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- Title
- Original & selected poetry &c
- Description
- Album belonging to Martina Dickerson, a young middle-class African American Philadelphian, probably created as a pedagogical exercise, with twenty-two contributions dating from 1840 until around 1846. Contains original and transcribed poems, prose, and essays on topics including love, friendship, sympathy, courage, and female refinement. Also includes drawings, primarily of flowers. Identified contributors are mainly Black elite scholars active in the African American anti-slavery and cultural community of mid-19th century Philadelphia., Contains the following contributions: calligraphed title page by abolitionist James Forten, Jr.; prose on "Literature," "The Album," and "The Year" by entrepeneur and abolitionist James Forten, Sr. or his son, James, Jr.; prose entitled "Perserverance" by tailor, abolitionist, and civil rights activist John C. Bowers; prose, sketches, and watercolors by Quaker abolitionist, educator, and artist, Sarah Mapps Douglass; watercolor and transcribed poem, "The First Steamboat on the Missouri," by Sarah's brother, artist, community activist, and abolitionist, Robert Douglass; essay entitled "Sympathy" by William Douglass, pastor and historian of the St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Philadelphia; transcription from Wordsworth's "Excursion" by educator and anti-slavery activist Charles L. Reason; gouache of a bunch of flowers by A.H.H., probably Ada Howell Hinton, an African American educator and anti-slavery activist; and prose, poems, and gouache by Mary M. MacFarland, V.E. Macarty, Y.J. Grice, Rebecca F. Peterson, H.D. Shorter, C.D.R., and J.F.V., Title from item., Inclusive range of dates inferred from entries inscribed with dates., Embossed and gilt morocco binding., Lithograph title page, "Flowers," containing flower illustration hand-colored with gouache and watercolor., Blank album published in London by Wm. & Hy. Rock., Lib. Company. Annual Report 1993, p. 17-25., Research file available at repository., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Dickerson, a pupil of African American educator Sarah Mapps Douglass, was the daughter of African American activists, Martin and Adelia Dickerson, and step-father Samuel Van Brackle.
- Creator
- Dickerson, Martina, 1829-1905
- Date
- [ca. 1840-ca. 1846]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Martina Dickerson album [13859.Q]
- Title
- The Magnetic Observatory at the Girard College
- Description
- Plate illustrating an oblique elevation and floor plan of the Magnetic Observatory building, the first magnetic observatory in the United States, constructed on the west grounds of the college in 1839 after designs by Thomas Ustick Walter. Labels for instruments are included in the floor plan and include a transit; clock; dew point instrument; telescope declinometer; anemometer and rain gauge; barometer; telescope & horizontal force magnetometer; telescope & vertical force megnetometer; and thermometers. The brainchild of Alexander D. Bache, the observatory was moved by master carpenter James O. Sawyer sometime after 1845 to the western ends of the college grounds and later used as a carpentry shop., Title page to Plates to magnetic and meteorological observations. Companion volume to three volume set Observations at the magnetic and meteorological observatory at the Girard College, Philadelphia (Washington: Gales and Seaton, printers, 1847)., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 448, Wainwright retrospective conversion project, edited., Library Company of Philadelphia: in *Am 1847 Obser 12240.Q., Girard College:
- Creator
- Mason, S. Rufus, artist
- Date
- [1847]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare W383 [*Am 1847 Obser 12240.Q.titlepage], http://www.librarycompany.org/wainwright/W383.htm
- Title
- Gardener's cottage or tenant house
- Description
- Architectural drawing of an exterior view of the two-story quaint residence. Contains a pitched and shingled roof, covered side porch, gabled windows, and ivy covering sections of the facade. Trees landscape the grounds and two girls are visible on one of the two paths to the dwelling., Probably published in J.C. Sidney's American cottage and villa architecture : a series of views and plans ... (New York: Appleton & Co., 1850). The book was to be issued in ten parts, monthly, beginning in July, 1850. The series was never completed and 4-5 parts containing a total of 22 plates by various Northeastern architects are known., Philadelphia on Stone, POSP 89, Gift of David Doret.
- Creator
- Rosenthal, Max, 1833-1918, artist
- Date
- [ca. 1850]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department BW- Residences [P.2002.33]
- Title
- Forget me not
- Description
- Album page with an embossed border and containing a drawing of forget-me-nots. Shows a sprig of red and blue flowers, and red and blue buds, as well as green leaves. Border is composed of ornament details., Title from album page., Date inferred from complementary entries in album., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Douglass, was an artist, prominent Quaker member of the Philadelphia African American elite community, educator, and anti-slavery activist.
- Creator
- Douglass, S. M. (Sarah Mapps), 1806-1882, artist
- Date
- [ca. 1843]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Martina Dickerson album [13859.Q.83]
- Title
- The first steamboat on the Missouri
- Description
- Album page with pre-printed lithographic border containing a drawing and unattributed poem about the first steamboat on the Missouri from the 1838 edition of "The Token and Atlantic Souvenir." Drawing is after Joseph Andrew's engraving of the work by painter John Gadsby Chapman. Depicts two Native American men on a rock, one seated, and portrayed with a forlorn expression, and the other standing with their arms raised in an anguished pose, watching a steamboat in the distance. Poem, "The Indian's Farewell to the Missouri, on seeing the First Steamboat on its Waters," addresses the power of the white man and the steamboat as a harbinger of his usurpation of Native American territories., Title from album page., Date from album page., LCP exhibit catalogue: African American Miscellany p. 45., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Douglass, an African American artist and early photographer, was an active member of the Philadelphia anti-slavery and civil rights movement.
- Creator
- Douglass, Robert M. J., 1809-1887, artist
- Date
- September 25, 1841
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Martina Dickerson album [13859.Q.70]
- Title
- [Vase of flowers]
- Description
- Album page with embossed border and containing a drawing of a vase of flowers. Shows an arrangement of flowers including roses, camellias, pansies and forget-me-nots, in an urn-shaped vase. Border is composed of a leaf design., Title supplied by cataloguer., Date from album page., RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Douglass, was an artist, prominent Quaker member of the Philadelphia African American elite community, educator, and anti-slavery activist.
- Creator
- Douglass, S. M. (Sarah Mapps), 1806-1882, artist
- Date
- 1843
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Martina Dickerson album [13859.Q.78]