Search results

Title: The way a Virginian treated a New Englander
Description: According to an accompanying text, the illustration depicts an incident that occurred in New Bedford, Massachusetts, c. 1818-23. The scene is set in a New Bedford "victualling cellar" kept by the black man at the left. In the company of a local constable (right), a visiting Virginian (center), has seized a pair of tongs and is assaulting the man. As the text explains, the Virginian, "who coveted his neighbor's body and soul," ordered the man to be arrested on a fictitious debt charge. The action was dismissed, and the Virginia was ultimately arrested for assaulting the black inn-keeper., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1838 (Boston: Published by D.K. Hitchcock, 1837), p. 27., Caption underneath the image reads: "Many of the northern States have refused to grant to their own citizens a trial by jury, lest slaveholders should have too much trouble in stealing men. Massachusetts, and New Jersey are the only exceptions.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1837]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1837 Ame Ant 52047.D.2 p 27, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2757

Title: Black and white beaux
Description: Portrays a black couple in New York; it appears within the context of Trollope's discussion of free blacks in the city, particularly their dress, taste, and comportment. "On one occassion," Trollope wrote, "we met in Broadway a young Negress in the extreme of fashion, and accompanied by a black beau, whose toilet was equally studied; eye-glass, guard-chin, nothing was omitted; he walked beside his sable goddess uncovered, and with an air of the most tender devotion. At the window of a handsome house which they were passing stood a very pretty white girl, with two gentlemen beside her; but alas! both of them had their hats on, and one was smoking!" (p. 279), Plate in Frances Trollope's Domestic Manners of the Americans (London: Printed for Whittaker, Treacher, & Co.; New York: Reprinted for the booksellers, 1832), p. 278., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Daily Life.
Creator: Pendleton, lithographer
Date: [1832]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1832 Tro 8678.O p 278, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2732

Title: The nation's act
Description: A free black man who has been kidnapped is auctioned before a crowd of white bidders. A small black child sits on the auction block. In the background, other kidnapped free blacks wait to be sold into slavery. A building marked "JAIL" is visible in the distant background., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1839 (New York: Published for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), p. 7., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1838]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1838 Ame Ant 16996.D.3 p 7, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2760

Title: Colored scholars excluded from schools
Description: Standing on the front steps of a school building, a schoolmaster prevents a free black woman and her two children from entering. A line of white children, however, enter the school without incident., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1839 (New York: Published for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), p. 13., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1838]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1838 Ame Ant 16996.D.3 p 13, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2762

Title: A Northern freeman enslaved by Northern hands
Description: Image depicts an incident that occurred in the North (presumably, New York) in November, 1836. Peter John Lee, a free black man from Westchester, New York, was kidnapped by Tobias Boudinot, E.K. Waddy, John Lyon, and Daniel D. Nash, all of New York City, who gagged and chained him, and then hurried him away from his wife and children into slavery., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1839 (New York: Published for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), p. 19., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1838]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1838 Ame Ant 16996.D.3 p 19, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2764

Title: [An emancipated family]
Description: Domestic scene showing the household of an emancipated black family. In the center of the scene, a woman stands with her infant child. She is flanked by her young son, who stands to the left, and by her husband and a third child, who are seen at the right. Seated on a low stool, the husband reads from a book, presumably the Bible. Some work gear and instruments hang on the wall: a basket, a straw hat, and two hoes. Another family can be seen through an open doorway, and a church is visible in the distant background., Cover page of Negro's Friend: on the ease, safety, and advantages of liberating the enslaved Negroes; and on compensation to their masters (London: Printed by Bagster and Thoms, 1830?)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1830?]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1830 Neg Fri 67066.D front cover, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2731

Title: An emancipated family
Description: Domestic scene showing the household of an emancipated black family. In the center of the scene, a woman stands with her infant child. She is flanked by her young son, who stands to the left, and by her husband and a third child, who are seen at the right. Seated on a low stool, the husband reads from a book, presumably the Bible. Some work gear and instruments hang on the wall: a basket, a straw hat, and two hoes. Another family can be seen through an open doorway, and a church is visible in the distant background., Cover page of the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1836 (Boston: Published by Webster & Southard, c1835)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [c1835]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1835 Am Ant 65753.D cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2741

Title: [The rebel pirate's fatal prize]
Description: Image depicts a scene on board the schooner S.J. Waring. The ship's steward William Tillman [i.e., Billy Tilghman], "the brave and daring negro," armed with a hatchet, defends himself and his wife from three men identified as the "Pirate Prize Master, Lieutenant, and Mate," who stand in his doorway. Having learned of their secret plot to sell him and his wife into slavery, Tillman murders them., Vignette on the broadside advertisement for The Rebel Pirate's Fatal Prize (Philadelphia: Reichner & Co., 1862)., Accompanied by the caption: "Back sirs! She is my wife, she is no slave! Seize her at your peril.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Date: [1862]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1862 Und (2) 5786.F 46e broadside vignette, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2809

Title: [Consequences of emancipation]
Description: In the foreground center, a black man reads aloud from the Bible while a girl kneels and prays before him. In their immediatie proximity, a mother holds her two small children. Behind them, several figures perform various chores and tasks. A group congregates in the middle-ground, and what looks to be a representation of Monticello is visible in the background., Front cover of the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1837 (Boston: Published by N. Southard & D.K. Hitchcock, 1836)., Two captions appear underneath the image: "A sketch from God's description of the 'Consequences of Emancipation.' Psa. 58." and "We hold these truths to be self-evident -- that all men are created equal.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1836 Ame Ant 16996.D cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2745

Title: Tearing up free papers
Description: A man restrains a free Southern black woman as another man destroys the papers that attest to her freedom. The woman's small child stands beside her. In the background, at least two figures are visible behind bars., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1838 (Boston: Published by D.K. Hitchcock, 1837), p. 7., Caption underneath the image reads: "In the Southern States, every colored person is presumed to be a slave, till proved to be free; and they are often robbed of the proof.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1837]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1837 Ame Ant 52047.D.2 p 7, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2750

Title: Emancipated slaves can take care of themselves
Description: At the left, the illustration depicts a free black man, or a "paid" laborer. He works vigorously with a hoe, and is dressed in a suit and top hat. At the right, a slave, or an "unpaid" laborer, is shown. He also works with a hoe, but unlike his counterpart, he is barely dressed, and looks weak and despondent., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1839 (New York: Published for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), p. 21., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1838]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1838 Ame Ant 16996.D.3 p 21, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2765

Title: "Nuisances" going as "missionaries," "with their own consent"
Description: Illustration shows a group of free blacks being forcibly deported to Liberia. Standing in line, these Northern blacks wait to board the ship. A man who tries to flee is being chased by the authorities., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1839 (New York: Published for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), p. 29., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1838]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1838 Ame Ant 16996.D.3 p 29, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2767

Title: Kidnapping
Description: Engraving relates to an incident recounted by Torrey. In the middle of the night, five men forced their way into the room of a free black woman, who was pregnant and recently widowed. They dragged her out of the bed in which she was sleeping with her child, tied a noose around her neck, and then carried mother and child to a Maryland tavern, where they were bought by a slave-dealer and brought to Washington., Plate in Jesse Torrey's A Portraiture of Domestic Slavery, in the United States (Philadelphia: Published by the author. John Bioren, printer, 1817), p. 48., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Images from the Slave Trade.
Creator: Goodman & Piggot, engraver
Date: 1817
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1817 Tor 4875.O p 48, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2723

Title: Gang of slaves journeying to be sold in a Southern market
Description: Driven by mounted men with whips, a large procession of bound slaves travels down a shallow creek. Some of the slaves hold children in their arms; others carry baskets and bundles on their heads. A family of free blacks watches from the banking on the left., Illustrated plate in James Silk Buckingham's The Slave States of America (London; Paris: Fisher, Son, & Co. Newgate St. London; rue St. Honoré, Paris [1842]), vol. 2, p. 552., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Images from the Slave Trade.
Creator: Holl, F., engraver
Date: [1842]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1842 Buc 10584.O v 2 p 552, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2775

Title: Solomon Northup in his plantation suit
Description: Portrait of Solomon Northup, a free citizen of New York, who was kidnapped in Washington City in 1841 and sold into slavery. Northup is shown in a suit that he wore as a slave on a Louisiana cotton plantation., Frontispiece for Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River, in Louisiana (Auburn: Derby and Miller; Buffalo: Derby, Orton and Mulligan; London: Sampson Low, Son & Company, 1853)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Date: [1853]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1853 Nor 54079.D frontispiece, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2791

Title: Gottlob Freimann Aus Africa als sclave nach Amerika entfuhrt, in Europa als Wilder zur Schau gestellt als Glaubiger in Christo gestorben in Dusfelthal den 13ten August, 1826
Description: Left profile, bust portrait showing Freimann. He has curly hair, sideburns, and a goatee. He is attired in a jacket with the collar turned up and a top coat. Freimann was a converted free man who was also known as Jean Baptiste., Title from item., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Purchase 1995.
Creator: Kreeft, P. W., lithographer
Date: [ca. 1826]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department portrait prints - F [P.9497]

Title: Official first day of issue. Honoring Salem Poor, Gallant Soldier, distinguished patriot of Bunker Hill, Valley Forge and White Plains
Description: ArtCraft "First Day Cover" (i.e., designed envelope with a stamp affixed and cancelled on the day the stamp was issued) from the "Contributors to the Cause "series issued for the United States Bicentennial. Contains illustration after John Trumbull’s historical painting based on his eyewitness account of the Battle of Bunker Hill while serving as a commissioned officer during the American Revolution. Depicts American Major General Joseph Warren’s death proceeding the Americans’ retreat from the hill and includes the figure of Salem Poor, who has also been identified as another Black soldier, Peter Salem, in the context of the painting., Title from item., Date supplied from content., Logo of printer printed in lower left corner: Text "ArtCraft" set on a paint palette with brushes inserted through the hole for the artist's thumb., Image caption: Salem Poor received commendation for his heroics during the Battle of Bunker Hill., Contains ink-stamp postmark: Cambridge, MA. Mar 25 1975 02139 and cancelled "First Day of Issue" color-printed U.S. 10-cent stamp "Contributors to the Cause. Salem Poor. Gallant Soldier" depicting a half-length portrait of Poor with a rifles in hand. Poor was an enslaved African-American man who purchased his freedom in 1769 and became a soldier in 1775., Contains printed address., The Washington Press ArtCraft brand was introduced in 1939 for the printing of First Day Covers. The firm stopped producing ArtCraft First Day Covers in 2016., Gift of George R. Allen, 2022.
Date: [1975]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department ephemera - envelopes - Poor [P.2022.42.3]

Title: Colored schools broken up, in the free states
Description: Depicts an attack on a school established by Prudence Crandall in Caterbury, Connecticut that was destroyed by a white mob in September 1834. Image shows a mob of whites raiding, torching, and throwing cobblestones at a building whose sign reads "School for colored girls." At the left, two young girls exit the side door of the school., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1839 (New York: Published for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), p. 15., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1838]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1838 Ame Ant 16996.D.3 p 15, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2763

Title: I sell the shadow to support the substance. Sojourner Truth
Description: Three-quarter length portrait of the African American itinerant preacher, abolitionist, and women's rights advocate born into slavery and originally known as Isabella Baumfree. Shows Truth, seated, and attired in a dark-colored, long sleeved dress with white collar, white shawl with fringe, and a white cap. She wears wire-rimmed glasses and faces front and is turned slightly to her left. She holds knitting in her left hand which rests on a small table that has a decorative table cloth. A notebook and vase of flowers adorn the table. A string of yarn runs across her lap. Truth escaped to freedom in 1826. During the period of the Civil War, Truth captioned, marketed, copyrighted, and sold at least eleven different carte-de-visite portraits of herself at her lectures and through the mail to earn personal funds and advocate for the abolition of slavery. Her knitting probably alludes to her promotion of the handcraft as an industry for advancement for former enslaved persons., Title from item., Publication information from copyright statement on verso: Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1864, by Sojourner Truth, in the Clerk's Office, of the U. S. District Court, for the Eastern District of Mich., Lib. Company. Annual report, 2016, p. 66-67., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Date: 1864
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits - sitter - Truth [P.2017.27]

Title: Mrs. Amanda Smith
Description: Three-quarter length portrait of the African American Methodist evangelist preacher, missionary, and temperance advocate who was born to enslaved parents in Maryland. Shows Smith, standing, slightly turned to her right, and attired in medium-colored, Quaker-like garb including a shawl, shirtwaist with an upright lace collar adorned with a pendant, skirt, and scoop bonnet. She holds a book, possibly a Bible, in her right hand, top edge down, and with her fingers interspersed between a few pages. A chair is partially visible in the right of the image and dark-colored drapery serves as the backdrop. Smith, her freedom bought by her father when a child, entered preaching in 1869. Known as a compelling speaker and singer, she preached at Methodist Episcopal churches throughout the East and Midwest, including Philadelphia. In 1878 she felt called to travel to Keswick, England for a Methodist convention and remained in the country to minister and then worked as a missionary in India (1879-1881) and West Africa (1882-1890). In 1890 she returned to the United States and settled in Chicago where she was also a prominent member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (Smith joined in the 1870s). In 1893 her "Autobiography" was published, from which she began to raise funds for an orphanage for African American children. 1n 1899 the Amanda Smith Orphan's Home, later the Amanda Smith Industrial Home opened in Harvey, Il. The home was razed by fire in 1918., Title from manuscript note on verso., Photographer's imprint printed on mount., Publisher's imprint printed on verso. Also includes a vignette depicting the British coat of arms., Mount designer's imprint printed on verso., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 2018, p. 59 - 60., RVCDC, Description reviewed 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Pettitt, Alfred, -1880
Date: [1878]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits - sitter - Smith [P.2018.13]

Title: The Rev. Richard Allen, Bishop of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, in the U. States
Description: Half-length portrait of the African American bishop, seated, and holding the Holy Bible upright in his lap with his right hand. Allen is depicted with gray curly hair and is attired in a shirt with a high neck collar, a vest, and a jacket. A geometric border frames the portrait. Allen, born into slavery in Philadelphia, founded and was ordained the first bishop of the denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1816., Original painting attributed to Raphaelle Peale., Title from item., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Purchase 2006.
Creator: Boyd, John, engraver
Date: cDecember 8th, 1823, December 10th, 1823
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *portrait prints - A [P.2006.29]

Title: Tobias Gilmore House, Raynham, 1781-1918. "Toby" Gilmore, born in Africa, was a patriot of the American Revolution
Description: Souvenir card depicting the second Raynham, Ma. residence of Black Revolutionary War soldier Shibodee Turry Wurry also known as Tobias Gilmore. Shows the two-story wooden residence with portico, hipped roof, and chimney and grassy, front grounds. Trees and shrubbery line and surround the house. Wurry born in West Africa, was kidnapped and enslaved in 1757. Captain John Gilmore of Rayham, Ma. became his enslaver and renamed Wurry, Tobias Gilmore. Gilmore enlisted in military service in 1776, during the American Revolution, to gain his freedom. In December 1781, Gilmore was discharged from service, including serving at the Battle of Fort Ticonderoga. He returned to Rayham a free man. In 1784, he purchased land in Rayham and built his first home. He built his second home circa 1800. The residence was destroyed by fire in 1918., Title from item., Date inferred from "1918" date in title and year of destruction of the depicted dwelling., Description reviewed 2022., Access points reviewed 2022.
Date: [ca. 1918]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department ephemera - souvenirs & keepsakes [P.2021.15]

Title: The Declaration of Independence illustrated
Description: Cartoon evoking the Declaration of Independence to promote the emancipation from enslavement. Depicts rays of light representing God above a soaring American eagle that clutches olive and oak branches and two American flags labelled "All Men are Created Equal" and "Stand by the Declaration." Suspended from the flags is a large basket in which an African American man and a white man are seated. The African American man drops his broken shackles out of the basket as the abolitionist proclaims "Break Every Yoke; Let the Oppressed Go Free" to a large crowd of men, women, and children cheering below. Among the crowd is a white man Union soldier; a white newsboy selling the "Herald," an abolition newspaper; and a free African American man. Verses of text appear atop the rays of light and beside the basket espousing the religious, moral, and historical justifications for emancipation., Title from item., Date from copyright statement., Purchase 1968., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War., Dominique C. Fabronius was a respected Belgian born lithographer, watercolorist, and portraitist who worked in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York.
Creator: Fabronius, Dominique, artist
Date: 1861
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1861-41 [7700.F]

Title: Moses Williams, cutter of profiles
Description: Silhouette of Peale's Museum premier African American silhouettist, facing left. Williams wears his hair in a ponytail adorned with a bow at the end. A bow adorns his collar as well. Williams was enslaved by Charles Willson Peale following the manumission of his parents in 1786. After his manumission in 1804, Williams began work as a silhouettist in Peale's Museum., Possibly by Moses Williams or possibly Raphaelle Peale., Title from manuscript note on recto., Manuscript note on verso: Moses Williams, the Cutter of Profiles. Peales Museum., 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., See Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, " 'Moses Williams, Cutter of Profiles': Silhouettes and African American Identity in the Early Republic," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 49 (March 2005), particularly p. 36., See Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, "'Moses Williams, Cutter of Profiles,' Silhouettes and African American Identity in the Early Republic," in Portraits of a People. Picturing African Americans in the Nineteenth Century (Seattle & London: Addison Gallery of American Art in association with the University of Washington Press, 2006 ), pp. 45-55, 69., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of portraits., McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date: [ca. 1803]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Silhouette Collection [(3)5750.F.153b]

Title: Views of slavery Does the slaveholder admit the slave to be a human being? If so we would ask his interpretation of the following sentiment "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do you even so to them."
Description: Abolitionist print containing six scenes depicting the inhumanity of slavery. Scenes include enslaved African American children crying while their mothers work and a white man enslaver whips an enslaved man in a sugar plantation field; the punishment of enslaved people by flogging, whipping, and binding by white men overseers in a shack; an auction of enslaved people; a free African American woman with a child watching the destruction of her free papers as she is kidnapped from the street; an anguished enslaved mother being separated from her children by a white man involved in the slave trade; and the shipping of enslaved people to New Orleans from a Baltimore dock. Also contains an excerpt about the rights of human beings from William Ellery Channing's abolitionist text, "On Slavery," below the image., Title from item., Advertised in the New York American Anti-Slavery Society newspaper, Emancipator (March 1836), p.3., Purchase 2003., 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Lib. Company. Annual report, 2003, p. 45-46.
Date: [1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1836 Vie [P.2003.10], http://www.lcpimages.org/afro-americana/F-Views.htm

Title: Revd. John Gloucester Late pastor of the First African Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia
Description: Half-length portrait of the first African American man ordained by the Presbyterian Church, seated and facing left, and with his right hand raised. Gloucester is attired in a shirt with a high neck collar, a vest, and a jacket. Contains decorative border with an inset of the Bible inscribed with the verse John I:29. Born and enslaved in Tennessee, Gloucester, initially a missionary, presided over the first African American Presbyterian church in the country., Title from item., See Lib. Company. Annual report, 1973, p. 43., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., McAllister Collection, gift, 1886. Accessioned 1973., 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.
Creator: B. Tanner & W.R. Jones, engraver
Date: August 1st 1823
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department portrait prints - G [P.8911.430]

Title: The battle at Bunker's Hill near Boston, June 17th, 1775
Description: Commemorative print after John Trumbull's historical painting based on his eyewitness account of the battle while serving as a commissioned officer during the American Revolution. Dramatically depicts the scene of American Major General Joseph Warren's death proceeding the Americans' retreat from the hill. Amidst a melee of activity, Warren lays dying in the arms of an American militiaman who fends off a bayonet pointed down over his body by an English soldier. British Major John Small restrains the bayonet of his soldier as Americans Captain Thomas Gardner, holding a musket, Major Andrew McClary, and Colonel William Prescott stand guard over their fallen compatriot. Behind Small, British Major John Pitcairn, mortally wounded, is held up by Lieutenant William Pitcairn and to the far right American Lieutenant Thomas Grovesnor stands en guarde shielding an armed African American man usually identified as Peter Salem, credited as the fatal shooter of Pitcairn, but more likely Grovesnor's enslaved man. British Generals William Howe, Henry Clinton, and Lieutenant Francis Lord Rawdon, flag in hand, continue the charge in the background. Other American soldiers involved in the battle include: Colonel Israel Putnam who gallantly leads the retreat; Rev. Samuel McClintock; Major Willard Moore, as well as an African American soldier, possibly Peter Salem. American Lieutenant Colonel Moses Parker and British Lieutenant Colonel Sir Robert Abercromby lay dying., Title from item., Theodore Sizer's The works of Colonel John Trumbull (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967), 95., The Library of Congress' An album of American battle art, 1755-1918. (Washington, D.C.: The U.S. Printing Office, 1947), 27-30., See Elisa Tamarkin, Anglophilia: deference, devotion, and antebellum America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 137-8 for Peter Salem misidentification., 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., Muller, was a renown German painter, engraver, and professor, commissioned, following the refusal of the English artist community, to engrave Trumbull's historic painting. Muller completed the painting in 1786 at his mentor Benjamin West's London studio.
Creator: Müller, Johann Gotthard, 1747-1830, engraver
Date: 1798
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC - American Revolution [1142.F.4]

Title: Rev. Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in the United States of America, 1779
Description: Half-length portrait of the African American bishop, seated, and holding a book, possibly the Bible, in front of a curtain. He looks slightly to the left and points to an open page of the book with his right hand and clasps the upper edge of the other side of the book with his left hand. Allen is attired in a collared shirt, a vest, and a jacket. Allen was the first African American bishop as well as founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was born in Philadelphia and was enslaved by Benjamin Chew. He worked as a wood-cutter during his ordination. A full-length portrait of the white Quaker abolitionist and little person Benjamin Lay is on the verso. Lay is attired in a tricorn hat, a long shirt and jacket, britches, and boots. He holds a cane and book in his right hand., Manuscript note on border: "The curiosity of the portrait below is that it was made for the first Black Bishop in the UStates and perhaps the world! He is indeed a self created Bishop; nevertheless, as such he has now, in his 65 years, in 1824, probably created 100 ministers, by his ordination! He was born & bred in Philada. He was originally a slave of Benjn Chew's Esqre & learnd the trade of a Shoemaker; & like St. Paul, 'labored with his own hands,' while he ordained-", Title from item., Date form item., In John Fanning Watson's Extra-illustrated autograph manuscript of "Annals of Philadelphia", p. 276., Gift of John F Watson, June 1830., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date: 1813
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Watson's Annals manuscript [Yi2 1069.F.276]

Title: The battle at Bunker's Hill near Boston June 17, 1775
Description: Book illustration after John Trumbull's historical painting based on his eyewitness account of the battle while serving as a commissioned officer during the American Revolution. Dramatically depicts the scene of American Major General Joseph Warren's death proceeding the Americans' retreat from the hill. Amidst a melee of activity, Warren lies dying in the arms of an American militiaman who fends off a bayonnet pointed down over his body by an English soldier. British Major John Small restrains the bayonnet of his soldier as Americans Captain Thomas Gardner, holding a musket, Major Andrew McClary, and Colonel William Prescott stand guard over their fallen compatriot. Behind Small, British Major John Pitcairn, mortally wounded, is held up by Lieutenant William Pitcairn and to the far right American Lieutenant Thomas Grovesnor stands en garde shielding Peter Salem, an armed African American soldier who discharged the fatal shot at Pitcairn. British Generals William Howe, Henry Clinton, and Lieutentant Francis Lord Rawdon, flag in hand, continue the charge in the background. Other American soldiers involved in the battle include: Colonel Israel Putnam who gallantly leads the retreat; Rev. Samuel McClintock; Major Willard Moore, as well as several other free African American soldiers. American Lieutenant Colonel Moses Parker and British Lieutentant Colonel Sir Robert Abercromby lay dying., Published in John Howard Hinton's The history and topography of the United States of North America,... [LCP *Am 1834 Hinto, 11860.Q.1] and later editions., Printed below title: Vol. I. page . 226., Original painting at Yale School of Fine Art, New Haven, Connecticut., Described in Theodore Sizer's The works of Colonel John Trumbull (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967), p. 95., Described in The Library of Congress' An album of American battle art, 1755-1918. (Washington, D.C.: The U.S. Printing Office, 1947), p. 27-30., 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., Access points revised 2021., Description revised 2021., Gift of Dolly Maass, 2002.
Creator: Archer & Boilly, engraver
Date: [1834]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - American Revolution [P.2002.14]

Main menu