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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: 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: 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: Bishops of the A.M.E. Church
Description: Commemorative print commissioned by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in commemoration of the nation's centennial and the church's 160th anniversary. Contains a central portrait of First Bishop Richard Allen surrounded by portraits of ten church bishops and six titled vignettes depicting important events, sites, and symbols in the history of the church. Bishops portrayed are: Morris Brown; William Paul Quinn; Daniel A. Payne; Jabez A. Campbell; Thomas M.D. Ward; John M. Brown; James A. Shorter; Alexander W. Wayman; Willis Nazrey; and Edward Waters. Vignettes depict: Wilberforce University, one of the first African American colleges in the United States founded in Ohio in 1856; an image of the "Old Chart", the Bible; interior scene of a young African American preacher, possibly Richard Allen, before his small congregation near a hearth and anvil from the "Early days of African Methodism"; exterior view of the "Payne Institute," Bishop Payne's log cabin school for African Americans in South Carolina declared illegal by the state in 1835; a marinescape with a group of people welcoming the "First missionaries to Port-Au-Prince Hayti, Rev. Scipio Beans and Richard Robinson, 1824"; and an 1876 exterior view of the "Book Depository A.M.E. Church" in Philadelphia., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Copyright John H.W. Burley, Washington, D.C. 1876., Framed., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1996, p. 36., 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., Gift of Roger Stoddard in honor of Edwin Wolf 2nd, 1996.
Date: 1876
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Framed graphics [P.9508]

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]

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