Trade card promoting painter P.J. Brankin and depicting a racist genre scene of an African American man being teasingly awoken by African American children. Figures are caricaturized and portrayed with exaggerated features. Shows a man, attired in a red, checkered shirt, blue pants, and one black boot, lying on his back, his right knee up, atop a large, white bundle. The boot on his left foot has fallen to the ground near his hat lying in front of the bundle. His left foot is bare. In the right, two mischievous boys peer around and over the bundle. The former, attired in a blue shirt, crouches to the ground from behind the bundle while the latter, attired in a yellow shirt with orange polka dots and orange pants, stretches out his right arm to poke the man's face with a piece of straw. In the background is a steamboat on a river. P.J. Brankin (1853-1928) was a house and sign painter who served as a president of the Master Painters' Association. By the 1920s, he was building and selling houses., Title from item., Place of publication deduced from place of operation of advertised business., Date deduced from the history of the advertised business and visual content., Gift of David Doret.
Date
[ca. 1880]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Brankin [P.2017.95.17]
Trade card promoting soap manufacturers C.J. Jones & Co. and depicting a racist genre scene of an African American man being teasingly awoken by African American children. Figures are caricaturized and portrayed with exaggerated features. Shows a man, attired in a red, checkered shirt, blue pants, and one black boot, lying on his back, his right knee up, atop a large, white bundle. The boot on his left foot has fallen to the ground near his hat lying in front of the bundle. His left foot is bare. In the right, two mischievous boys peer around and over the bundle. The former, attired in a blue shirt, crouches to the ground from behind the bundle while the latter, attired in a yellow shirt with orange polka dots and orange pants, stretches out his right arm to poke the man’s face with a piece of straw. In the background is a steamboat on a river. Charles L. Jones founded the soap manufacturing firm C.L. Jones & Co. in 1845 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with meat packer Charles Valentine, who wanted a way to use tallow. Valentine died in 1850, and Jones took charge of the business until his death in 1879. His brothers, Henry E. and Frank H. Jones, carried on the company until 1903., Title from item., Place of publication deduced from place of operation of advertised business., Date deduced from the history of the advertised business and visual content., Gift of David Doret.
Date
[ca. 1880]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - C.L. Jones [P.2017.95.21]
