A man with a thick beard stands in front of a table. A sign that reads "Ugly Club" is behind him., Text: Each day your phiz more ugly grows, / 'T'would do first-rate to scare the crows; / Each one that sees you, verdict gives / That you're the ugliest man that lives., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
Album page containing a drawing of coupled red and blue flowers above six lines of allegorical verse about unappreciated beauty. Shows the red camellia with fluffy stamens below three, five-petal blue flowers, possibly forget-me-nots. The flowers are also depicted with buds, leaves, and stems. The stem of the red flower contains thorns., Title from manuscript verse., Date inferred from complementary entries in album., Contains six lines of verse: No marvel woman should love flowers, they bear/ So much of fanciful similitude/ To her own history; like herself repaying/ With such sweet interest all the cherishing/ That calls their beauty or their sweetness forth;/ And like her too—dying beneath neglect. Verse from a poem by English writer Letitia Elizabeth Landon that was frequently published, including in the Ladies’ Miscellany (Salem, Mass., April 7, 1830)., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Douglass, was an artist, prominent Quaker member of the Philadelphia African American elite community, educator, and anti-slavery activist.
Creator
Douglass, S. M. (Sarah Mapps), 1806-1882, artist
Date
[ca. 1833]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Amy Matilda Cassey album [P.9764.24]
The valentine depicts a man crouching down with his hand near his face. His shadow resembles a monkey. The text references the theory of evolution presented by Charles Darwin in his On the origin of species (1859)., Text: It is believed some men among, / That all us folks from monkey sprung, / But until first I saw your face, / I did not think such was the case, / Yet then I thought it might be true-- / That is, my friend, regarding you., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector., Provenance: Magnus, Charles.
A woman sits at a work bench with sheers and a bolt of blue fabric on it. Vests hang on a clothes line behind her., Text: Put away your sheep-face, wench, / You're only suited for the bench; / The ill-shap'd form resembles thee, / Such nondescripts don't do for me. / Such vests as you pretend to make. / What gent would wear, for Heaven's sake? / Go, go, you remnant, mend you ways, / And think no more of brighter days., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A woman wears a dress with furbelows and a bustle. The valentine suggests that she is not a beauty, but attracts male attention when she is the only woman out at night. Bustles became popular after 1869., Text: O! you are the handsomest---all the beaux swear / That for beauty you top the heap; / I think you so too when you're taking the air, And all the rest are asleep., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A woman who stands with her arms folded. Her dress reveals much of her breasts. Her face is heavily shaded with thick eyebrows and dark hair., Text: No paint, nor powder, needs that skin of thine / Shroud not thy beauty in goods of cost, / For only know, my beat'ous Valentine, / Beauty, when unadorned's adorned the most., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A woman with pox marks on her face wears a ball gown. The valentine possibly references sexually transmitted diseases., Text: The marks of every passion base / You plainly bear upon your face / Distorted, vile in every feature, / Indeed you are a loathsome creature., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A woman has black curly hair and wears ice skates and a skating costume., Text: That flashing eye, that beaming brow! / Those curls that wildly float and shine / O, if thy hair's as false as thou, / Thou'lt prove a sorry Valentine., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A woman with large, pointed facial features stands at a door holding the doorknob., Text: From all that is lovely, I'm sorry to find, / Both of grace and of mind, you're exempt; / And though to think well, my heart is inclined, / You only can merit contempt., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
The woman's facial features are asymmetrical, with her eyes on different planes and pointing in different directions. She wears a dress with a red top and yellow skirt, and very large earrings., Text: Eyes not mates, and hair like carrots;/ Nose and chin like any parrots;/ No doubt, you think that face of thine,/ Will charm my heart, my Valentine., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A woman sits with her hands on her lap. She has a carrot in her hair, perhaps suggesting that she's died it red., Text: UGLIEST of the fair creation, / With carrots for fashion on your head; / Face devoid of animation, / Your lips are blue, instead of red. / Dried and wilted are your features, / They're charmless for this heart of mine; / And if I'd wed you I would be sure / To have no rival Valentine., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
The valentine shows a woman with pointed, enlongated features and crossed eyes., Text: I do not fear ghosts. I have no dread / Of those who in churchyards stalk; / Yet I would not wish to see your head. / Start up in my lonely walk., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
The valentine shows a man standing in profile; his shadow resembles a goose., Text: Oh! pray great Good, and silly elf, / Go from my sight, and hide yourself. / 'Mongst christains [i.e., christians], surely is no place / For a thing, with such a face. / A goose like you must live alone, / No Duck will ever be your own., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A worker wearing a hat and apron hold a piece fo cloth on a stick above a dyeing vat. The sender rejects the recipient because of his lowly occupation., Text: Your person reminds me of some ugly Cub / Therefore I advise you to stick to your tub/ If by Dying you live pray sir don’t die for me, / For my heart’s not engaged yet nor likely to be., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A man with simian features kneels in the grass and smokes a cigar., Text: Here your portrait you may see, / Drawn as like as like can be, / Your features coarse, your frightful shape, / You may behold, you ugly ape! / A glance from you, you horrid churl, / The life would frighten from any girl., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A woman walks her small black dog. She wears an ornate gown, a flowered bonnet, and eyeglasses., Text: With the most ugly of all faces, Go on, and mimic all the graces: / How can you think, when in the street, The laughing, giggling men you meet, / That every laugh is but a smile, And that they love you all the while? / Good-bye, old maid-- without a clog, Go through the mud-heaps with your dog; / I don't know which I like the least, You or your dirty little beast., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A large-nosed woman wears a large gown with petal-like furbelows. She holds a nosegay and walks a small dog., Text: The flower of your sex; O! yes indeed! / A flower already gone to seed, / And yet I will be prompt to say, / That you display a real nosegay., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A man has a hog's face and a large waistline. He has a bottle in his pocket. The sender references the Swedenborgian belief that one's mind shapes one's appearance in hell to suggest that the recipient is a hog., Text: If Swedenborgians tell us true, / When dead, our mortal selves appear, / When bad, like beasts to other's view, / So you will look as pictur'd here., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A woman bends forward in the Grecian Bend caused by fashionable bustles and restrictive skirts. She holds up her skirt revealing her ankles and petticoats. The Grecian bend style of bustle became popular after 1869., Text: Thou languishing young lady-bird, / Thou Angel quite untainted; / With ruby lips, and well formed hips, / Pray tell me, -- are you painted? / You're uglier than the Gorgon / That frightened folks to stone, / The Grecian Bend don't help you, / So ugly have you grown., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A frowning woman looks in a hand-mirror. The "monarchs...trembling on Europe's thrones" may refer to the Revolutions of 1848., Text: While monarchs are trembling on Europe's thrones, / The Queen of the Uglies need have no fear; / There's none, I'm sure, in these Western zones / Who will ever dispute your title clear., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A large woman stands at a washing tub, and her dress is low-cut. There is a container marked "soft soap" behind her, and "soft soap" is slang for flattery or sugar-coating, suggesting that the recipient is too idealistic., Text: Scrubbing Judy, Oh you beauty! / All your curls are steamed to strings -- / Swash and spatter in your duty, / Soft-soap well the pesky things; / Rubbing, scrubbing, Judy sings, / As the soap-suds out she wrings., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
The valentine shows a man with a frog-like appearance gesturing expansively. He wears a top hat and holds a walking stick., Text: The sun supplies the painter's place, / And pictures true your manly face; / The girls who see this phiz hereafter, / Will die of love -- or else of laughter., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
The valentine shows an overweight woman with ringlet curls. Her gown is low cut., Text: "Fat, fair and forty," I have heard / As terms of half praise; on my word / I could not say the same of you, / Fat, ugly, lazy, is too true., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
The "beauty of Ireland" wears a shawl and a ribbon in her hair, and her dress reveals her chest. She has pointed facial features and smiles. "Mavourneen" is an Irish term for "my darling," and the verse mocks Irish accents., Text: Och, you're a beauty, mavourneen, my darlin'! / That swate Irish brogue, too, as thick as my ar-r-m; / Faith, when I see yez, I cannot help calling, / "St. Patrick presarve me, and kape me from har-r-m!", Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A woman with a long, shaded nose looks in the mirror on a bureau. She wears a dress with a bustle. The image in the mirror has less shading and exaggeration, suggesting that the woman's admiration of herself is deluded. Bustles became popular after 1869., Text: There was never a woman old fashion or ugly, / But what thought she possessed every beauty and grace, / And you're no exception, but as none else can see them, / You're compelled to admire yourself in the glass., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A woman sews a cap. She has an enlarged nose and a moustache and sits at a table with men's caps on it. The caps' blue color may indicate that they are for Union soldiers., Text: Dainty damsel, time ne'er lingers, / On those very active fingers, / Other females, you make charming! / Make yourself, then, less alarming! / As it is, -- I don't incline, / To pick you for a Valentine., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A woman with a hairy face and gap-toothed smile looks at her reflection in a mirror. The sender's parise is ironic., Text: Oh! Thou art my joy and my pride, / So delicate soft is thy skin: / Those blushes, my fair, never hide, / For fain I’d my Valentine win., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A cook wearing a bonnet holds a pot on a stove. She has a long pointed nose. The Valentine suggests she is too ugly to find love., Text: Goddess of the fries and stews, / To court the male sex ‘tis no use; / Your nose I’m sure is only fit / To make a kitchen roasting spit; / Then cut your foolish ways, pray do, / I’ll ne’er have a Valentine like you., Signed: Pickering., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A girl stands with her hands on her hips. Her face is covered in bandages. The valentine suggests the injuries might be self-inflicted., Text: Pray tell me, miss, how came you by them? / Are they cuts or scratches? / Or are they beauty-spots—good gracious! / All those awful patches?, "392", Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A young woman in a gown holds a bouquet of flowers., Text: Thou languishing young lady bird, / Thou angel quite untainted, / With ruby lips and well formed hips, / Pray tell me – are you painted! / You’re uglier than the Gorgon, / That hightoned folks to stone, / I little thought my darling, / Such a beauty you’d have grown., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A woman wearing bloomers rides a bicycle. She has a wide grin and several missing teeth. The valentine mocks her good humor and compares her to monkeys and donkeys and plays on the word "asinine.", Text: Oh, dear, what a sweet little creature! / Who can deny that you shine? / There’s not face in the cage of the monkeys, / At the Zoo, can compare with thine; / And so bright you are! And so witty! / To list’ to your merry “tee-hee,”/ Makes one think of some happy young donkey / Indulging in asinine glee., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A coachmen wearing a top hat opens the door of a carriage., Text: When I’m stuck behind the Carriage, / With my cockade on my hat, / The servant maids, I hear them / Say, a nice young man is that., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A woman with a long nose holds a bonnet. Other millinery articles sit on a table behind her and a piar of scissors hangs from her waist., Text: Ugliest of the fair creation, / With lips that are not red but blue; / And face devoid of animation, / Take me for your lover true., Provenance: Helfand, William H..
A woman with a grotesquely large nose holds a baby and is accompanied by a small boy. The text suggests that since her large nose and head repel any possible suitors, she must content herself with caring for these children., Text: You looking for a Valentine, whoever would suppose, / You'd ever get a Valentine with such a head and nose, / You'd best stick to the nursery, and the children dandle, / Such a head and nose serves well for a handle; / You've got two kids already, therefore contented be, / I assure you for a Valentine you never will kid me., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A woman with exaggeratedly large lips sits with a screaming child on her knee. Both she and the child wear large feathered hats., Text: You nasty, drunken, stupid cat, / Likewise your frightful squalling brat, / Are both so ugly that 'tis vain / Your various features to explain! / Your lips are nothing else but good 'uns, / Exactly like two large black puddings; / Nature, you've no cause to thank it / For eyes like burnt holes in a blanket; / In short, devoid of bow or feather, / You are a beauty all together., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
Envelope illustrated with a central image showing a fashionable woman, her long hair loose, and over her shoulder. Also contains a border comprised of floral imagery. Susan Allen, wife of a New York dentist, marketed her restorer starting in the 1840s. She sold her business to Selah R. Van Duzer circa 1862., Text printed on verso: A Real Hair Restorer and Dressing in One Bottle. Mrs. S. A. Allen's Improved New Style Hair Restorer. Price one dollar. Buy a Bottle of Mrs. Allen's Hair Restorer and receive a Perfumed Sachet free. Perfumed Sachet. Place this unopened in Drawer or Trunk, the Odor is delicious. Its remarkable success is due to the superiority and freshness of its ingredients, and the scrupulous care bestowed in its manufacture; also for its prompt, quick action, great growth, life, and vigor that it is sure to give to the hair-never failing by a few applications, to restore Gray or White Hair to its Natural Color. Ladies will find it a standard toilet luxury to dress their hair. Sold by all druggists. Principal Sales Offices, 198 and 200 Greenwich Street, New York, and 266 High Holborn, London, England., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Gift of William H. Helfand.
Date
[ca. 1870]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Helfand Popular Medicine Ephemera Collection - Bags and envelopes [P.2010.37.94]
Real estate photograph commissioned by Albert M. Greenfield & Company depicting Silverman's Pawn Shop and Old Reliable Clothing House for sale. Clothing, jewelry, and musical instruments are prominently displayed in the store windows. Image includes adjacent buildings at 1906 and 1910 South Street of an African American "Hair Shop of Mme. V.V. Maginley," and an abandoned Army & Navy store. The hair shop displays several beauty products and Black dolls. Posters for the "101 Ranch Wild West Street Parade" hang in the windows of the abandoned store. Also visible in the right is a man pedestrian (out of focus and ghost-like). The real estate firm was established in 1905. The Greenfield Bulletin contained photographic illustrations, property listings, and articles about the firm's important brokerage and development deals., Title from manuscript note on verso., Date based on content and active dates of the photographer., Photographer's imprint inscribed on negative., Negative inscribed: 606 D2., Stamped on verso: Greenfield Bulletin, Issue June. Page 4. No. 4., Purchase 2000., 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., Rau Studios, established in Philadelphia in 1887 by William Herman Rau, was a respected commercial firm which operated until around the early 1930s.
Creator
Rau Studios, photographer
Date
[ca. 1927]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Photographs-Greenfield Collection [P.9789.13]
A woman ice skates, and the wind blows up her skirt to reveal her ankles., Text: The naughty breeze! I mean no evil, / With female skirts does raise the devil -- / All pretty girls must skating go, / But do not like their legs to show-- / That is-- and here the dart most rankles, / If they, like you, have crooked ancles [i.e. ankles]. / What is revealed, makes me decline / To be to you a Valentine., Cf. Valentine 13.5., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A woman ice skates, and the wind blows up her skirt to reveal her ankles., Text: The naughty breeze! I mean no evil, With female skirts does raise the devil -- / All pretty girls must skating go, But do not like their legs to show-- / That is-- and here the dart most rankles, If they, like you, have crooked ankles. / What is revealed, makes me decline To be to you a Valentine., Cf. Valentine 13.4., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A Union soldier holds a musket with a bayonet. His nose is larger than the bayonet, but both have the same shape., Text: When our lines to break, / The enemy tries, / Do let me for once / Your brave spirit advise: / When things look promiscuous, / And are coming to a blows, / Then--away with your musket, / And charge with your nose., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
The valentine depicts a man with a dog's head. He wears boxing gloves labeled "insant death" and "six months illness.". He also wears a monocle and a top hat, which suggest that he is a "puppy," or dandy. The border features matches, a heart-shaped beet, and cherubs playing tennis and tug o' war. The label on the matchbox reads "Red-headed matches go off easy," and the beet is marked "D.B." [i.e. "dead beat" or "dead beet"]., Text: Do you think you ugly man, / Because you're like a black-and-tan, / And a hitter from the shoulder-joint likewise, / That on you the blooming girls, / With their fascinating curls, / Will glance with approbation in their eyes / If you do you're much mistaken, / For it's just as sure as bacon / No fighter can a woman's true love win, / But the soldier-boy whose blows / Fall on his country's foes / When the ring is pitched, the battle-field within., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A woman holds a pair of tongs. Her face is creased, and she frowns. The sender suggests that the recipient's appearance and behavior make her an appropriate wife for the devil., Text: A scolding tongue, a vicious mind, / A face the counter part of evil, / In you we find are all combined, / To make a fit wife for the -----., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
Real estate photograph commissioned by the Jackson-Cross Company depicting an ornate four story commercial front at 1010 Chestnut Street, occupied by Alexander's clothing shop on the ground level, Sun Beam Beauty Shops on the second floor and Merin Studios on the third floor. Charles David's clothing store occupies the ground floor of 1008 Chestnut Street and Fur Outlet Co., furriers, occupies the ground floor of the building at 1012 Chestnut Street. The property at 1010 Chestnut Street was altered in 1891 for Queen & Co. after designs by the architectural firm of Baily & Truscott. David B. Bassett altered the basement for Shaw Walker in 1919., Label on recto: Jackson-Cross Company., Title from manuscript note on verso., The Jackson-Cross Company, established around 1876, was a Philadelphia real estate firm in operation until 1998.
Date
ca. 1940
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Jackson-Cross [P.9784.27]
Printed area, including double-rule border, measures 64.3 x 21.7 cm., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War.
Creator
Woodroffe's Original Bohemian Troupe of Glass Blowers
Date
[1863]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *PB 1863 Woodroffe (6)5761.F.11a (McAllister)
A woman wears a narrrow-skirted gown, cape, ermine muff, and bonnet. The sender suggests that he remembers the recipient negatively. A "fancy fair" was a fundraising event at which ornaments and articles of fancy were sold for charitable purposes., Text: I met her at a Fancy Fair -- / Would I had never ventured there! / Her image doth my mind possess, / But not with fancy fair, I guess!, Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
Real estate photograph commissioned by the Jackson-Cross Company depicting a three story brick building, occupied by various shops and offices, looking west at the northwest corner of Seventeenth and Sansom Streets. Signs for a barber shop, Magic cleaners and beauty shop are visible in the ground floor windows. Several pedestrians pass by on the sidewalk and a Railway Express truck is parked curbside. An unidentified brick high-rise is visible in the background., Label on recto: Jackson-Cross Company, Lincoln-Liberty Building, Philadelphia., Title from manuscript note on recto., The Jackson-Cross Company, established around 1876, was a Philadelphia real estate firm in operation until 1998.
Date
ca. 1940
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Jackson-Cross [P.9784.14]
Full-length portrait of an African American woman caretaker standing on the steps with a white girl and a white boy. The woman, wearing her hair tied up and attired in a hat and a long-sleeved, white dress with a belt, stands on the sidewalk before the stairs with her right hand in front of her waist and her left hand behind her back. The girl, wearing her curly hair with a bow tied in the left and attired in a long-sleeved white dress with a belt, white socks, and Mary Jane shoes, stands on the steps facing the viewer with her hands at her side. In the right, the boy, attired in a sailor suit with a belt and shoes, stands facing the viewer with his hands at his sides. In the left is "The Criterion," a hair dressing parlor in Atlantic City. The parlor operated from 1907 until 1908, first at the Hotel Islesworth, then The Hotel Bothwell., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from the attire of the sitters., Accessioned 1998., RVCDC, 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.
Date
[ca. 1907]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photos - 5 x 7 - unidentified - Recreation [P.9619.3]
