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Title: [Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning family photographs]
Description: Collection of portrait photographs of members of the African American family, possibly compiled by Mary “Mose” Venning. Includes snapshots, studio portraits, and tintypes of men, women, and children, depicted individually and as groups. Settings include residential interiors and exteriors, including stoops and back porches; the beachfront; a school yard; and military grounds. Other photographs depict Lillie Gertrude Capps Adams in a formal white dress (dated 1903), a young man in a ship’s captain’s uniform, a series of different poses with two women and a man attired for tennis in front of a summer house; and an exterior view of the dental office of “Dr. A. T. Capps.” Several images also include studio backdrops and props; animals, including a bird, dogs, and horses; and automobiles., Sitters include Lillie “Buzz” Venning Dickerson; Martha “Mattie” Venning Bowie; Mary ‘Mose” Venning; Richard DeReef Venning; and Julia Capps Venning., Title supplied by cataloger., Accompanied by black leather binder., Few of the photographs contain manuscript notes on verso., Manuscript note on verso of P.2012.37.3.19: Dear Sister - busy with exams and haven’t time to answer your letter. Time is growing very short and the men are being sent home in large numbers. All are well and hope the same of you. Percy? Regards to you and kids. This is the target range., Various photographers, including Philadelphia photographers Bell's Studio, Mitchell Studio, The Bailey Studios, and Henrici & Withers., See LCP AR [Annual Report] 1991 p. 26-31., Gift of descendants Cordelia H. Brown, Lillie V. Dickerson, Mary Hinkson Jackson, and Georgine E. Willis in honor of Phil Lapsansky., See LCP exhibit catalogue: African American Miscellany p. 45., Genealogical charts available at repository., 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. 1895 - ca. 1955]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning Collection [P.2012.37.3]

Title: [Portrait of an unidentified couple.]
Description: She is holding an unopened book in her right hand. He is holding his eyeglasses in his left hand. Hand colored very pale pink on cheeks of both sitters., Cased photographs retrospective conversion project., Pad: Purple velvet. Large scrolled border. Embossed: S. G. Hewes., Mat: Elliptical., Case: Leather. Spray of mixed flowers within a nonpareil-like border. No design on verso., See 2000 LCP Annual Report, pp. 59-60., Reproduced in Sally Hewes, Female Daguerreotypist by Sarah J. Weatherwax in The Daguerreian Annual, 2002-2003, page 24., Reproduced in More Than "An Elegant Accomplishment": Sarah Garrett Hewes and Pennsylvania's Early Female Photographers by Sarah J. Weatherwax in Pennsylvania History, Autumn 2014, page 438. Reproduced in Samuel Broadbent, Daguerreian Artist in The Daguerreian Annual, 2001, page 142.
Creator: Hewes, Sally Garrett, d. 1853, photographer
Date: ca. 1850
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Cased photos [P.9833]

Title: [Bootmaker with a boot on the table beside him.]
Description: Hand colored pink on cheeks., Cased photographs retrospective conversion project., Pad: Faded red velvet. Embossed in center Reimer 617 N. 2nd St. Philada. Fancy scroll work all around., Mat: Oval., Case: Leather. Geometric design in center surrounded by fancy scrolls and swirls. Same design on verso.
Creator: Reimer, Benjamin, 1826-1899, photographer
Date: ca. 1858
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Cased photos [P.2003.23]

Title: [Portrait of an unidentified, bearded man, head tilted slightly to his left.]
Description: Hand colored pink on cheeks., Cased photographs retrospective conversion project., Mat: Ornamented oval. Photographer's imprint stamped on mat: Germon. 702 Chest. St. Phila., Case: Leather. Lacking cover. Small urn on a pedestal in the center surrounded by ornate scrolls and swirls.
Creator: Germon, W. L. (Washington Lafayette), 1822-1877, photographer
Date: ca. 1860
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Cased photos [P.8504.1]

Title: [Elsie Todd]
Description: Portrait of an elderly Todd in Quaker dress. She wears eye glasses and a high white bonnet., Cased photographs retrospective conversion project., Pad: Very dark faded purple velvet., Mat: Paper. Ornamented octagonal., Case: Leather. Within a double oval is one large open flower surrounded by scrolls. No design on verso. Manuscript note inside case reads: Elsie Todd ask Cousin Lydia., Reproduced in "The Ties That Bind: Daguerreotypes and the Roberts and Thompson Families" by Sarah Weatherwax in The Daguerreian Annual 1999 (Pittsburgh, Pa.: The Daguerreian Society, 1999) p. 212. See also the Board Report for January 20, 1998.
Date: ca. 1845
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Cased photos [P.9562.8]

Title: Algernon Roberts, 1828-1868. Age about 21. Pencoyd
Description: Seated, waist-length portrait of Roberts, well coiffed, wearing a big black bowtie. His left arm is resting on a table. Pencoyd was the Roberts Family estate near Philadelphia., Cased photographs retrospective conversion project., Pad: Dark purple velvet., Mat: Oval., Case: Leather. It is shaped like a book and is similar to Fig. 41 in American Miniature Case Art by Floyd and Marion Rinhart (Cranbury, New Jersey: A.S. Barnes and Co., Inc., 1969.) The case manufacturer is identified as H.A. Eichmeyer of Philadelphia., Attributed to Simons based on entry in Robert's diary dated September 4, 1848 (HSP, Roberts Family Papers #2087) that reads: Had my daguerreotype taken with Sidney for Uncle George at Simmons [sic] ....He took us in a sitting posture., Reproduced in "The Ties That Bind: Daguerreotypes and the Roberts and Thompson Families" by Sarah Weatherwax in The Daguerreian Annual 1999 (Pittsburgh, Pa.: The Daguerreian Society, 1999) p. 210. See also the Board Report for January 20, 1998.
Creator: Simons, M. P. (Montgomery P.), photographer
Date: September 4, 1848
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Cased photos [P.9562.5]

Title: [Unidentified African American man with a dog]
Description: Full-length portrait of an African American man, wearing a mustache and attired in a white collared shirt, a waistcoat, a jacket, a riding coat, and pants, standing in front of a backdrop adorned with ornate decorative columns. He holds a walking stick, crosses his right leg over his left, and leans on a balustrade on which a top hat rests. A white and brown spaniel dog lies in the foreground., Photographer's imprint printed on verso., Title supplied by cataloger., Purchase 2001., 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., Parlor Gallery, operated by Lewis Horning, was in business at 523 South 9th Street from around 1876 until 1885.
Creator: Parlor Gallery (Firm), photographer
Date: [ca. 1880]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cabinet card portraits - photographer - Parlor [P.9981.7]

Title: [Stevens-Cogdell and Sanders-Venning family portrait collection]
Description: Primarily studio portraits and snapshots of members of the Venning line of the middle-class Philadelphia African American family descended from the 19th-century white South Carolinian Richard Walpole Cogdell (1787-1866), and Sarah Martha Sanders (1815-1850), a Black enslaved woman. Includes professionally photographed group portraits depicting the family's participation in the Philadelphia African American music community of the early 20th century, including: the Mendelssohn Singing Society; Sid Stratton's Orchestra; the Treble Clef Mandolin and Guitar Club; and the Soap Box Social, a minstrel club associated with the African American political club, Citizen's Republican Club. Other formal portraiture includes the graduation portrait for the South Philadelphia High School for Girls class of 1921, including Lillie Venning and contralto Marian Anderson, and a group portrait of the Citizens Republican Club (ca. 1910). Collection also contains studio portraits and snaphots photographed during family summer excursions to Pleasantville and Atlantic City, New Jersey; portraits of family friends and family members through marriage; silhouettes of members of the Cogdell family cut by Master Hankes, i.e., Jarvis F. Hanks (ca. 1828); and an album (ca. 1860-ca. 1913) containing portraits of members of the Venning family and of unidentified sitters., Sitters include members from the Cogdell family, the Venning family, the Capps family, and the Saunders family. Cogdell family members include: Cecilia Cogdell, wife of Richard Walpole Cogdell, and three of their sons - James Gordon Cogdell, George Burgess Cogdell, and John Walpole Cogdell. Venning family members include: Richard Cogdell and Sarah Sanders' daughter, Julia Sanders Venning, her husband Edward Y. Venning (a contractor), and his brother, Richard DeReef Venning (a government clerk). Julia Sanders Venning and Edward Y. Venning's children - Louise Sanders Venning, Miranda Cogdell Venning (a school principal), Oliver Casey Venning (family historian), George Edward Venning (postal worker), Sarah (Sallie) Venning (Holden) (substitute teacher), and her husband William B. Holden (caterer). George Edward Venning and Julia Capps Venning's children - Mary Venning, Martha Venning (Bowie), and her husband Charles Bowie. Capps family members include: Julia Capps Venning's father Augustus Capps (butler), and her siblings, Lillie Capps Adams (educator/musician), Oscar Capps (post office clerk), Adolphus Capps (an undertaker), Berkley Capps (bellman), and Meta Capps (Thomas). Other sitters include family members George Saunders; Agnes Saunders; Georgine Rex Saunders (Chew); Mary Saunders (Patterson) (soprano and music instructor of Marian Anderson); Susan Saunders (Williams); Richard Sanders Chew; and Charles Sanders Chew; and acquaintances African American bibliophile and Tribune columnist William C. Bolivar, African American undertaker Joseph Seth, and Mrs. and Dr. Perry., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content., Date of silhouettes inferred from active dates in Charleston, S.C. of silhouettist Jarvis F. Hanks. See Charleston Courier, March 13, 1828, 2 and "For A Few Days," Charleston Courier, March 31, 1928, 3., Various photographers, including the following Philadelphia photographers: Bell Studio; Frederick Gutekunst; H.D. Garns & Co.; Moses S. Hagaman; Charles Hagemann & Co.; Frank W. Harris, Jr.; Miles & Foster; Parlor Gallery; Charles M. Sullivan; and Daniel Slutzky Studio., Sitters identified by descendants, from manuscript notes on versos, and/or accompanying photographic prints., P.9367.32, ca. 1900 pastel portrait of possibly Clara, nurse to children and grandchildren of Sarah Sanders and R. W. Cogdell, after ca. 1875 tintype photographed by J. Fenton (729 South St., Phila.), P.2012.37.1.23b, Richard DeReef Venning Album, Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning Collection., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 1991, p. 26-31., Gift of descendants Cordelia H. Brown, Lillie V. Dickerson, Mary Hinkson Jackson, and Georgine E. Willis in honor of Phil Lapsansky., LCP exhibit catalogue: African American Miscellany p. 45., Genealogical chart available at repository., RVCDC, 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Middle-class African American family active in the Philadelphia African American political, social, educational, and cultural community from the 1850s to the 20th century. The family was involved in several prominent local African American institutions, including the St. Thomas P.E. Church, Church of the Crucifixion, Central Presbyterian Church, the Colored Institute of Youth, and the Citizens Republican Club.
Date: [ca. 1830 - ca. 1940, bulk 1910-1925]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | PRINT. Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning Collection [P.9367.1-51]

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