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Title: Miss Fanny Kemble in the character of Portia The original miniature in the possession of Mrs. C. Kemble
Description: Waist-length portrait showing the abolitionist, actress, dramatist, and author, seated and in the costume of the heiress character from Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice." Kemble is attired in a large feathered hat, long earrings, a pearl necklace, and an elaborate ruffled dress adorned with pearls and jewels. In 1829, Kemble made her debut performance as Portia, her favorite Shakespearean character that represented her ideal of perfect womanhood. Her memoir, "Residence of a Georgian Plantation (1863)," described the degradation and inhumanities of slavery witnessed by Kemble while living at the plantation of her Philadelphian husband, Pierce Butler, from 1838 until 1839., 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., Access points revised 2021., Description revised 2021., Accessioned 1893., Sartain, a premier 19th-century Philadelphia portrait engraver, was also a member of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.
Creator: Sartain, John, 1808-1897, engraver
Date: [ca. 1835]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department portrait prints - K [5658.F.36]

Title: Fanny Kemble
Description: Photographic reproduction of a portrait painting by Thomas Sully of the abolitionist, actress, dramatist, and author early in her marriage to Philadelphian Pierce Butler in 1834. In her work, "Residence of a Georgian plantation (1863)," Kemble described the degradation and inhumanities of slavery witnessed by her while living at the plantation of her husband from 1838 until 1839. Kemble, wearing her hair up and attired in a high collar, looks slightly right., Title from manuscript note on mount., Date based on photographic medium., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of portraits. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., Description revised in 2021., Access points revised in 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. 1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits - sitter - Kemble [2(5750.F.67e]

Title: Fanny Kemble
Description: Bust-length portrait of the abolitionist, author, dramatist, and actress in the character of Julia, written specifically for her by Sheridan Knowles for his play "The Hunch Back." Her memoir, "Residence of a Georgian Plantation (1863)," described the degradation and inhumanities of slavery witnessed by Kemble while living at the plantation of her Philadelphian husband, Pierce Butler, from 1838 until 1839., Title from manuscript note on verso., Date from copyright statement: Entered acccording to act of Congress in the year 1833 by Childs & Inman in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the Eastern Distrcit of Pennsylvania., Original painting by Sully located at the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia., Sully, a respected Philadelphia portrait painter and friend of Kemble, painted thirteen portraits of the actress, the majority by recollection., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of portraits., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., McAllister Collection, gift, 1886.
Date: 1833
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *portrait prints - K [5657.F.25]

Title: [Plates from "Sketches supposed to have been intended for Fanny Kemble's journal"]
Description: Series of eight prints satirizing journal entries published in 1835 that were written 1832-1833 by the British-born actress during her American tour. Includes citations to the lampooned "Journal" entries from the two-volume Philadelphia edition published by Carey, Lea & Blanchard in 1835. Plates 1 and 2 depict scenes from her sea voyage. The first shows her "embroidering one of [her] old nightcaps" in "sea sickness" surrounded by a "Bible Cover," Dante's "Opera," a journal page, and a basin as she is a "Dear Good Little Me" and an "Angel." The second shows Kemble being served dinner by a caricatured African American servant as she is "lying on [her] back" surrounded by "[her] dinner followed [her] thither" above quotes comparing her appetite to "Danaides' tale of credilable [sic] memory" and her being as fat as an "overstuffed pin cushion." The African American figure is portrayed with exagerrated features.[Plate 3?] satirizes a poem "To bed - to sleep - To sleep -perchance to be bitten!" she wrote about the onslaught of insects at night in her New York hotel room. Shows Kemble aghast as she raises her blanket inscribed with the names of New York newspapers in her attempt to get into a bed swarmed by bed bugs, ants, and mosquitoes. [Plate 4?] caricaturizes her actor father, Charles Kemble, as a stumbling drunk "who a little elated made me sing to him" while muttering "To be or not to be that is the q-q-qu-question" in a parlor near his consternate daughter beside a piano above her quote about his "gallant, graceful, courteous, deportment.", [Plate 5?] shows a small-framed "interesting youth" delivering "a nosegay as big as himself" to Ms. Kemble who reflects "How they do rejoice my spirit." [Plate 6?] depicts the death scene from a December 1832 performance of Romeo & Juliet when the prop dagger was misplaced and Kemble improvised 'Why were the devil is your dagger.." as she rummages the body of the prostrate Romeo in front of the Capulet mausoleum. [Plate] 7 " A Funny Idea of My Father's" shows another caricature of Charles Kemble as a drunk satirizing her entry about a playful moment during a walk past kegs on Market Street in Philadelphia when her father joked 'How I do wish I had a gimlet. What fun it would be to pierce every one..." An illusion of a gimlet floats in front of her father as she cowers behind him beside the kegs. [Plate] 8 mocks the horsemanship of Kemble who criticized Americans' abilities and wrote of an impromptu jaunt on a cart horse in Lockport, NY Niagara where she 'got upon the amazed quadruped and took a gallop..' Shows she and her mount in a barnyard being chased by a dog and trampling ducks as she exclaims "Go it, old fellow" in front of her "father and good old D." in the background., Title supplied by cataloger., Published as Sketches supposed to have been intended for Fanny Kemble's journal (New York: Endicott, 1835). [LCP *Am 1835 7196.F]., Four of the eight prints contain plate numbers: 1, 2, 7, and 8., [Plate 5?] inscribed: G.H.B. [P.2006.17.3], Gift of Michael Zinman, 2006., 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., Access points revised 2021., Description revised 2021.
Date: [ca. 1835]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - Kemble [P.2006.17.1-8]

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