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Title: Declaration of Independence
Description: Calligraphed Declaration of Independence displayed during the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. The artist recorded the entire text of the Declaration, the coats of arms of the thirteen original states, the names of the Signers on the border columns, a portrait of George Washington, and various vignettes., The artist's name is listed as W.V. Peacon in the Centennial catalog., Gift of Michael Zinman, 1991.
Creator: Pearson, W.V
Date: Ca. 1875-1876
Location: OBJ 849

Title: The Wife. By Washington Irving
Description: Album page containing an ornately calligraphed transcription of an excerpt from the Irving sketch in "The Sketch Book of Geoffery Crayon, Gent" about the wife as a helpmate to her husband. The sketch first published in 1816 was widely reprinted in periodicals during the 1830s, including in "The Ladies Garland" in 1838. Transcription contains multiple styles of handwriting and is enclosed within a border comrpised of swirls., Title from item., Date from item., Transcription of calligraphic text: AS THE VINE WHICH HAS/ long twined its graceful/foliage about the oak and/ been lifted by it in sunshine will when/ THE HARDY PLANT IS RIFTED/ By the thunderbolt cling round it with its caressing tendrils and bind up its shattered boughs so/BEAUTIFULLY so it is ORDERED BY/ PROVIDENCE/ THAT WOMAN who is the mere DEPENDENT/ And ornament of man in his happier hours should be his stay and solace when/ SMITTEN WITH SUDDEN/ calamity WINDING herself INTO the rugged/ recesses of his nature tenderly/ supporting the drooping head/ and binding up/ THE BROKEN HEART, RVCDC, Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Reason, born in New York and one of the few known 19th-century Black engravers and lithographers, was also an anti-slavery and voting rights activist. He spent much of his career, which began when he was a teen in the 1830s in New York, before relocating to Cleveland in the late 1860s.
Creator: Reason, Patrick Henry, 1816-1898, artist
Date: [January 1839]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Amy Matilda Cassey album [P.9764.25]

Title: [Arabic fragment, a West African gris-gris]
Description: Contains a line of text from the Koran written in a courtly hand by an enslaved, educated, black Islamic priest. Translated text reads: In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful Say: He is Allah, the One and Only! Allah, the Eternal, Absolut; He begetteth not nor is He begotten. And there is none like unto Him., Title from LCP exhibition catalogue: Pierre Eugene Du Simitière. His American Museum 200 years after, entry #5:21., Date from manuscript note on recto: the above was written in my presence by a negro m[a]nding[o] at Leoganne in January 1773 DuSimitiere., Du Simitière, a Swiss-born historian, antiquarian, and artist, traveled and documented North America and the West Indies from the 1750s to 1770s. He settled in Philadelphia in 1774, and in 1782 opened the American Museum, which contained his collected antiquities., Purchase at auction, Du Simitière's American Museum, March 10, 1785., Explanation of translation in Du Simitière research file, Graphic Arts Department., 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.
Date: [Léogâne, Haiti]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Du Simitière Collection [961.F.5d]

Title: [The Eighth Beatitude]
Description: Calligraphic text of the beatitude, which reads "Blessed Are They Which Are Persecuted For Righteousness Sake: For Theirs Is The Kingdom Of Heaven.", Title supplied by cataloguer., Printed in upper right corner: Plate 8., Philadelphia on Stone, POSP 64
Creator: Probst, John, b. ca. 1805, lithographer
Date: [ca. 1838]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *BW - Religion [P.2004.13.3]

Title: Proclamation of Emancipation, Abraham Lincoln
Description: Oval bust length calligraphic portrait of Abraham Lincoln formed from the words of the Emancipation Proclamation., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1865 by W.H. Pratt in the Clerk's Office of the Dist. Court of the U.S. for the Dist. of Iowa., Pratt taught penmanship in both private and public schools in Davenport, Iowa. Pratt executed a similar calligraphic portrait of Lincoln in German and a calligraphic portrait of George Washington., LCP copy trimmed., Purchase 1998., 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.
Creator: Pratt, W. H. (William Henry), 1822-1893, lithographer
Date: 1865
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Lincoln [P.9626]

Title: Soldiers Home in the city of Philadelphia. This certifies that [Charles Macalester] having contributed the sum of [fifty] dollars is constituted a [life] member of the Soldiers Home. Philada
Description: Certificate containing an allegorical scene depicting a central, winged female figure, seated, and surrounded by wounded soldiers and other female figures. The central figure has long, dark hair, adorned with a headband, and is attired in a toga with a drape-like shawl. Her arms are outstretched to her sides. Celestial light frames her head. In her left hand, she holds an olive branch. Broken shackles adorn her right wrist. In her lap, a loose scales of justice rests atop a sword. At her feet, a pair of white and African American soldiers and sailors sits and lies. In the left, the white soldier, a bandage on his arm, sits on a bound volume, near a canteen, and in front of the seated African American soldier. The latter wears a bandage on his head and rests the right side of his head on his right hand. The white soldier holds up a sheet of paper inscribed "Honorable Discharge" to the winged figure. The white sailor sits across from the white soldier. His head and left arm are bandaged and crutches rest by his side. He extends his right hand and holds his cap out to the winged figure. The African American sailor, prone, and partially visible behind him, does the same. American flags, on their sides and their upper poles adorned with wreaths of garland, rest among the soldiers and sailors. Four allegorical female figures, two and two, flank the central figure. To her left, one holds a basket of bounty as the other (behind her) tosses wreathes of garland. To her right, one holds a pocket watch as the other (behind her) shoots lightning from her hand. In the left background, wreathes rain upon soldiers, some in bandages, who march and carry American flags. In the right background, lightning bolts strike an ironclad ship on open waters., The soldiers home chartered in 1862, opened in December 1863, and incorporated in 1864 was an outgrowth of the relief organization, the Cooper Shop Volunteer Refreshment Saloon. The founding relief organization provided hospital care, washing, sleeping, and writing facilities to military personnel, sailors, refugees, and free people during the war. The Soldiers Home was chartered with the mission of "the providing of a temporary or permanent Home for all persons who, while in the military service of the United States of America, either upon land or sea, shall become disable from wounds, or from sickness, so that they are unable to perform the ordinary avocations of life." The Soldiers Home operated until 1889 when the Board of Managers dissolved itself and turned the home over to the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States., Title from item, Date inferred from year organization was chartered., Completed in manuscript on January 1, 1866 and signed by E. S. Hall, Secretary; Ellerslie Wallace, President; and Wm. Struthers, Treasurer., Charles Macalester was a Philadelphia financier and philanthropist. Macalester College is named for him., Gift of David Doret, 2002., For a history of the Home, including the process to transfer administration of the home to the Loyal Legion, see Ferdinand Sermiento, ed., Historical Sketch of the Soldiers' Home ... (1886) [Am 1886 Phi Sol Hom 24755.O]., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Sartain, John, 1808-1897, engraver
Date: [ca. 1862]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Philadelphia certificates - Organizations - Soldiers [P.2002.40.1]

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