Full-length portrait of the Philadelphia lawyer, orator, dramatist, and president of the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society standing near a side table. Brown is attired in a white collared shirt, a black tie, a black jacket with tails, and pants., Title from printed signature of sitter below image., Date inferred from the working dates of the engraver and the attire of sitter., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of portraits., McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., 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., Brothers Thomas Howland and Edward Mumford, Philadelphia engravers and electrotypists, provided subject illustrations for Philadelphia publishers during the 1850s and 1860s. Edward died in 1858, with Thomas continuing in business until the 1860s.
Creator
Mumford (firm), engraver
Date
[between 1855 and 1870]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Portrait Prints-B [(1)5750.F.59f]
Half-length portrait taken circa 1849-50 of Craft attired in the persona of Mr. William Johnson, a young, infirm enslaver. Shows the light-complexioned, multiracial Craft with one arm in a sling and wearing short hair, spectacles, a top hat, a jacket, a shirt, and a cravat. Craft and her husband William escaped slavery in Macon, GA in December 1848 by posing as a planter and his dedicated man servant. The couple arrived in Philadelphia on Christmas Day, relocating to Boston, and later London. Craft wore a sling to conceal her inability to write, as well as a poultice tied to her chin and around her head to further disguise her gender. The chin poultice was "left off in the engraving, because the likeness could not have been taken well with it on" (Craft, 35). Before publication as the frontispiece to the Craft's memoir, the portrait was separately issued and advertised by English abolitionists., Title from item., Published in Running a thousand miles for freedom; or the escape of William and Ellen Craft from slavery (London: Wm. Tweedie, 1861), frontispiece [Am 1861 Craft, 71339.D]., Purchased with the Davida T. Deutsch African American History Fund., Hale and Schoff worked within blocks of the office of the abolitionist newspaper "The Liberator" in Boston. Additionally, Hale, Schoff, and Andrews were all members of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 2014, p. 37., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator
J. Andrews & S. A. Schoff, engraver
Date
[ca. 1850-ca. 1861]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department portrait prints - C [P.2014.61]
