Primrose
Title
Primrose The celebrated piebald boy, a native of the West Indies; publicly [sic] shewn in London 1789
Description
Full-length portrait of John Richardson Primrose Bobey, a young Black man with the pigmentation disorder vitiligo, born enslaved in Jamaica, and inspected and exhibited as a specimen of science throughout England. Shows the young man standing on a shoreline. He stands with palm trees in the distance. He is dressed in a loincloth knotted on his left hip and adorned with tassels. White patches are visible on his legs, torso, and down the center of his head. In his right hand, he holds up a captioned portrait broadside of himself as a boy and points to it with his left hand bent at the elbow and from in front of his waist. The broadside depicts the very young Bobey with primarily white skin above text reading "A Child born at Gros Islet, in the Island of St. Lucia, of Black Parents, Taken from a model of the infant colored from nature," and at the museum of T. Pole, Surgeon, Grace Church, in London." In adulthood in London, Bobey advocated for his freedom from enslavement and was a proprietor of a menagerie and a member of several societies, including the Free Masons., Title from item., Manuscript note on recto: Presented T. Pole Surgeon, London, to the Library of Philadelphia., Publication information inferred from broadside illustrated in image and address of London publishers Wm. Darton & Jos. Harvey., Noted in LCP Minutes, v. 3, p. 230-231., Biographies of sitter in Karl Pearson, A monograph on Albinism (London: Cambridge University Press, 1911-1913) and William Granger, The new wonderful museum, and extraordinary magazine: ... (London: Printed for R.S. Kirby, 1804), v. 2, p. 711-714., Pole, a Philadelphia-born Quaker physician, was also an artist who illustrated his own text "An Anatomical Instructor, an Illustration of the Modern and Most Approved Methods of Preparing and Preserving the Different Parts of the Human Body, and of Quadrupeds, by Injection, Corrosion, ... (London, 1790)., 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., Descripton revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Gift of Thomas Pole, 1790., RVCDC
Date
[ca. 1789]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | PRINT. *portrait prints - Primrose [901.F.27]
Enterprise Congress-World's Fair.
Title
Enterprise Congress-World's Fair
Description
Trade card issued during the Columbian Exposition of 1893 promoting the Enterprise Maufacturing Company of Pennsylvania's meat choppers and depicting Uncle Sam demonstrating a meat chopper surrounded Columbia and people representing different nationalities. In the center, Uncle Sam chops meat by turning the handle of a meat chopper mounted to a table under which two pigs stand. In the right, Columbia, depicted as a white woman attired in a white dress with gold trim and a red sash, stands holding a gold staff topped with a star and places her right hand on Uncle Sam's shoulder. At her feet is a bald eagle with an American flag crested shield on its chest. In a left, a Scotsman, attired in tartan kilt, bends at the waist and watches the chopper grind meat onto a plate. Men stand and look on surrounding the table representing different nationalities, including an Irishman, Englishman, and a Chinese man, wearing a queue hairstyle and attired in a gold conical hat, blue shirt, and purple robe. Also includes partially visible exposition buildings in the background. The exposition held in Chicago May 1-October 30, 1898 celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Pa. was established in 1866., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Copyright 1893 by Donaldson Brothers, Lith. N.Y., Several lines of advertising text printed on verso. Text promotes the excellence of the "Enterprise Meat Choppers" in not tearing or grinding, but chopping the meat so devoid of "strings, sinew, fibers or gristle"; foods able to be chopped, including sausage meat, peppers, corn for fritters, coconut, and "Beef Tea for invalids"; the design of the plates; and prices of different models ranging from $2.00 to $15.00, including No. 42, a "Pork only" chops 5 lb. per minute., Printed on verso: For Sale by the Hardware Trade. Send for Catalogue. The Enterprise M'f'g Co. of Pa., Third & Dauphin Sts., Philadelphia, U.S.A., Typeface on verso varies between prints., Vignette illustration on verso. Depicts an "Enterprise" meat chopper clamped to a table. Ground meat falls onto a plate., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Gift of Michael Zinman.
Date
1893
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Michael Zinman World's Fairs Collection - Trade cards [P.2008.36.66]