Portrait depicting an African American man, with his back to the viewer, as he climbs over a fence on a snow-covered landscape. The man, attired in a brimmed hat, a coat, pants, and boots, holds a rifle in his right hand and a dead possum by its tail in the left hand., Title from lantern slide at Staten Island New York Historical Society., Gift of Elsie Wood Harmon, 1982., 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., Wood, a Philadelphia artist and traveler, turned to photography in the 1880s, exhibiting his work, including genre studies of African Americans, at several national and international photography exhibitions. His photographs often won prizes.
Creator
Wood, George Bacon, 1832-1909, photographer
Date
[ca. 1888]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - Wood [P.8743.182]
Genre scene depicting a turkey shoot on a snowy knoll near a New England barn and tavern. In the foreground, a group of white men and boys including two men on horseback, converse, ready their guns, and watch as one man takes aim. At the shooter's feet, near a dead turkey, two boys, one African American, crouch. Another hunting party stands in the distance near the tavern. Contains a poem about the economic prosperity of "North Americay" below the image., Title from item., Date based on the active dates of engraver., Not in Wainwright., Text printed on recto below image: It is a wealthy people who sojourn in that land, their churches all with steeples most delicately stand; their houses, like the gilly, are painted white and gay, they flourish like the lily, in North Americay. Their land with milk and honey continually doth flow, the want of food, or money, they very seldom know; They heap up golden treasure, they have no debts to pay, they spend their time in pleasure, in North Americay. On turkeys, fowls and fishes most frequently they dine; with well-replenished dishes their tables always shine. They crown their feasts with butter, they eat and rise to pray; in silks their ladies flutter, in North Americay., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1967, p. 56., Purchase 1967., 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. 1860]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *BW-Holidays [7599.F]
