Three-quarter length portrait of the African American itinerant preacher, abolitionist, and women's rights advocate born into slavery and originally known as Isabella Baumfree. Shows Truth, seated, and attired in a dark-colored, long sleeved dress with white collar, white shawl with fringe, and a white cap. She wears wire-rimmed glasses and faces front and is turned slightly to her left. She holds knitting in her left hand which rests on a small table that has a decorative table cloth. A notebook and vase of flowers adorn the table. A string of yarn runs across her lap. Truth escaped to freedom in 1826. During the period of the Civil War, Truth captioned, marketed, copyrighted, and sold at least eleven different carte-de-visite portraits of herself at her lectures and through the mail to earn personal funds and advocate for the abolition of slavery. Her knitting probably alludes to her promotion of the handcraft as an industry for advancement for former enslaved persons., Title from item., Publication information from copyright statement on verso: Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1864, by Sojourner Truth, in the Clerk's Office, of the U. S. District Court, for the Eastern District of Mich., Lib. Company. Annual report, 2016, p. 66-67., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Date
1864
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits - sitter - Truth [P.2017.27]
ArtCraft "First Day Cover" (i.e., designed envelope with a stamp affixed and cancelled on the day the stamp was issued) containing vignette illustrations depicting Harriet Tubman. Shows a half-length portrait of Harriet Tubman and a view of Tubman with Black persons of all ages, their belongings, and horse-drawn carts on a snow-covered clearing., Title from item., Date supplied from research and content., Logo of printer printed in lower left corner: Text "ArtCraft" set on a paint palette with brushes inserted through the hole for the artist's thumb., Image caption: She Guided More Than 300 Slaves to Freedom., Contains ink-stamp postmark: Washington. DC. Feb 1 1978 20013 and cancelled "First Day of Issue" Black Heritage USA color-printed 15-cent stamp after the design of Jerry Pinkney and depicting a portrait of Harriet Tubman and an inset of a view of Tubman and three Black persons riding a donkey-drawn wagon. The Tubman stamp issued in 1978, was the first issued for the Black Heritage Series begun in 1978 by the U.S. Postal Service to recognize "the contribution of Black Americans to the growth and development of the United States.", Mailing label removed., The Washington Press ArtCraft brand was introduced in 1939 for the printing of First Day Covers. The firm stopped producing ArtCraft First Day Covers in 2016., Gift of George R. Allen, 2022.
Date
[1978]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department ephemera - envelopes - Poor [P.2019.80.6]
