Search results

Title: The Union Sons, of Johnson Society, of Philadelphia
Description: Ribbon illustrated with a half-length portrait of the Methodist clergyman Revd. Edward Johnson attired in a jacket and neckerchief. His right hand rests atop of a text, possibly a Bible, marked "Revd. Edward Johnson. Born March 1, 1781" on the front cover. Johnson, a sailmaker by trade, was one of a group of parishioners who seceded from Richard Allen's Bethel A.M.E. Church in 1820 to form the First Colored Wesley Methodist Church (incorporated in 1826). He was placed in charge of the congregation in 1822 for which he also served as a trustee. Johnson was listed as a Methodist clergyman residing in New Market Ward, Philadelphia in the 1850 census, as well as cited at 21 Hurst Street in Philadelphia city directories between circa 1841 and 1853., Date inferred from attire of sitter., Title from item., Purchased with funds from the Albert M. Greenfield Foundation., Purchase 2012., 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., Lib. Company. Annual report, 2012, p. 59-60.
Date: [ca. 1830]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Textiles [P.2012.49]

Title: The Rev. Richard Allen, Bishop of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, in the U. States
Description: Half-length portrait of the African American bishop, seated, and holding the Holy Bible upright in his lap with his right hand. Allen is depicted with gray curly hair and is attired in a shirt with a high neck collar, a vest, and a jacket. A geometric border frames the portrait. Allen, born into slavery in Philadelphia, founded and was ordained the first bishop of the denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1816., Original painting attributed to Raphaelle Peale., Title from item., 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., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Purchase 2006.
Creator: Boyd, John, engraver
Date: cDecember 8th, 1823, December 10th, 1823
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *portrait prints - A [P.2006.29]

Title: Revd. Jeremiah Gloucester Late pastor of the Second African Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia
Description: Half-length portrait of the African American pastor, slightly facing left and holding a Bible in his right hand, surrounded by a decorative border containing an inset of the Bible inscribed with the verse Hebrews 4:16. Gloucester has curly hair and sideburns. He iis attired in a shirt with high neck collar, a jacket, and a top coat. The portrait, published by Jeremiah's brother, Stephen, to raise funds for his widow and children, sold for $1. Gloucester was the son of John Gloucester, pastor of the First African Presbyterian Church. He became pastor of the Second African Presbyterian Church when it formed in 1824 from dissenting members of the First African Presbyterian Church following the failure of Jeremiah to be nominated to assume the pulpit of his late father., Issued as a companion piece to a portrait of John Gloucester published August 1, 1823 by J. How of Philadelphia. (LCP P.8911.430), Title from item., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of portraits., Stephen formed a splinter church, the Central Presbyterian Church, after failing to be elected to the pulpit of his late brother's church, the Second African Presbyterian Church, in 1844., Advertisement for the portrait in the March 14, 1828 edition of the first black-written New York newspaper, Freedom's Journal., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1973 p. 43., McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., 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: Tiller, Robert, engraver
Date: July 4th 1828
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department portrait prints - G [(1)5750.F.190]

Title: Philadelphia Divinity School 1931
Description: Group portrait depicting the graduating students, including a woman and an African American man, posed outside of the school at 42nd and Spruce Streets. The fifteen students, attired in caps and gowns, sit and stand in three rows. A religious instructor, attired in a black robe and a necklace with a large cross, stands among them. The Philadelphia Divinity School, incorporated in 1863, was an outgrowth of the Diocesan training school started by Protestant Episcopal Bishop Alonzo Potter. An official Department of Women was established at the Divinity School around 1939., Title and date from note inscribed on negative: PDS 1931., Gift of Joseph Kelly, 1982., 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.
Creator: Photo Illustrators (Firm), photographer
Date: 1931
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Photo-Illustrators-11x14 [P.8888.8]

Title: [Philadelphia Divinity School 1933]
Description: Group portrait depicting the graduating students, including two African American men, posed outside of the school at 42nd and Spruce Streets. The nineteen students, attired in caps and gowns, sit and stand in three rows. The Philadelphia Divinity School, incorporated in 1863, was an outgrowth of the Diocesan training school started by Protestant Episcopal Bishop Alonzo Potter., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inscribed on negative: PDS 1933., Photographer's imprint stamped on verso., Gift of Joseph Kelly, 1982., 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.
Creator: Photo Illustrators (Firm), photographer
Date: 1933
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Photo-Illustrators-11x14 [P.8888.8a]

Title: Revd. Richard Allen Bishop of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of the U.S
Description: Half-length portrait of abolitionist and first African American bishop, Richard Allen. Allen, born enslaved in Philadelphia, founded and was ordained the first bishop of the denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1816. Allen, attired in a white tie, a black waistcoat, and a black jacket, faces slightly right., Title from item., Probably drawn on stone by deaf and mute Philadelphia lithographer Albert Newsam., Purchase 2001., 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. 1850]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department portrait prints - Allen [P.9968]

Title: Eden Baptist Church Phila Rev. T.P. Wilson pastor
Description: Exterior view of the African American church on South Sartain Street, Philadelphia. Shows the front entrance to the brick building with shuttered windows. View includes portrait inset depicting the Rev. T.P. Wilson wearing a mustache and goatee and attired in a clerical collar and a jacket. Eden Baptist Church was founded in 1894., Title inscribed on negative., Date from manuscript note on verso., Purchase 2001., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date: 1916
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - unidentified - Religion [P.9981.8]

Title: Rev. C.M. Tanner, Philadelphia, Pa., April 17, 1896
Description: Bust-length portrait of Carlton Miller Tanner (ca. 1869-1933), the African Methodist Episcopal clergyman, missionary, author, and brother of artist Henry Ossawa Tanner. Depicts Tanner, his head turned slightly right, attired in a white clerical collar; dark-colored, button-down vest; and dark-colored jacket with notched lapels. His hair is cropped short and he wears a mustache. Tanner, born in Philadelphia, was a graduate of the Institute of Colored Youth and Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Holding a Doctor of Divinity from Wilberforce University, Payne Theological Seminary, Tanner began work as a pastor about 1893 and presided over the A.M.E. churches Big Bethel Church (Atlanta, Ga.) in the early 1900s and Metropolitan Church A.M.E. (Washington D.C.) between 1917 and 1922. Tanner also established the South African Christian Recorder in 1902 and wrote a "Manual of the A.M.E. Church." He passed away while a resident of Chicago, IL., Title and date from manuscript note on verso., Photographer's imprint blindstamped on mount., Description reviewed 2022., Access points reviewed 2022.
Creator: Kuebler, William J., photographer
Date: [April 17, 1896]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Swayne Collection [P.2018.66.4]

Title: Rev. Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in the United States of America, 1779
Description: Half-length portrait of the African American bishop, seated, and holding a book, possibly the Bible, in front of a curtain. He looks slightly to the left and points to an open page of the book with his right hand and clasps the upper edge of the other side of the book with his left hand. Allen is attired in a collared shirt, a vest, and a jacket. Allen was the first African American bishop as well as founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was born in Philadelphia and was enslaved by Benjamin Chew. He worked as a wood-cutter during his ordination. A full-length portrait of the white Quaker abolitionist and little person Benjamin Lay is on the verso. Lay is attired in a tricorn hat, a long shirt and jacket, britches, and boots. He holds a cane and book in his right hand., Manuscript note on border: "The curiosity of the portrait below is that it was made for the first Black Bishop in the UStates and perhaps the world! He is indeed a self created Bishop; nevertheless, as such he has now, in his 65 years, in 1824, probably created 100 ministers, by his ordination! He was born & bred in Philada. He was originally a slave of Benjn Chew's Esqre & learnd the trade of a Shoemaker; & like St. Paul, 'labored with his own hands,' while he ordained-", Title from item., Date form item., In John Fanning Watson's Extra-illustrated autograph manuscript of "Annals of Philadelphia", p. 276., Gift of John F Watson, June 1830., 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: 1813
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Watson's Annals manuscript [Yi2 1069.F.276]

Title: Revd. Charles W. Gardner Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of the people of colour in Philadelphia, Decr. 20th 1841
Description: Half-length portrait of the Philadelphia community reformer and abolitionist Presbyterian pastor. Gardner, attired in a white collared shirt, a black bowtie, waistcoat, and jacket, is seated and facing forward. Gardner, originally an itinerant Methodist preacher, aided freedom seekers and participated in the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society and the American Anti-Slavery Society, as well as worked with several African American intellectual, benevolent, and reform societies including the American Moral Reform Society., Title from item., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of portraits. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., 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., Newsam, a respected Philadelphia lithographer, was a deaf mute who received early art training at Philadelphia's Institute for the Deaf and Dumb.
Creator: Newsam, Albert, 1809-1864, lithographer
Date: [1841]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Portrait prints-G [(1)5750.F.178b]

Title: Revd. William Miller, Superintendant of the Wesleyan Zion Connexion in America
Description: Half-length portrait of the African American Methodist bishop for the New York conference, pastor of the First Wesleyan of Philadelphia, educator, and abolitionist. Miller, attired in a white shirt, a black waistcoat, and a black jacket, holds a book in his right hand., Title from item., Date inferred from presented age of sitter., Possibly by Philadelphia lithographer Albert Newsam., Footnote with biographical information about sitter published in Julie Winch's The Elite of our people (University Park: The Penn State University Press, 2000), p. 140 n54., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1972, p. 61., Purchase 1972., 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. 1840]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Portrait prints-M [8035.F.1]

Title: Revd. John Gloucester Late pastor of the First African Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia
Description: Half-length portrait of the first African American man ordained by the Presbyterian Church, seated and facing left, and with his right hand raised. Gloucester is attired in a shirt with a high neck collar, a vest, and a jacket. Contains decorative border with an inset of the Bible inscribed with the verse John I:29. Born and enslaved in Tennessee, Gloucester, initially a missionary, presided over the first African American Presbyterian church in the country., Title from item., See Lib. Company. Annual report, 1973, p. 43., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., McAllister Collection, gift, 1886. Accessioned 1973., 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: B. Tanner & W.R. Jones, engraver
Date: August 1st 1823
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department portrait prints - G [P.8911.430]

Title: From the plantation to the Senate
Description: Commemorative print containing portraits of eminent 19th-century African American men above a central cotton plantation scene. In front of the plantation residence by a river, enslaved African American men and women pick and transport baskets of cotton as a well-dressed African American foreman on horseback confers with a man on the dirt road. Flanking the central portrait of "Hon. Frederick Douglass, Champion of Freedom" on a background of tropical flowers, vines, and fruits are: "Hon. Benj. S. Turner of Alabama"; "Rt. Rev. Richard Allen" of Philadelphia, "1st Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church"; "Hon. H.R. Revels of Mississippi"; "Hon. Joseph H. Rainy [sic] of South Carolina"; "Hon. Josiah T. Walls of Florida"; and "Wm. Wells Brown, M.D., Author of the Rising Sun [sic]". Also contains vignettes of romanticized images of African American home life by a river showing African Americans playing instruments and dancing, transporting watermelon by barge, and relaxing outside their home., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Copyrighted 1883 by Gaylord Watson., Watson was a New York lithographer who specialized in maps., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1974, p. 61., Purchase 1974., 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: 1883
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC - African American Heroes [8091.F.275]

Title: Distinguished colored men
Description: Commemorative print containing a montage of portraits of eminent African American men centered around a portrait of Frederick Douglass and bordered by vignettes. Portraiture depicts: "Robert Brown Elliott, Ex-member of Congress" from South Carolina; "Blanche K. Bruce, Ex-Senator, U.S." from Mississippi; "Prof. R.T. Greener, Dean, Howard University"; "Wm. Wells Brown, M.D., author of the Rising Son"; "Henry Highland Garnett [sic], Late Minister of Liberia"; "Rt. Rev. Richard Allen, 1st Bishop of the African M.E. Church" in Philadelphia; first African American governor, "P.B.S. Pinchback, Ex-Governor of Louisiana"; "J.H. Rainey, Ex-Member of Congress"; "E.D. Bassett, Ex-Minister to Hayti"; "John Mercer Langston, Minister to Hayti". Vignettes depict a cornstalk, a twig of cotton, and scenes of romanticized images of African American home life by a waterway showing African Americans playing instruments, dancing, transporting watermelon by barge, and relaxing., Title from item., Inscribed lower right corner: Agents Wanted., Lower left corner inexpertly hand painted., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1975, p. 61., Accessioned 1975., 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: 1883
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC - African American Heroes [8139.F]

Main menu