Reproduction of an 1837 print "View of the Capitol at Washington" engraved by C.J. Bentley after the work of W. H. Bartlett and published in N. P. Willis's American Scenery;... (London: George Virtue, 1837). Shows the Capitol building with the Bulfinch dome that was removed in 1856. Also shows street and pedestrian traffic, including horse-drawn carriages, a man on horseback, and a group of Black men and women in non-European attire in the foreground. Reconstruction of the Capitol building after the designs of Charles Bulfinch was completed in 1826., Title from label., Date inferred from content and active dates of the photographer., Gift of Sandra Markham.
Creator
Rau, William Herman, 1855-1920
Date
[ca. 1895]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department lantern slides - Rau - United States [P.2006.21.1]
Abolitionist allegorical book illustration juxtaposing a coffle of enslaved Black men and boys standing before the ruins of "a monument to liberty," the United States Capitol, following the British occupation of the city during the War of 1812. Author suggests that the destruction of the Capitol was a sign of divine displeasure to promote the abolition of slavery. In the foreground, two white men enslavers lead shackled men and boys pass the ruin. Two allegorical white female figures, one of Liberty, hover in the clouds above. Enslaved people were traded in Washington, D.C. and used in the reconstruction of the Capitol., Title from item., Frontispiece from Jessey Torrey, Jr.'s, A Portraiture of domestic slavery in the United States (1817)., Torrey was a Philadelphia physician, abolitionist, and author of tracts on morals and the diffusion of knowledge., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of views of the District of Columbia. 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator
Lawson, Alexander, 1773-1846, engraver
Date
1817
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - Government Buildings - Washington, D.C. [5740.F.9b], http://www.lcpimages.org/afro-americana/F181.htm
