Two dromios
Title
Two dromios
Description
Double exposure depicting a large African American man, attired in a cap, a short-sleeved shirt torn at the elbows, and an apron. He leans on a ledge and crosses his hands while smoking a pipe and looks to the right in the first exposure and to the left in the other, creating the illusion of "Two Dromios" or twins. Dromio was the name of enslaved twins in Shakespeare's, "Comedy of Errors.", Title from manuscript note by photographer., Signed by photographer on verso., Gift of Elsie Wood Harmon, 1982., 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., Wood, a Philadelphia artist, turned to photography in the 1880s exhibiting his work, including genre studies of African Americans, at national and international photography exhibitions. His photographs won several prizes.
Creator
Wood, George Bacon, 1832-1909, photographer
Date
[ca. 1885]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Wood [P.8743.187]
"Watching Grandma smoke"
Title
"Watching Grandma smoke"
Description
Genre scene depicting an older African American woman, attired in a head kerchief, a long-sleeved, patterned dress, and a striped apron, smoking a pipe. She is seated on the steps to the open doorway of her dilapidated, wooden house surrounded by her three young grandchildren who intently watch her. A small, barefooted girl, attired in a dress and a torn and worn jacket, sits with her legs stretched out across the bottom step. A barefooted boy, attired in a shirt, a jacket, and shorts, sits on the next up above with his right leg crossed over his left knee and looks up at his grandmother. Standing in the doorway is a girl, attired in a dress, a jacket, and shoes, who looks down with her hands at her side., Photographer's imprint stamped on mount., Title from manuscript note by photographer on verso., Signed by photographer on verso., Manuscript note on verso: No. 4. Class A., 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, turned to photography in the 1880s exhibiting his work, including genre scenes of African Americans, at national and international photography exhibitions. His photographs won several prizes.
Creator
Wood, George Bacon, 1832-1909, photographer
Date
[ca. 1886]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - Wood [P.8743.529]
The smokers. [graphic] / C.
Title
The smokers
Description
Cartoon concerning smoking as a vice depicting a crowd scene where everyone smokes, including women and children. In the foreground, a white man sits on a wooden chair holding a pipe in hand, refers to his "illustrious predecessor," Andrew Jackson. Two white boys light their cigars together. A finely dressed white woman carrying a parasol is horrified and says, "Oh! The monsters, I'm half blinded and suffocated" as she holds her nose. An elegantly dressed African American woman holds her hand to her nose and exclaims, "What a nasty practice, it's enough to make a dog sick." In the right, a white man street peddler carries a tray of plaster busts, including a pipe smoking Jackson. "Jack Downing," cigar in hand, states he picked up the habit in France and that his lighter was made from Jackson's spectacles but thinks a loco-foco (a faction of the Democrats who were named after a type of match) would go quicker. An African American chimney sweep and an African American shoe shiner shake hands with cigars in their mouths. They are portrayed in racist caricature and speak in the vernacular about smoking. "I say Josh, wot you smoke dem long nines for, why don't you smoke Half Spanish like a gen'leman." "Cause I've called in my Shin Plasters, and suspended Specie payments!!", Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress, in the Year 1837, by H.R. Robinson, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the U.S. of the Southern Dist. of New York., Text printed on recto: Tobacco is a stinking weed, It was the Devil sow'd the seed, It drains the purse & fouls the clothes, And makes a chimney of the nose., 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., Clay, born in Philadelphia, was a prominent caricaturist, engraver, and lithographer.
Creator
Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, artist
Date
1837
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1837-25W [5656.F.3]