© Copyright 2020 - The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1314 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. TEL (215) 546-3181 FAX (215) 546-5167
For inquiries, please contact our IT Department
- Title
- Negresse etudiant le jeu de Ouri
- Description
- Included in Chapter XVII, "Chasse, Pêche, Musique et Divertissemens," the engraving shows a young African woman learning to play Ouri, a popular "pit and pebble" game known throughout Africa under several names, including Oware and mancaga. In the accompanying text, Villeneuve wrote that Ouri (and similar games) were too complicated to be described simply. He noted, however, that girls usually learned to play the game around the age of ten., Illustration in René Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou Histoire, moeurs, usages et coutumes des africains: Le Sénégal (Paris: Nepveu, libraire, passage des Panoramas, no. 26, 1814), vol. 4, p. 205., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
- Date
- [1814]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri R.G.V. 65954.D v 4 p 205, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2936
- Title
- [Getaufte Neger]
- Description
- Episode follows the baptism of several blacks under the authority of the Moravian Church. Three men, presumably the pastor and two deacons, stand to the far right. The baptismal font, a large barrel, rests on the floor in front of them. According to the caption, the image depicts newly baptized blacks who, after praying and prostrating themselves, are helped to their feet and kissed by other members of the community. Two groups of parishoners -- one consisting entirely of men, the other of women -- watch from the left., Fold-out plate at the back of David Cranz's Kurze, zuverlässige Nachricht von der, unter dem Namen der Böhmisch-Mährischen Brüder bekanten Kirche Unitas Fratrum (Halle: s.n., 1757), plate NVII., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
- Date
- [1757]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1757 Cran 72764.O plate NVII, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2675
- Title
- A free negress and other market-women
- Description
- Illustration accompanies Chapter III, "Province of Rio de Jainero." As the title suggests, it depicts a free negress (presumably the woman closest to the left) and three market women. A small child, not mentioned in the title, is visible at the far left. Sheltered by a small canopy, the four women sell fruits and vegetables: pineapples occupy a basket in the right foreground, melons and squash (?) are scattered on the ground, and two women balance baskets on their heads. Three large sacks contain additional market-goods, possibly beans. While it is ultimately unclear, the image appears to show a conflict between the negress and the market-woman seated on the bench., Illustration in James Henderson's A History of Brazil: Comprising its Geography, Commerce, Colonization, Aboriginal Inhabitants, &c. &c. (London: Printed for the author, and published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orne, and Brown, Paternoster-Row, 1821), p. 70., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
- Creator
- Shoosmith, C., artist
- Date
- [1821]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *Am 1821 Hender 1814.Q p 70, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2724
- Title
- Blood hounds attacking a black family in the woods
- Description
- Engraving is after a drawing by Rainsford, the former Captain of Britain's Third West-India Regiment. The setting is St. Domingo (Haiti) in 1803. As Rainsford explains in his text, as the French occupiers lost power and control, they reverted to increasingly barbarous measures, and unleashed vicious blood hounds on black residents., Plate in Marcus Rainsford's Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti: comprehending a view of the principal transactions in the revolution of Saint Domingo; with its antient and modern state (London: Albion press printed: published by James Cundee, Ivy-Lane, Paternoster-Row; and sold by C. Chapple, Pall Mall, 1805), p. 338., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
- Creator
- Barlow, J., engraver
- Date
- [1805]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1805 Rains 1416.Q p 338, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2707
- Title
- A rebel Negro armed & on his guard
- Description
- Engraving was done after one of John Gabriel Stedman's own drawings. According to Stedman's account, the image depicts a rebel Surinamese negro. As he wrote, "This rebel negro is armed with a firelock and a hatchet; his hair, though woolly, may be observed to be plaited close to his head, by way of distinction from the rangers, or any other straggling negroes, who are not yet accepted amongst them; his beard is grown to a point, like that of all Africans, when they have no opportunity of shaving. The principal dress of this man consists of a cotton sheet, negligently tied across his shoulders, which protects him from the weather, and serves him also to rest on; while he always sleeps under cover in the most obscure places he can find, when detached from his companions. The rest of his dress is a camisa, tied around his loins like a handkerchief; his pouch, which is made of some animal's skin; a few cotton strings for ornament around his ancles [sic] and wrists; and a superstitious obia or amulet tied about his neck, in which he places all his confidence. The skull and ribs are supposed to be the bones of his enemies, scattered upon the sandy savannah." (vol. 2, p. 88-89), Plate in John Gabriel Stedman's Narrative, of a five year's expedition, against the revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the wild coast of South America; from the year 1772 to 1777 (London: Printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard, & J. Edwards, Pall Mall, 1796), vol. 2, p. 88., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
- Creator
- Bartolozzi, Francesco, 1727-1815, engraver
- Date
- Dec. 1, 1794
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1796 Sted 755.Q v 2 p 88, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2699
- Title
- Ein nagerin, ein nager
- Description
- Fraktur depicting a bare-chested black woman and man. The woman carries a jug on her head, wears a red sarong, and holds a dead rabbit by her side. The man wears a loincloth, has his arms outstretched from his side, and holds a filled glass carafe and goblet., 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., Accessioned 1971., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
- Date
- [between ca. 1810 and ca. 1850]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Fraktur [7950.F.8]
- Title
- Exorcismus der täuflinge unter den Negern
- Description
- Depiction of an exorcism performed on a group of black baptismal candidates under the authority of the Moravian Church. According to the caption underneath the engraving, the figure marked "A" is the pastor who performs the ritual; those marked "B" are the deacons who assist him. The three figures marked "C" are black men who will be exorcised. With their hands folded in prayer, the candidates kneel around the pastor and the two deacons. The pastor and each of his deacons places a hand upon one of the candidates' heads; the two others wait. Behind them, the four figures marked "D" are black women who will be exorcised. Those marked "E" are identified as members of the black parish., Fold-out plate at the back of David Cranz's Kurze, zuverlässige Nachricht von der, unter dem Namen der Böhmisch-Mährischen Brüder bekanten Kirche Unitas Fratrum (Halle: s.n., 1757), plate NIV., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
- Date
- [1757]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1757 Cran 72764.O plate NIV, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2674
- Title
- Case a Negres
- Description
- Tropical landscape in which a black family is featured in the foreground. The father wears a straw hat, and carries some type of tool or bundle over his shoulder. The mother sits with their child on her lap in a posture that suggests breast-feeding. Behind a stone and wooden fence, the thatched roofs of two small houses are visible., Illustration in Abel Hugo's France pittoresque ou Description pittoresque, topographique et statistique des départements et colonies de la France (A Paris: Chez Delloye, éditeur de la France militaire, place de la Bourse, rue des Filles-Saint-Thomas, 13, 1835), vol. 3, p. 274., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
- Creator
- Chamouin, Jean Baptiste Marie, b. 1768, engraver
- Date
- [1835]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1835 Hugo 10039.Q v 3 p 274, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2743
- Title
- [Plate from Nicolas Ponce's Receuil du vues des lieux principaux de la colonie francaise de Saint-Domingue]
- Description
- Illustration after the romanticized paintings and drawings of artist Agostino Brunias (ca. 1730-1796) when he worked in the British West Indian colonies, particularly Dominica. Brunias’s work was often copied and the West Indian island or community depicted identified inaccurately. Moving clockwise from the top left, "Place et Fontaine Montarcher" shows a fountain and a city square idenitifed as in Cap-Francois (now Cap Haitien) in Saint-Domingue (Haiti). "Fontaine D'Estaing" shows a fountain in a city's port. Set on a street, "Costumes des Affranchies et des Esclaves des Colonies," shows differences in dress between free residents and enslaved peoples. In this scene, an enslaved woman offers food on a platter to two "Affranchies." The plaid cloth from which the enslaved women's shawl and head-dress are fashioned contrasts with the finery worn by the other two. Again, the fourth engraving,"Costumes des Affranchies et des Esclaves des Colonies" highlights differences in dress, this time in a landscape setting., Title supplied by cataloger., Illustration in Nicolas Ponce's Receuil du vues des lieux principaux de la colonie francaise de Saint-Domingue (A Paris: Chez Moreau de Saint-Mery, en son domicile, rue Caumartin, no. 31. [Chez] Ponce, rue Saint-Hyacinthe, no. 19. [Chez] Phelipeau, rue Saint-Jacques, près celle des Mathurins, no. 45., 1795), plate number 25, n.p., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
- Creator
- Ponce, Nicolas, 1746-1831, engraver
- Date
- [1795]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare **Am 1795 Ponce 6368.F no 25, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2690
- Title
- Negresse battant le coton au lieu de le carder
- Description
- Included in Chapter XV, "Arts et Industrie," the engraving shows an African woman beating cotton into threads. The cotton, which had already been ginned, was placed on a stiff mat and hit with a baton., Illustration in René Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou Histoire, meours, usages et coutumes des africains: Le Sénégal (Paris: Nepveu, libraire, passage des Panoramas, no. 26, 1814), vol. 4, p. 181., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
- Date
- [1814]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri R.G.V. 65954.D v 4 p 181, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2934
- Title
- Negresse filant le coton
- Description
- Included in Chapter XV, "Arts et Industrie," the engraving shows an African woman spinning cotton. She holds a spool in each hand, and sits on a mat with a large basket of cotton next to her., Illustration in René Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou Histoire, moeurs, usages et coutumes des africains: Le Sénégal (Paris: Nepveu, libraire, passage des Panoramas, no. 26, 1814), vol. 4, p. 182., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
- Date
- [1814]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri R.G.V. 65954.D v 4 p 182, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2935
- Title
- [Plate from Nicolas Ponce's Receuil du vues des lieux principaux de la colonie francaise de Saint-Domingue]
- Description
- Illustration after the romanticized paintings and drawings of artist Agostino Brunias (ca. 1730-1796) when he worked in the British West Indian colonies, particularly Dominica. Brunias’s work was often copied and the West Indian island or community depicted identified inaccurately. Image consists of four separate roundels. Moving clockwise from the top left, "Blanchisseuses," shows three women at the edge of a river. To the left, on the bank of the river, a woman dressed only in a long skirt and a head-dress carries a child on her back while balancing a tray (and some type of load) on her head. In the center of the image, a lighter-skinned woman, draped only in a cloth, stands ankle-deep in the river. It appears as if she holds a mirror in her hand. Next to her, a third woman sits on a rock in the water. "Affrainchis des Colonies" shows three free residents (two women and a man) in fashions influenced by European styles. "Négres Jouant au Baton" is an outdoor sporting scene that features two men engaged in a baton fight; a large group of male spectators is assembled around them. "Danse de Négres" shows a group of men and women dancing and clapping to the music of a drum and a tamborine., Title supplied by cataloger., Illustration in Nicolas Ponce's Receuil du vues des lieux principaux de la colonie francaise de Saint-Domingue (A Paris: Chez Moreau de Saint-Mery, en son domicile, rue Caumartin, no. 31. [Chez] Ponce, rue Saint-Hyacinthe, no. 19. [Chez] Phelipeau, rue Saint-Jacques, près celle des Mathurins, no. 45., 1795), plate number 26, n.p., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
- Creator
- Ponce, Nicolas, 1746-1831, engraver
- Date
- [1795]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare **Am 1795 Ponce 6368.F no 26, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2691
- Title
- Pennsylvania Colonization Society. [membership certificate]
- Description
- Life membership certificate containing a "View of Monrovia," the original settlement of Liberia, the African American colony established by the American Colonization Society in 1822. Depicts a landing party with well-dressed African American emigrant men arriving to a crowd of male and female well-wishers and family at the palm-tree lined shore of the colony. New colonists depart the boat and run to relatives as Liberian men raise their hands in greeting. White sailors man the small boat. In the background, another landing party with new colonists sails from the transport ship. The settlement of Liberia is visible in the distance. The Pennsylvania Colonization Society, established in 1826, was a state chapter of the controversial American Colonization Society established in 1816 that promoted black American emigration to resolve the problem of race inequality and to end slavery., Not in Wainwright., Philadelphia on Stone, POSP 164, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Certificates - Pennsylvania Society, Free Library of Philadelphia: Philadelphiana - Societies - Certificates, P. S. Duval & Co. operated as a firm 1851-1857.
- Creator
- Queen, James Fuller, 1820 or 21-1886, artist
- Date
- [ca. 1855]
- Location
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania | Print Department | HSP at LCP HSP Certificates - Pennsylvania Society
- Title
- Old darkey & donkey cart, on road at head of Hamilton Harbor, [Bermuda]
- Description
- Glass negative showing a older black man driving a cart drawn by a donkey down a dirt road near Hamilton Harbor. The road winds back over a bridge and is lined with trees., Photographer remarks: Undertimed badly., Time: A.M., Light: Sun., The emulsion has started to flake off on the right side of the plate., Digitization and cataloging has been made possible through the generosity of David Marriott Morris, Eleanor Rhoads Morris Cox, and William Perot Morris in memory of Marriott Canby Morris and his children: Elliston Perot Morris, Marriott Canby Morris Jr., and Janet Morris and in acknowledgment of his grandchildren: William Perot Morris, Eleanor Rhoads Morris Cox, Jonathan White Morris, and David Marriott Morris., Edited.
- Creator
- Morris, Marriott Canby, 1863-1948, photographer
- Date
- March 26, 1886
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Marriott C. Morris Collection [P.9895.886]
- Title
- A Spanish planter of Porto Rico
- Description
- Set in a lush grove, the image depicts a Spanish planter in Puerto Rico, who "luxuriates" in a hammock suspended from a citrus tree. The well-dressed planter wears a large top hat and holds a pipe in his mouth; his legs hang over either side of the hammock and his arms are folded in a contented manner. He is waited on by a partially clothed male slave, whose facial features correspond to racist stereotypes. Smiling at the planter, the slave holds a tray upon which a drink rests., Illustration in John Augustine Waller's Voyage in the West Indies (London: Printed for Sir Richard Phillips, and Co. Bride Court, Bridge Street, 1820), p. 34., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
- Creator
- Neele & Son, engraver
- Date
- [1820]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Egyp Forb (b.w.) 5258.O.2.9 p 34, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2939
- Title
- [Friedenstahl in St. Croix]
- Description
- As the caption suggests, the image is set on the island of St. Croix in early May 1769, and it shows a group of black baptismal candidates being led into the "Negro church," for baptism. Dressed in long white robes, trousers, and turban-like head-dresses, the men file into the church first. They are followed by the women, who are dressed in long white dresses and white caps. In front of the long, simple hall that serves as the church, some black women sit in a courtyard bordered by trees and shubbery. According to the caption, the ceremony takes place around noon. Missionaries, soldiers, and black citizens (all men) meet and converse in the open space in front of the church. Others watch the procession of baptismal candidates;some appear to pray, holding their palms upward. The missionaries' quarters appear in the background of the image, while the Negroes' quarters are seen to the right., Folded plate at the back of Christian Georg Andreas Oldendorp's Geschichte der Mission der Evangelischen Brüder auf den caraibischen Inseln S. Thomas, S. Croix, und S. Jan (Barby: Bey Christian Friedrich Laux, und in Leipzig in Commission bey Weidmanns Erben und Reich, 1777), n.p., Caption underneath the image reads: "Friedenstahl in St. Croix an einem Bettage, da die Täuflinge zur Taufe in Kirche geführt werden, 1768 zu Anfang May und zu Mittage, da die Sonne übern Scheitel steht, aller Schatten senckrecht faellt, überhaupt weing Schatten ist. Hinten das Wohnhaus, zur linken die Neger Kirche, zur rechten Negerhaeufer." The text can be translated as follows, "Friedenstahl in St. Croix on a day of prayer, on which the baptismal candidates are led into church for baptism, Wednesday, the beginning of May, 1769, because the sun is at its apex, all shadows fall perpendicular to the ground, there is little shade. In the background, the missionaries' quarters; to the left, the Negro church; to the right, Negro quarters.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
- Creator
- Nusbiegel, Georg Paul, 1713-1776, engraver
- Date
- [1777]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1777 Olde 69802.O n.p., https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2678
- Title
- A group of natives, Chipigana. Tropical Scenery. Darien Expedition
- Description
- Stereoview depicting a group of Panamanian Black men and boys posed in front of huts and next to their half-made canoes. View from T.O. Selfridge's 1870-1871 naval expedition of the Isthmus of Darien. Authorized by the U.S. Government, Selfridge explored and surveyed the area as a possible route for a ship canal in Panama. He was accompanied by photographer T.H. O'Sullivan in 1870 and Philadelphia photographer John Moran in 1871., Title from item., Publication information supplied by Darrah., Manuscript note on verso: Bessie J. Smith., J.F. Jarvis was the largest manufacturer of stereoviews in Washington D.C. during the late 19th century. He published his own trade list and numerous views of government surveys., Gift of Eleanor Smith, 1977., 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.
- Creator
- Jarvis, J. F. (John Fillis), 1849-1931
- Date
- [1870 or 1871]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereos - Darien Expedition [66653.D.10]
- Title
- Views of Liberia from "W.F. Lynch report of mission to Africa"
- Description
- Series of titled views of the Black emigrant country of Liberia (founded 1822) that accompanied a government report compiled by William F. Lynch, Commander, United States Navy following an exploratory excursion to the west coast of Africa. Depicts the stone mansion of Joseph Jenkins Roberts, the first president of Liberia (1847-1855); Episcopal Mission, near Cape Palmas, Mt. Vaughan, founded in 1834 under the auspices of the Maryland Colonization Society and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church; Monrovia (i.e., Liberia) from Bushrod's Island; and Cape Palmas, a Liberian settlement. Views include lush landscapes, Black and white residents, sailing ships, and dwellings., Title from name of the publication., Artists include John H.B. Latrobe and William S. Seager., Printed below images: Senate executive documents, No. 1, 33rd Congress, 1st Session, Part III., Published in "W.F. Lynch report of mission to Africa," Senate Executive documents, 1st Session, 33rd Congress, part 3, vol. 1, doc. 1, p. 329-389., Latrobe, a Baltimore landscape painter, also served as President of the Maryland Colonization Society., Gift of David Doret, 2004., 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., Wagner & M'Guigan, a partnership between Philadelphia lithographers Thomas S. Wagner & James M'Guigan, was active 1846-1858.
- Creator
- Wagner & M'Guigan
- Date
- [1853]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - Views - Foreign - Africa [P.2004.33.5a-d]