Search results

Title: Yerkes, Joseph
Creator: Library Company of Philadelphia, creator
Date: July 16, 1789

Title: Taylor, Sarah Louisa, 1809-1836.
Description: Waist-length portrait of Mrs. Taylor wearing a dress over a lace undergarment and holding a letter in one hand. Landscape scene visible through a window., In Lot, Jones. Memoir of Mrs. Sarah Louisa Taylor. 4th ed. (New York, 1846), frontispiece.
Date: [1846?]

Title: White, Irene C.
Description: Shoulder-length portrait of the educator in profile, with hair braided around crown of head., In The American phrenological journal, vol. 31 (Jan., 1860), p. 1., “She has been a ‘substitute,’ an efficient teacher to thousands, among whom not a few are known to honor and fame. She has achieved what no other woman in America has done, viz., been elected teacher of elocution in several literary and scientific institutions of note in our country.”--P. 2.
Date: [1860?]

Title: Cooke, Harriet B., b. 1786?.
Description: In Cooke, H.B. Memories of my life work / the autobiography of Mrs. Harriet B. Cooke (New York: 1858), frontispiece., Facsimile signature: H. B. Cooke., Waist-length portrait of the educator, wearing a bonnet.
Date: [1858?]

Title: Frost, John, 1800-1859
Creator: Library Company of Philadelphia, creator
Date: March 8, 1833

Title: Lyman, Jerusha, -1818
Creator: Library Company of Philadelphia, creator
Date: June 25, 1813

Title: Dugdale, Thomas, Jr.
Creator: Library Company of Philadelphia, creator
Date: February 11, 1831

Title: Ware, Harriet, 1799-1847.
Description: Waist-length portrait of Harriet Ware, wearing a bonnet and a dress with lace collar, knitting., In Wayland, Francis. A memoir of Harriet Ware (Providence, 1850), frontispiece., Harriet Ware was an educator and philanthropist who founded the Providence Children’s Friend Society after retiring as a teacher at Indian Point, a suburb of Providence., “She seldom allowed herself to sit many minutes without work of some kind in her hands. While entertaining callers and friends, knitting was her most common employment, and, even while intensely interested in conversation, her needles would be flying, as if impelled by some unseen power. Knitting work came at length to be called her ‘coat of arms;’ and in the daguerreotype portrait, a copy of which was taken only at the urgent request of her friends, which I believe is to accompany the memoir of her, her knitting work has its appropriate place, and may serve as a fit emblem of the homely virtues which she honored and practiced.”--P. 129-30.
Date: [1850?]

Title: Lyon, Mary, 1797-1849.
Description: In Hitchcock, E. The power of Christian benevolence illustrated in the life and labors of Mary Lyon (New York, 1858), frontispiece. A different portrait appears in Hitchcock, E. The power of Christian benevolence... 4th ed. (Northampton, 1882), frontispiece., Mary Lyon founded the Mount Holyoke Seminary, which became Mount Holyoke College., Text below portrait: From a miniature painting in 1832., Another portrait appears in: The home: a fireside monthly companion and guide, vol. 1 (Feb. 1856), p. 49., Bust-length portrait of Lyon, wearing a hat and shawl.
Date: [1858?]

Title: Douglass, Margaret.
Description: In Educational laws of Virginia / The personal narrative of Mrs. Margaret Douglass, a southern woman, who was imprisoned for one month in the common jail of Norfolk, under the laws of Virginia, for the crime of teaching free colored children to read (Boston, 1854), frontispiece., Facsimile signature: Margaret Douglass., Douglass established a small school for free black children, teaching them to read and write in her home. For this offense, she spent a month imprisoned in jail in Norfolk, Virginia., Waist-length portrait of Douglass.
Date: [1854?]

Title: Wyatt, Sophia, d. 1857.
Description: Shoulder-length portrait of the writer wearing a bonnet and eyeglasses., In Wyatt, Sophia. The autobiography of a landlady of the old school, with personal sketches of eminent characters, places, and miscellaneous items (Boston, 1854), frontispiece., Mrs. Wyatt operated a hotel with her husband in New Hampshire and traveled extensively throughout the country in the early 19th century. As a young woman she worked as a schoolteacher.
Date: [1854?]

Title: Phelps, Lincoln, Mrs., 1793-1884.
Description: In Hale, S.J. Woman's record (New York, 1853), p. 770. "Illustrated by two hundred and thirty portraits, engraved on wood by Lossing and Barritt.", Bust-length portrait of the writer.
Date: [1853]
Location: http://www.librarycompany.org/women/portraits/phelps_almira.htm

Title: Peter, Sarah Worthington King, 1800-1877.
Description: In Hale, S.J. Woman's record (Philadelphia, 1855), p. 870. "Illustrated by two hundred and thirty portraits engraved on wood by Lossing and Barritt.", Mrs. Peter, with the help of a teacher she hired, started a school in her home in 1848. As a training program in industrial design for young women, the school gained the sponsorship of the Franklin Institute in 1850. In 1853, it was incorporated as the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (and today is known as Moore College of Art)., Bust-length portrait of the educator, with a lace shawl draped over her head.
Date: [1855?]

Title: Cornell, S. S. (Sophia S.).
Description: Waist-length portrait of the educator, seated, wearing bonnet., In The American phrenological journal, vol. 27 (June, 1858), p. 88., “Miss Sophia S. Cornell, the distinguished author of Cornell’s admirable series of School Geographies, and who is extensively known as one of the most successful educators and teachers at present enlisted in the great cause of popular Education, was born in New London, Conn., and is of American parentage.”--P. 86, Robert Price obtained a patent in Worcester, Mass., on May 5, 1857, for the process of producing photographic images on wood ; cf. American phrenological journal, vol. 27 (Feb. 1858), p. 24.
Date: [1858?]

Title: Mercer, Margaret, 1792-1846.
Description: In Morris, M. Memoir of Miss Margaret Mercer (Philadelphia, 1848), frontispiece., Mercer, who was born into an affluent family, became an educator and director of several schools. She was an abolitionist and a colonization advocate; after emancipating her own slaves, she provided for their passage to Liberia., "Educated in the midst of slavery, and familiar with it under circumstances in which it displayed its least exceptionable features, Miss Mercer was fully convinced of the evil necessarily inherent in the system, and of the malign influence it exerts as well upon the master as the slave. She had, however, also, at the same time, full opportunity to observe the great difficulties with which the effort to get rid of the evil is environed, and was able to appreciate the obstacles which oppose the full development of the negro character in a country in which he has so long been kept in a state of degradation, and where he is compelled to contend with habits and prejudices, not only inveterate from long continuance, but continually excited into renewed vigour by the struggle ever maintained between distinct races of men dwelling on the same soil. She was convinced that circumstances over which the friends of the negro have no control, would keep him here in a state of thraldom and servitude, even though liberated from the galling chain of hopeless bondage. Yet none ever felt more deeply the evil of slavery; none ever more anxiously desired the coming of the time when the stain of it should be wiped from the scutcheon of our country; none ever made more disinterested, self-sacrificing efforts than she to be delivered from its guilt. It was with such views and feelings she had hailed with delight the establishment of the American Colonization Society, an institution which she regarded as peculiarly adapted to the relief of both master and slave."--P.113-114., Figurehead and text below portrait: Non nobis solum ("Not for ourselves alone")., Another portrait appears in: Hale, S. J. Woman's record (Philadelphia, 1855), p. 424., Three-quarter-length, seated portrait of the educator, wearing a bonnet and rings, with a table at right.
Date: [1848?]

Title: Horace Mann
Description: Half-length portrait of the antislavery advocate, congressman, and founder of the modern public school system. Mann, attired in spectacles, a white collared shirt, a black bowtie, waistcoat, and jacket, sits facing slightly left. Mann assisted in the legal defense of abolitionists who aided freedom seekers., Title from manuscript note on mount., Date inferred from attire of sitter., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of portraits., Accessioned 1977., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date: [between 1855 and 1880]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department portrait photographs-Mann [8313.F.13b]

Title: Horace Mann
Description: Bust-length portrait of the educator, abolitionist, and congressman who assisted in the legal defense of abolitionists who aided freedom seekers. Mann, attired in a white collared shirt and a black jacket, faces left., Title from printed signature of sitter below image., Date inferred from medium., Accessioned 1982., 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: [between 1870 and 1900]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Portrait Prints-M [P.8911.1110]

Title: [Booker T. Washington]
Description: Half-length portrait of the prominent African American educator and founder of the African American normal school, Tuskegee Institute. Washington, attired in a white collared shirt, a bowtie, a waistcoat, and a jacket, faces slightly right., Title supplied by cataloger., Photographer's imprint stamped on mount., Manuscript note on verso misidentifying sitter: Paul Dunbar., Gift of Dr. Milton and Joan Wohl, 1991., 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: Gutekunst, Frederick, 1831-1917, photographer
Date: [ca. 1885]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cabinet card portraits - sitter - Washington [P.9363.10]

Title: Mason, Mary Taylor, 1871-1957
Creator: Library Company of Philadelphia, creator
Date: February 5, 1914

Title: Fearis, Bernard
Creator: Library Company of Philadelphia, creator
Date: July 22, 1786

Title: Roth, Edward, 1806-
Creator: Library Company of Philadelphia, creator
Date: December 1, 1874

Title: George H. Stuart
Description: Bust-length portrait of the Philadelphia philanthropist, abolitionist, and Presbyterian educator. Stuart, attired in a white collared shirt, a black bowtie, and a black jacket, faces slightly left. Stuart organized the Philadelphia reception for the absolved Amistad mutineers at the First Reformed Presbyterian Church subsequent to their emancipation by the Supreme Court in 1841., Title from manuscript note on mount., Date based on presented age of sitter., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of portraits. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., 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: [ca. 1865]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits - sitter - Stuart [(3)5750.F.61c]

Title: The nation honors a great American. "From slave cabin to hall of fame." Booker Washington Bookplace, Virginia. U.S. Post Office established February 12, 1948
Description: Illustrated envelope containing a composite image depicting a portrait of Black educator Booker T. Washington, a view of a log cabin, and a view of a classical-style building., Title and date from item., Date supplied from research and content., Image caption: She Guided More Than 300 Slaves to Freedom., Contains ink-stamp postmark: Booker Washington Birthplace Va. Feb 12 1948 5PM and cancelled (Opening Day Cancellation) violet color-printed 3-cent stamp after the format of the Famous American Scientists Series of 1940 and depicting a bust-length portrait of George Washington Carver, Director of Agriculture at Tuskegee Institute., Inscribed in ink: [Pntd?] Washington Pitt [?], Addressed in type: Patricia Chapman, Newfield, N.J., Accompanied by four circulars titled: "Team Work ... by Dr. Booker T. Washington" (2 copies); "Atlanta Exposition Address Delivered by Booker T. Washington, September, 1895, Atlanta, Georgia"; and "Gems of Wisdom. Thoughts from Booker T. Washington's Philosophy That Have Rendered Invaluable Service to Mankind.", Gift of George R. Allen, 2022.
Date: [1948]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *ephemera - envelopes - Nation [P.2022.42.4a-e]

Title: Benezet, Anthony, 1713-1784
Creator: Library Company of Philadelphia, creator
Date: August 17, 1734

Title: Drinker, Catharine Ann, 1841-1922
Creator: Library Company of Philadelphia, creator
Date: April 2, 1874

Title: Wines, Enoch C., 1806-1879
Creator: Library Company of Philadelphia, creator
Date: April 5, 1845

Title: Revd. William Miller, Superintendant of the Wesleyan Zion Connexion in America
Description: Half-length portrait of the African American Methodist bishop for the New York conference, pastor of the First Wesleyan of Philadelphia, educator, and abolitionist. Miller, attired in a white shirt, a black waistcoat, and a black jacket, holds a book in his right hand., Title from item., Date inferred from presented age of sitter., Possibly by Philadelphia lithographer Albert Newsam., Footnote with biographical information about sitter published in Julie Winch's The Elite of our people (University Park: The Penn State University Press, 2000), p. 140 n54., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1972, p. 61., Purchase 1972., 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. 1840]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Portrait prints-M [8035.F.1]

Title: Original & selected poetry &c
Description: Friendship album of Amy Matilda Cassey, a middle-class African American woman active in the antislavery movement and African American cultural community, containing contributions dating from 1833 until 1856. Contains original and transcribed poems, prose, and essays on topics including slavery, womanhood, religion, friendship, female refinement, death, and love. Also contains drawings, watercolors, and gouaches of flowers and a rustic, residential scene, possibly in New York. Contributors, including many women from the antebellum African American elite community, are prestigious reformers and abolitionists active in the anti-slavery, scholarly, educational, and cultural community of the antebellum North, including Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Baltimore., Contains the following contributions: entry by African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, dated Philadelphia 1850, about his "coarse" contribution in an album of "refined" entries; an original sonnet, "Fallen Bird," and essay, "The Abolition Cause," by anti-slavery activist, author, and editor, William Lloyd Garrison, dated Philadelphia 1833; floral watercolors and calligraphed poems by Philadelphia Quaker activist, educator, and artist Sarah Mapps Douglass; essay, "Moral Reform," dated Philadelphia 1834, by Harrisburg businessman and activist William Whipper; calligraphed version of Washington Irving's poem, "The Wife," by New York African American engraver Patrick Henry Reason dated New York 1839; poem about "Friendship" dated 1837 by anti-slavery activist Robert Purvis; prose on faith penned in 1853 by women right's activist and abolitionist Lucy Stone;, floral watercolors, poems and prose on friendship, womanhood, abolition, and remembrance by Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society associates Rebecca Buffum, Susan C. Wright, and sisters Hannah L. Stickney and Mary T. Stickney, and sisters Mary Forten (p.10), Margaretta Forten, and Sarah Forten Purvis, as well as their sister-in-law Mary Virginia Wood Forten (p.22); memorials to his deceased wife and daughter by Baltimore African Methodist Episcopal Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne written in 1849; and an essay by abolitionist Reverend Isiah George DeGrasse dated Bridgewater 1836. Additional contributions by Baltimore anti-slavery activist Emily Willson; anti-slavery activists Ann Warren Weston and Elizabeth Le Brun (Stickney) Gunn; Philadelphia barber and activist John Chew; abolitionist James Miller M'Kim; University of Glasgow trained activist James McCune Smith; Boston reformer Wendell Phillips; C.L.R., possibly Charles L. Reason, abolitionist and brother of engraver Patrick Henry Reason; A.W.H., possibly Quaker abolitionist Anna W. Hopper, and E.G., possibly Quaker abolitionist Elizabeth Garrigues., Also includes sketches and a poem by probably Lydia A. Bustill and unattributed watercolors and sketches possibly by Amy Matilda Cassey., Title from item., Inclusive range of dates inferred from entries inscribed with dates., Embossed and gilt morocco binding with blue moiré silk doublures., Lib. Company Annual Report 1998, p. 25-35., Research file available at repository., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Cassey, an abolitionist, temperance and civil rights activist and founding member of the multiracial Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society and the African American literary and science society, Gilbert Lyceum, was the daughter of New York black community leader, Reverend Peter Williams. She was the wife of Philadelphia businessman and civil rights activist Joseph Cassey, and later married Boston anti-slavery lecturer Charles Lenox Remond.
Creator: Cassey, Amy Matilda, 1808-1856
Date: [ca. 1833-ca. 1856]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Amy Matilda Cassey album [P.9764]

Title: James Weldon Johnson
Description: Bust-length portrait of the eminent African American civil rights activist, poet, writer, and educator. Johnson, wearing a beard and attired in a white collared shirt, a patterned bowtie, and a dark-colored jacket, looks slightly left. Johnson was a prominent member of the NAACP, serving as an organizer and field secretary from 1920 to 1931, a lawyer, lyricist of the "Negro National Anthem," a U.S. Consul to Venezuela and Nicaragua, and author of several works including, "The Autobiography of an Ex-colored Man.", Photographer's imprint stamped on mount., Accessioned 1992., 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. 1910]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cabinet card portraits - sitter - Johnson [P.9398]

Title: [Ralston family cased photograph collection]
Description: Collection of daguerreotype and ambrotype portraits, several by Norristown daguerreotypist William Stroud, portraying clergyman and founder of Oakland Female Institute James Grier Ralston, his wife Mary Anderson Larimore Ralston, their daughters, and his and his wife’s female siblings, and women teachers at the Institute. Contains bust-, half-, three-quarter, and full-length portraits of individual and pairs of sitters. Sitters are often seated, but a number of the portrait depicts sitters in a standing pose. The women’s and girl’s attire includes bonnets; off-the-shoulder bateau neckline dresses; high-neck, long-sleeved dresses with lace collars and cuffs; brooch and belt chatelaines; and earrings. Dresses worn by the female sitters are often a solid dark color, but occasionally are of a pattern design or light color. James Grier Ralston’s attire included broad bow ties, vests, jackets, and suits. Many of the images also contain props, including covered side tables, chairs, flowers, possibly an ambrotype, and a crumpled piece of cloth., Sitters in addition to James Grier Ralston and Mary Anderson Larimore Ralston include their daughters Anna Larimore Ralston, Ella Grier Ralston, Lilly Grier Ralston (who died at 11 months old), and Cora (Cara) Ralston; Institute music teacher Mrs. John Hunsicker, i.e., Fannie Henry Hunsicker (married by James G. Ralston); Mary’s sister and Institute graduate, Hetty Clark Larimore; and Institute teacher and sister of James, Agnes Caldwell Ralston; Institute graduate Martha (Mattie) Divine (Mrs. Fleming); and an unidentified woman., Posed portrait pairs include images of Mary Anderson Larimore Ralston and daughter Anna Larimore Ralston (P.2012.5.6) in which Anna sits in Mary’s lap with her mother’s hand on her head; and Anna Larimore Ralston and Ella Grier Ralston (P.2012.5.8) which Anna stands next to Ella who sits on a chair, while she rests her arm on a covered side table adorned with a basket of flowers; Anna Larimore Ralston and Fanny Hunsicker (P.2012.5.16) in which Fanny, seated, has her one hand at her hip and her other hand and arm around the waist of Anna who stands; and Hetty Clark Larimore and Mary Larimore Ralston (p.2012.5.17) in which the women are seated, side by side, and Hetty holds a bound object, possibly an ambrotype and Mary holds a crumpled white cloth., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from photographic medium and age and attire of sitters., Photographers include William Stroud (Norristown, Pa.) and Theodore L. Chase (Philadelphia, Pa.)., Various-shaped mats, including oval, elliptical, double elliptical, and non pareil., Various colored pads, including blue, red, and maroon velvet or silk, several with embossing. Embossings include photographer’s imprints and/or imagery. Imagery includes floral and geometric designs, scroll work, and eagles., Primarily leather cases, and one thermoplastic case. Case designs vary, but are predominantly rose and mixed flower designs, in addition to geometric, scroll, and quatrefoil designs. Designs also include Pressed Flower, plate 154; The Delicate Roses, variant, plate 123; A Spray of Roses, plate 131; Mixed Garden Flowers, plate 133; Two Lilies, variant, see plate 112 and 113 in American miniature case art by Floyd and Marion Rinhart (Cranbury, New Jersey: A.S. Barnes and Co., Inc., 1969)., Majority of sitters identified by accompanying slips of paper with manuscript notes., Several of the images contain pink tinting on the cheeks of the sitters., P.2012.5.4, P.2012.5.8, P.2012.5.11-15, P.2012.5.21 contains daguerrean's imprint on pad or inside rim of case. Various imprints include: William Stroud, Norristown; William Stroud's Skylight Gallery, Norristown, Pa.; Stroud’s Ambrotypes Norristown, Pa., P.2012.5.6 contains dagurrean's imprint on pad: Theodore L. Chase, N.E. cor. Chestnut & Fifth Sts., Fannie Henry Hunsicker was a woman of Chinese descent. Official records are conflicting as to whether she was born in China, at sea, or in Connecticut., Several of the images contain weeping glass deterioration, tarnished plates, or other damage., Inventory of collection available at repository., See Sarah Weatherwax, "Revealing the Ralston Family," The Daguerreian Society Quarterly (July-September 2021), p. 3-6., Clergyman James Grier Ralston (1815-1880) founded Oakland Female Institute in 1845 in Norristown, Pa. Ralston studied at the Theological Seminary at Princeton and headed the Female Seminary at Oxford, Chester Country, PA before establishing Oakland. He married Mary A. Larimore (1822-1891) in 1842 and they had four children Anna L. (1848-1902), Ella M.(1847-1924), Lillie G. (1852-1853) and Cara G. (1856-1928), with Lillie dying in infancy. Ralston’s children were educated and/or taught at Oakland, as did his sister Agnes C. Ralston. The Institute operated until 1880 and the death of Ralston
Date: [ca. 1845-ca. 1855]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cased photos - Ralston Family [P.2012.5.1-22]

Title: Stevens-Cogdell-Sanders-Venning collection
Description: The Stevens-Cogdell-Sanders-Venning family papers document the development of a white family and a prominent middle class African American family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, beginning with the 1760s emigration of John Stevens from England to South Carolina. The papers consist of seven series: “Stevens family papers,” “Cogdell family papers,” “Sanders family papers,” “Venning family papers,” “Unattributed family papers,” “Scrapbook materials and related ephemera,” and “Hinkson family papers.” The materials date from 1734 to 1976 and consist of scrapbooks, ephemera, newspaper clippings, Common Prayer books, invitations, holiday cards, correspondence, business papers, and a variety of personal papers. The materials document the Stevens-Cogdell-Sanders-Venning families'; professional, family, and personal lives.
Creator: Buck, Pearl S. (Pearl Sydenstricker), 1892-1973
Date: 1734

Title: Original & selected poetry &c
Description: Album belonging to Martina Dickerson, a young middle-class African American Philadelphian, probably created as a pedagogical exercise, with twenty-two contributions dating from 1840 until around 1846. Contains original and transcribed poems, prose, and essays on topics including love, friendship, sympathy, courage, and female refinement. Also includes drawings, primarily of flowers. Identified contributors are mainly Black elite scholars active in the African American anti-slavery and cultural community of mid-19th century Philadelphia., Contains the following contributions: calligraphed title page by abolitionist James Forten, Jr.; prose on "Literature," "The Album," and "The Year" by entrepeneur and abolitionist James Forten, Sr. or his son, James, Jr.; prose entitled "Perserverance" by tailor, abolitionist, and civil rights activist John C. Bowers; prose, sketches, and watercolors by Quaker abolitionist, educator, and artist, Sarah Mapps Douglass; watercolor and transcribed poem, "The First Steamboat on the Missouri," by Sarah's brother, artist, community activist, and abolitionist, Robert Douglass; essay entitled "Sympathy" by William Douglass, pastor and historian of the St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Philadelphia; transcription from Wordsworth's "Excursion" by educator and anti-slavery activist Charles L. Reason; gouache of a bunch of flowers by A.H.H., probably Ada Howell Hinton, an African American educator and anti-slavery activist; and prose, poems, and gouache by Mary M. MacFarland, V.E. Macarty, Y.J. Grice, Rebecca F. Peterson, H.D. Shorter, C.D.R., and J.F.V., Title from item., Inclusive range of dates inferred from entries inscribed with dates., Embossed and gilt morocco binding., Lithograph title page, "Flowers," containing flower illustration hand-colored with gouache and watercolor., Blank album published in London by Wm. & Hy. Rock., Lib. Company. Annual Report 1993, p. 17-25., Research file available at repository., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Dickerson, a pupil of African American educator Sarah Mapps Douglass, was the daughter of African American activists, Martin and Adelia Dickerson, and step-father Samuel Van Brackle.
Creator: Dickerson, Martina, 1829-1905
Date: [ca. 1840-ca. 1846]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Martina Dickerson album [13859.Q]

Title: Afro-American historical family record
Description: Blank African American genealogical certificate containing a family tree surrounded by portraits of the first twenty-four U.S. presidents; portraits of prominent African American men and women religious, political, and educational leaders; and eleven vignettes contrasting life in the South of the enslaved versus the free. African American portraits include Frederick Douglass flanked by Washington and Lincoln; Judson W. Lyons, Register of the Treasury; Miss Lucy C. Laney, Founder of the Haines Institute; Booker T. Washington; H.M. Turner, Bishop of the A.M.E. Church; T. Thomas Fortune, editor New York Age; Hon. John M. Langston, diplomat; Madam Sissiretta Jones, performer and singer; Miss Hallie Q. Brown, educator and African American women's rights activist; Prof. Mary V. Cook, Principal of the State University, Louisville, KY; Miss Ida B. Wells, editor and author; Hon. John R. Lynch, U.S. Paymaster and ex-Congressman; Dr. Henry Fitzbutler, founder of the Louisville National Medical College; and L.H. Holsey, Bishop of the C.M.E. Church. Vignettes depicting slavery include the last auction of enslaved people in Savannah; enslaved cotton pickers working the field; enslaved people dancing and playing instruments "as children were taught in the dark days of slavery"; and an enslaved family in front of their “hut.” Contrasting post-emancipation scenes include a view of Tuskegee Institute; a view of "progressive farming as taught at Tuskegee Institute"; a group portrait in front of a "school house erected by a Tuskegee graduate"; the Victorian house of R.R. Church, a free man; and Spanish-American War battle scenes of African American regiments assisting the Rough Riders, including at San Juan Hill. Also contains the white eye of Providence below the title., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1899, by J.M. Vickroy, Terre Haute, Ind., Printed on recto: Branch Office Terre Haute, Ind., Purchase 2002., 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., Vickroy, a prominent Indiana fine arts publisher, specialized in genealogical and fraternal order certificates.
Date: 1899
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC - African American Heroes [P.2002.16]

Title: [Portrait album of well-known 19th-century African American men of Philadelphia]
Description: Photograph album containing identified portrait photographs, bust-length, half-length, and full-length, of twenty-one prominent Philadelphia African American men. Named sitters in order of inclusion in album include veteran Harmon Richardson attired in a military uniform; educator and activist Octavius Catto; civil rights activist Edwin Chew (son of John and Charlotte Henson Chew); janitor and later undertaker Guy M. Burton with musician Ed[ward] H. Johnson and Terry V. Hall; musician Joseph G. Anderson; Civil War veteran and waiter Taylor Aldridge; Johnson al-Jube holding a basket; laborer Parker T. Smith; Jeremiah V. Hall; George Hall; waiter William I. Lancaster; barber James Keith; caterer Henry Tobias; Cheslea Bass, barber and partner to James Keith, with caterer Andrew F. Stevens; Edwin Lewis; Jas. H. Williams ae.[sic] Rush; Thomas Proctor; and restauranteur/caterer Ja[me]s B. Page. Musicians Edward Johnson and Joseph G. Anderson were members of Francis Johnson's band in the 1830s and 40s., Title supplied by cataloger from label on spine., Date from content and medium of photographs., Cardboard binding with torn spine label inscribed: Portraits of Well Know[n]. Insides of binding covers include scribbles and a pasted partial scrap of a flower., Photographs are loose or attached to album pages within binding., Sitters, and occasionally their profession, identified by manuscript notes on verso of photograph or album page. Some notes include statement "deceased," including for sitters Harmon Richardson, Edwin Chew, Octavius Catto, Edward H. Johnson, Terry V. Hall, Joseph G. Anderson, Johnson al-Jube, George Hall, James H. Williams, and James Page., Mostly unidentified photographers with identified Philadelphia photographers John L. Gihon and Parlor Gallery., Portrait photograph of Octavius Catto reproduced after a circa 1871 portrait photograph taken by African American Philadelphia photographer Gallo W. Cheston and/or Philadelphia photographers Broadbent & Phillips. See "Amy Cohen's Catto the Forgotten Hero" at catto.ushistory.org/. See also Harper's Weekly 15 (October 28, 1871), p. 1005 and a copy of the original portrait at https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2006.8. Photograph stamped on verso: Kean Archives, Phila., Portrait photograph of Taylor Aldridge inscribed on verso: Nov. 27 '83., Verso of album page with portrait photograph of Edwin Lewis inscribed: July '83., Verso of album page with portrait photograph of James Page printed: Sharpless Bros. Dry Goods, Chestnut and Eighth Sts. Philadelphia., Purchase 1990., Description revised 2023., Access points revised 2023., 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. 1865-ca. 1885]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums [P.9304]

Title: [Portrait album of well-known 19th-century African American men of Philadelphia]
Description: Photograph album containing identified portrait photographs, bust-length, half-length, and full-length, of twenty-one prominent Philadelphia African American men. Named sitters in order of inclusion in album include veteran Harmon Richardson attired in a military uniform; educator and activist Octavius Catto; civil rights activist Edwin Chew (son of John and Charlotte Henson Chew); janitor and later undertaker Guy M. Burton with musician Ed[ward] H. Johnson and Terry V. Hall; musician Joseph G. Anderson; Civil War veteran and waiter Taylor Aldridge; Johnson al-Jube holding a basket; laborer Parker T. Smith; Jeremiah V. Hall; George Hall; waiter William I. Lancaster; barber James Keith; caterer Henry Tobias; Cheslea Bass, barber and partner to James Keith, with caterer Andrew F. Stevens; Edwin Lewis; Jas. H. Williams ae.[sic] Rush; Thomas Proctor; and restauranteur/caterer Ja[me]s B. Page. Musicians Edward Johnson and Joseph G. Anderson were members of Francis Johnson's band in the 1830s and 40s., Title supplied by cataloger from label on spine., Date from content and medium of photographs., Cardboard binding with torn spine label inscribed: Portraits of Well Know[n]. Insides of binding covers include scribbles and a pasted partial scrap of a flower., Photographs are loose or attached to album pages within binding., Sitters, and occasionally their profession, identified by manuscript notes on verso of photograph or album page. Some notes include statement "deceased," including for sitters Harmon Richardson, Edwin Chew, Octavius Catto, Edward H. Johnson, Terry V. Hall, Joseph G. Anderson, Johnson al-Jube, George Hall, James H. Williams, and James Page., Mostly unidentified photographers with identified Philadelphia photographers John L. Gihon and Parlor Gallery., Portrait photograph of Octavius Catto reproduced after a circa 1871 portrait photograph taken by African American Philadelphia photographer Gallo W. Cheston and/or Philadelphia photographers Broadbent & Phillips. See "Amy Cohen's Catto the Forgotten Hero" at catto.ushistory.org/. See also Harper's Weekly 15 (October 28, 1871), p. 1005 and a copy of the original portrait at https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2006.8. Photograph stamped on verso: Kean Archives, Phila., Portrait photograph of Taylor Aldridge inscribed on verso: Nov. 27 '83., Verso of album page with portrait photograph of Edwin Lewis inscribed: July '83., Verso of album page with portrait photograph of James Page printed: Sharpless Bros. Dry Goods, Chestnut and Eighth Sts. Philadelphia., Purchase 1990., Description revised 2023., Access points revised 2023., 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. 1865-ca. 1885]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums [P.9304]

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]

Title: American Celebrities Albums
Description: Two volume set of albums containing predominately cartes-de-visite photographic portraits of prominent American 19th-century figures in politics, education, and the arts, ca. 1870.
Date: 1869

Title: American celebrities album
Description: Two volume set of albums containing predominately cartes de visite photographic portraits of prominent American 19th-century figures in politics, education, and the arts. Portraits depict actors, artists, authors, Congressmen, educators, governors, military leaders, physicians, publishers, religious leaders, social reformers, scientists, and U.S. presidents and their spouses. Includes mostly vignette and bust-length portraits and a small number of full length portraits. Also contains a small number of trimmed portrait engravings, tintypes, and a photo-collage depicting evangelist D. L. Moody with the under photograph copyrighted 1877. Small number of sitters are unidentified., Men sitters include P. T. Barnum; Henry Ward Beecher; John Brown; Ned Buntline; Samuel Clemens; Jefferson Davis; O. S. Fowler; Oliver Wendell Holmes; Abraham Lincoln; Samuel Morse; Thomas Nast; Hiram Powers; Winfield Scott; Gerrit Smith; Cornelius Vanderbilt; John Wanamaker; Brigham Young; Native American chiefs Ouray, Spotted Tail, and Sitting Bull; and African Americans Frederick Douglass and performer "Blind" Tom. Women sitters include presidential spouses Frances Cleveland and Lucretia Garfield; reformers Susan B. Anthony and Victoria Woodhull; authors Louisa May Alcott, Helen Hunt (Jackson), Harriet Beecher Stowe; sculptors Harriet Hosmer and Vinnie Ream; and performers Maria Albani, Charlotte Cushman, and Kate Field., Title from item's cover., Photographers include Mathew Brady, E. & H. T. Anthony; Jeremiah Gurney; and George Kendall Warren., Majority of sitters identified by a manuscript note on the album page or on portrait or an inscribed label., Brown leather bindings with gilt, stamped in gilt on front boards: Volume I: American Celebrities. Vol. I.; Volume II: American Celebrities. Vol. II. Stamped in gilt on spines: Album., Purchase 1985., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., See "American Celebrities Album" item-level records for digital images of all identified individual sitters.
Date: [ca. 1870-ca. 1890]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums [P.9100.1 & 2]

Title: [Stevens-Cogdell and Sanders-Venning family portrait collection]
Description: Primarily studio portraits and snapshots of members of the Venning line of the middle-class Philadelphia African American family descended from the 19th-century white South Carolinian Richard Walpole Cogdell (1787-1866), and Sarah Martha Sanders (1815-1850), a Black enslaved woman. Includes professionally photographed group portraits depicting the family's participation in the Philadelphia African American music community of the early 20th century, including: the Mendelssohn Singing Society; Sid Stratton's Orchestra; the Treble Clef Mandolin and Guitar Club; and the Soap Box Social, a minstrel club associated with the African American political club, Citizen's Republican Club. Other formal portraiture includes the graduation portrait for the South Philadelphia High School for Girls class of 1921, including Lillie Venning and contralto Marian Anderson, and a group portrait of the Citizens Republican Club (ca. 1910). Collection also contains studio portraits and snaphots photographed during family summer excursions to Pleasantville and Atlantic City, New Jersey; portraits of family friends and family members through marriage; silhouettes of members of the Cogdell family cut by Master Hankes, i.e., Jarvis F. Hanks (ca. 1828); and an album (ca. 1860-ca. 1913) containing portraits of members of the Venning family and of unidentified sitters., Sitters include members from the Cogdell family, the Venning family, the Capps family, and the Saunders family. Cogdell family members include: Cecilia Cogdell, wife of Richard Walpole Cogdell, and three of their sons - James Gordon Cogdell, George Burgess Cogdell, and John Walpole Cogdell. Venning family members include: Richard Cogdell and Sarah Sanders' daughter, Julia Sanders Venning, her husband Edward Y. Venning (a contractor), and his brother, Richard DeReef Venning (a government clerk). Julia Sanders Venning and Edward Y. Venning's children - Louise Sanders Venning, Miranda Cogdell Venning (a school principal), Oliver Casey Venning (family historian), George Edward Venning (postal worker), Sarah (Sallie) Venning (Holden) (substitute teacher), and her husband William B. Holden (caterer). George Edward Venning and Julia Capps Venning's children - Mary Venning, Martha Venning (Bowie), and her husband Charles Bowie. Capps family members include: Julia Capps Venning's father Augustus Capps (butler), and her siblings, Lillie Capps Adams (educator/musician), Oscar Capps (post office clerk), Adolphus Capps (an undertaker), Berkley Capps (bellman), and Meta Capps (Thomas). Other sitters include family members George Saunders; Agnes Saunders; Georgine Rex Saunders (Chew); Mary Saunders (Patterson) (soprano and music instructor of Marian Anderson); Susan Saunders (Williams); Richard Sanders Chew; and Charles Sanders Chew; and acquaintances African American bibliophile and Tribune columnist William C. Bolivar, African American undertaker Joseph Seth, and Mrs. and Dr. Perry., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content., Date of silhouettes inferred from active dates in Charleston, S.C. of silhouettist Jarvis F. Hanks. See Charleston Courier, March 13, 1828, 2 and "For A Few Days," Charleston Courier, March 31, 1928, 3., Various photographers, including the following Philadelphia photographers: Bell Studio; Frederick Gutekunst; H.D. Garns & Co.; Moses S. Hagaman; Charles Hagemann & Co.; Frank W. Harris, Jr.; Miles & Foster; Parlor Gallery; Charles M. Sullivan; and Daniel Slutzky Studio., Sitters identified by descendants, from manuscript notes on versos, and/or accompanying photographic prints., P.9367.32, ca. 1900 pastel portrait of possibly Clara, nurse to children and grandchildren of Sarah Sanders and R. W. Cogdell, after ca. 1875 tintype photographed by J. Fenton (729 South St., Phila.), P.2012.37.1.23b, Richard DeReef Venning Album, Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning Collection., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 1991, p. 26-31., Gift of descendants Cordelia H. Brown, Lillie V. Dickerson, Mary Hinkson Jackson, and Georgine E. Willis in honor of Phil Lapsansky., LCP exhibit catalogue: African American Miscellany p. 45., Genealogical chart available at repository., 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Middle-class African American family active in the Philadelphia African American political, social, educational, and cultural community from the 1850s to the 20th century. The family was involved in several prominent local African American institutions, including the St. Thomas P.E. Church, Church of the Crucifixion, Central Presbyterian Church, the Colored Institute of Youth, and the Citizens Republican Club.
Date: [ca. 1830 - ca. 1940, bulk 1910-1925]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | PRINT. Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning Collection [P.9367.1-51]

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