Reproduction of a George Gardner Fish allegorical painting celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) originally photographed by Boston photographer J. P. Soule. Depicts the white female figure Columbia holding out the Emancipation Proclamation and standing between a kneeling enslaved African American man and woman (attired in a head wrap). The bare-chested man holds up the pole of an American flag, while the woman drapes the flag around her naked body. Columbia, attired in a tiara and drapey gown, also holds a bunch of sprigs of laurel, as well as stands on a whip. A partial view of a wagon wheel is visible in the left background., Title from item., Artist and photographer from copy in the collections of the Library of Congress. LC copy "Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by John Sowle [sic], in clerk's office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts.", George Gardner Fish was a Nantucket portrait painter who specialized in pastels. He exhibited at the National Academy of Design between 1858 and 1863., John P. Soule was a Boston photographer who also published stereographs and cartes de visite. He served in the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts at the end of the Civil War., Purchased with the Davida T. Deutsch African American History Fund., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date
[ca. 1863]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv - misc. - Civil War - Genre & sentimental [P.2014.22]