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Title: Sawnee The wonderful musical contraband known as the "Human Organ."
Description: Full-length portrait of the formerly enslaved African American performer, attired in a Union uniform. He stands facing the viewer, holding his cap in his left hand and with his right hand tucked inside his sack coat. Found homeless in 1862 in Chambersburg, Pa. by promoter Robert Criswell, the "Human Organ" imitated the organ, any sound, and sang plantation songs during exhibitions in the North, including New York City and Philadelphia., Article about Sawnee published in Franklin repository, January 27, 1864 (Chambersburg, Pa.), p. 5., Accessioned 1982., 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. 1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits - sitter - Sawnee [P.8925.2]

Title: Sawnee The wonderful musical contraband known as the "Human Organ."
Description: Full-length portrait of the formerly enslaved African American performer, attired in a Union uniform. He holds his hat with his left hand and tucks his right hand into his sack coat while leaning against a chair. Found homeless in 1862 in Chambersburg, Pa. by promoter Robert Criswell, the "Human Organ" imitated the organ, any sound, and sang plantation songs during exhibitions in the North, including New York City and Philadelphia., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Unmounted carte-de-visite., Article about Sawnee published in Franklin repository, January 27, 1864 (Chambersburg, Pa.), p. 5., Accessioned 1982., 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. 1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits - sitter - Sawnee [P.8925.3]

Title: " Blind Tom"
Description: Half-length portrait of the blind composer and pianist. Tom, attired in a white collared shirt, a tie, and a jacket, faces left with his eyes closed. Thomas Greene Wiggins also known as Thomas Bethune was born blind in Georgia to Charity and Domingo "Mingo" Wiggins. The family was enslaved by General James Neil Bethune, who hired Tom out to perform and tour extensively. He was a musical prodigy who could play by ear. He wrote over one hundred compositions and performed throughout his lifetime., Title from manuscript note written on mount., Date inferred from photographic medium and attire of the sitter., American Celebrities Album., Purchase 1985., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited.
Date: [ca. 1870]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department American Celebrities Album [(II)P.9100.44c]

Title: American Celebrities Albums
Description: Two volume set of albums containing predominately cartes-de-visite photographic portraits of prominent American 19th-century figures in politics, education, and the arts, ca. 1870.
Date: 1869

Title: American celebrities album
Description: Two volume set of albums containing predominately cartes de visite photographic portraits of prominent American 19th-century figures in politics, education, and the arts. Portraits depict actors, artists, authors, Congressmen, educators, governors, military leaders, physicians, publishers, religious leaders, social reformers, scientists, and U.S. presidents and their spouses. Includes mostly vignette and bust-length portraits and a small number of full length portraits. Also contains a small number of trimmed portrait engravings, tintypes, and a photo-collage depicting evangelist D. L. Moody with the under photograph copyrighted 1877. Small number of sitters are unidentified., Men sitters include P. T. Barnum; Henry Ward Beecher; John Brown; Ned Buntline; Samuel Clemens; Jefferson Davis; O. S. Fowler; Oliver Wendell Holmes; Abraham Lincoln; Samuel Morse; Thomas Nast; Hiram Powers; Winfield Scott; Gerrit Smith; Cornelius Vanderbilt; John Wanamaker; Brigham Young; Native American chiefs Ouray, Spotted Tail, and Sitting Bull; and African Americans Frederick Douglass and performer "Blind" Tom. Women sitters include presidential spouses Frances Cleveland and Lucretia Garfield; reformers Susan B. Anthony and Victoria Woodhull; authors Louisa May Alcott, Helen Hunt (Jackson), Harriet Beecher Stowe; sculptors Harriet Hosmer and Vinnie Ream; and performers Maria Albani, Charlotte Cushman, and Kate Field., Title from item's cover., Photographers include Mathew Brady, E. & H. T. Anthony; Jeremiah Gurney; and George Kendall Warren., Majority of sitters identified by a manuscript note on the album page or on portrait or an inscribed label., Brown leather bindings with gilt, stamped in gilt on front boards: Volume I: American Celebrities. Vol. I.; Volume II: American Celebrities. Vol. II. Stamped in gilt on spines: Album., Purchase 1985., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., See "American Celebrities Album" item-level records for digital images of all identified individual sitters.
Date: [ca. 1870-ca. 1890]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums [P.9100.1 & 2]

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