrounded by other instruments of war, and borders comprised of vinery and filigree., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 138, Free Library of Philadelphia: Oversize Philadelphiana - Views
- Creator
- Rease & Kurtz
- Date
- [1867]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **BW - Views [P.8970.28]
- Title
- Views of Philadelphia
- Description
- Collection of prints from the various editions and restrikes of Birch's "Views of Philadelphia," originally published in 1800 as The City of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania North America; as it appeared in the year 1800. Four editions of the views, purchased through subscription and totaling 44 unique plates including a map of the city and title page with vignette, were published by William Birch in Philadelphia from 1800 until 1828. First and largest edition contained 29 plates, the pictorial views drawn by Thomas Birch and engraved by Samuel Seymour between 1798 and 1800; with the map and title page executed by script engraver William Barker. Bookseller Robert Campbell is listed as a seller on many of these plates, but appears to have been disassociated with the project before publication of the bound volume. Second edition of 22 plates was published in 1804. Third edition of 14 plates was published in 1809. Fourth edition of 12 plates was published between 1827 and 1828. The first and second edition were printed by Philadelphia printer, Richard Folwell. The later editions, predominately completed by William Birch alone, contained reissues of selected plates from the first edition as well as new engravings of prominent city structures erected after 1800. In the 1840s restrikes of five plates were produced by bookseller Robert Desilver, and in the 1860s, twelve by the antiquarian John McAllister, Jr; many of the restrikes originally published in the fourth edition. Collection also contains the second edition copper plate of the Bank of Pennsylvania, and the fourth edition copper plate of The Late Theatre in Chestnut Street., Series of late 18th and early 19th-century views of principal sections of the city of Philadelphia including primary streets, government buildings, local landmarks, and financial, religious, educational, and benevolent institutions. The series, the first of its kind in the United States, was created to attract new citizens and to illustrate to an international audience the vitality of the nation's premiere city. The views focus on structures, but also contain lively depictions of daily street life in Philadelphia. Plates depict Philadelphia's Delaware River port with the Penn Treaty Tree; several street views including Arch Street, High (Market) Street, and Third Street; city markets; city banks, such as the Bank of the U.S.; the State House (Independence Hall); Congress Hall; prominent churches, such as Christ Church; Pennsylvania Hospital; Library and Surgeon's Hall; Chestnut Street Theatre; the Alms House; Walnut Street Jail; the Water-Works; and the Schuylkill Bridge., See S. Robert Teitelman's Birch's views of Philadelphia. (Philadelphia: The Free Library of Philadelphia, 1982, rev. 2000)., Snyder, "William Birch: His Philadelphia views," The Pennsylvania magazine of history and biography 73 (July, 1949), p. 271-315., Snyder, "Birch's Philadelphia views: New discoveries," The Pennsylvania magazine of history and biography 88 (April, 1964), p. 164-173., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., William Birch, trained in England, was a Philadelphia engraver, miniaturist, and enamel painter. He also engraved and published in 1804 "The Country Seats of the United States of North America."
- Creator
- Birch, William Russell, 1755-1834
- Date
- 1800-1860, bulk 1800
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Birch's views [Sn 1 - Sn 43]
- Title
- Civil War Manuscripts, 1854-1868 (inclusive)
- Description
- The collection holds disparate letters and documents pertaining to both military and naval officials, and civilians, active during the Civil War. There are small groups of material relating to the careers of five Union men who functioned at various levels in the war: an army colonel, William Watts Hart Davis; a navy surgeon, James McClelland; a soldier from Philadelphia, J. Ridgway Moore; an army general, Lovell Harrison Rousseau; and a Union spy, Richard Wilcox. There are also ten prisoner-of-war letters written by Confederate soldiers being held in Indianapolis, IN, and Columbus, OH. Much of the material was removed from military office files during the war and sent to the collector, John A. McAllister in Philadelphia., Additional Civil War-related autographs, clipped from letters and documents, are in the McAllister Autograph Collection (McA MSS 022)., On deposit at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. For service, please contact the Historical Society at 215-732-6200 or http://www.hsp.org., Some of the items in this collection were previously assigned accession numbers 5786.F, 5787.F, and 5795.F., John A. McAllister was an antiquarian collector living in Philadelphia.
- Creator
- McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector
- Date
- 1854
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | MSS McA MSS 024, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A64502#page/1/mode/1up
- Title
- The tables turned You sabe him! Kealney must go!
- Description
- Political cartoon depicting racist caricatures of Chinese workers heckling Workingmen's Party of California leader Denis Kearney, who is in prison. In the right, shows Kearney, attired in a black-and-white-striped prison uniform with a ball and chain on his ankle, standing and grasping the bars of his cell, which is labeled, “House of Correction, 181.” In the left, a group of Chinese men workers, wearing queue hairstyles and attired in caps and hats, tunics, pants, and cloth slip-on shoes, sit and stand amongst baskets, including two filled with fish. They hold out to Kearney products associated with their employment, including a laundry worker carrying a washboard and offering socks with holes; a fishmonger holding crabs and a fish labeled, “Black Friday,” on a stick; and a man with a cigar in his mouth holding out a bundle of cigars. They mock him in pidgin English, “you sabe him? Kealney must go!” in reference to Kearney’s slogan that he ended every speech with: “The Chinese must go.” In the top left pinned to the wall is a depiction of a donkey and a cart, possibly alluding to Kearney’s draying business. Denis Kearney (1847-1907) was an Irish immigrant who lead the Workingmen’s Party of California on a platform of anti-Chinese hate, blaming the Chinese immigrants for low wages and job scarcity. He was imprisoned in 1877 for inciting a riot., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Text printed on recto: Copyright secured., RVCDC
- Date
- [ [ca. 1877]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1877 - Tables [P.2025.44]
- Title
- A distinguished arrival Negro soldier - "Hi dar! Show dis ole lady a room - one wid a closet to put dis yar skelle in tum in!"
- Description
- Cartoon satirizing the imprisonment at Fort Monroe, Va. of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, detained by Union cavalry troops on May 10, 1865, while wearing his wife's overcoat and shawl as a disguise. Shows an African American soldier escorting Davis to a cell door at the "Hotel De Monroe." In front of the door a noose hangs. Davis, attired in a bonnet, shawl, and overcoat, holds a money bag labeled "JD. CSA" (an allusion to Davis's confiscation of the remaining Confederate treasury). The soldier holds a bayonet to which a skirt hoop is attached and speaks in the vernacular "Hi dar! Show dis ole lady a room..." In the background, a smiling sun, an African American soldier, and a ship sailing the bay are visible. Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe between 1865 and 1867., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Ent'd according to act of Congress, in the year 1865, by J. Chapman in the Clerk's Office of the District Court, for the Southern District of New York., Purchase 2004., 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
- Date
- 1865
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv - misc. - Civil War - Caricatures and cartoons [P.2004.6.2]
- Title
- A distinguished arrival Negro soldier - "Hi dar! Show dis ole lady a room - one wid a closet to put dis yar skelle in tum in!"
- Description
- Cartoon satirizing the imprisonment at Fort Monroe, Va. of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, detained by Union cavalry troops on May 10, 1865, while wearing his wife's overcoat and shawl as a disguise. Shows an African American soldier escorting Davis to a cell door at the "Hotel De Monroe." In front of the door a noose hangs. Davis, attired in a bonnet, shawl, and overcoat, holds a money bag labeled "JD. CSA" (an allusion to Davis's confiscation of the remaining Confederate treasury). The soldier holds a bayonet to which a skirt hoop is attached and speaks in the vernacular "Hi dar! Show dis ole lady a room..." In the background, a smiling sun, an African American soldier, and a ship sailing the bay are visible. Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe between 1865 and 1867., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Ent'd according to act of Congress, in the year 1865, by J. Chapman in the Clerk's Office of the District Court, for the Southern District of New York., Purchase 2004., 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
- Date
- 1865
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv - misc. - Civil War - Caricatures and cartoons [P.2004.6.2]
- Title
- View of the city of Philadelphia, and its principal buildings
- Description
- Print containing a central panoramic view of Philadelphia surrounded by vignettes of prominent Philadelphia institutions. View looks west from Camden, New Jersey, showing islands and vessels in the Delaware River. Vignettes include the Almshouse, Fairmount, Girard College, Merchants' Exchange, Moyamensing Prison, Chestnut Street Theatre, U.S. Naval Asylum, State House, U.S. Mint, and the University of Pennsylvania. Most vignettes include small details like carriages, horses and pedestrians on foot., Philadelphia on Stone, Atwater Kent Museum: 40.14.19
- Creator
- Kollner, Augustus, b. 1813, artist
- Date
- 1842
- Location
- Atwater Kent Museum | Print Department AKM AKM 40.14.19

