Search results

Title: The meeting of the Friends. City Hall Park
Description: Cartoon portraying a distorted version of events surrounding New York Governor Horatio Seymour's "My Friend's" speech during the Draft Riots of 1863 when several African Americans were killed by working-class rioters. Portrays Seymour on the steps of City Hall in front of a riotous mob composed primarily of armed Irish-Americans who march past the building for "The Tribune," an anti-Seymour newspaper. Supporting Seymour from behind are a fool with a cap inscribed "Express" (i.e., a Pro-Seymour newspaper), and former Mayor Fernando Wood and Tammany boss Peter B. Sweeny, both "Copperhead" Democrats who advocated peaceful settlement with the South and who believed Republican philanthropy favored African Americans at the expense of working-class whites. Seymour placates the mob announcing that he is their friend and that he has ordered the President to stop the draft. At his feet is an African American with a noose around his neck. A white man holds the severed head of an African American man, and several more African Americans are seen hanging from trees in the background., Probably drawn by Henry L. Stephens., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Place of publication supplied by Reilly., Text printed below image: A friendly voice.—Governor, we want you to stay here. Horatio Seymour.—I am going to stay here, “My Friends.” Second Rioter.—Faith, and the Governor will stay by us. Horatio Seymour.—I am your “Friend,” and the “Friend” of your families. Third Rioter.—Arrah, Jemmy, and who said he cared about the “Dirty Nagurs”? Fourth Rioter.—How about the draft, Saymere? Governor.—I have ordered the President to stop the draft! Chorus.—Be Jabers, he’s a “Broth of a Boy.”, RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War., 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: [1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1863-12 [P.2275.11]

Title: Practical illustration of the Virginia Constitution White man the bottom rail
Description: Cartoon promoting racist fears of the effects of equal rights for African Americans under Virginia's reconstructed constitution by portraying two captioned scenes where African Americans have power over white people. The first, a "Mixed School System," depicts a desegregated classroom in which a seated African American man teacher spanks a white boy as other students witness the punishment. The second scene, a "Negro Court and Jury," depicts an African American man attorney questioning a white woman witness in front of an integrated jury and audience including an African American spectator slumped over asleep in the front row of seats., Title from item., Date of publication inferred from content., Purchase 1969., RVCDC, 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.
Date: [1868]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1868 Pra [7814.F]

Title: Slaves concealing their master from a search party
Description: Proslavery print depicting an enslaved African American family hiding their white man enslaver in their cabin from a Union search party on horseback. The enslaver, holding a pistol, hides behind the open door from which the mother, her chair turned over behind her, misdirects the search party down the road. Near the hearth, an older son holds a skillet defensively as a younger petrified sibling holds unto him for protection., Inscribed upper left corner: 12., Issued as plate 12 in Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), a series of pro-Confederacy cartoons drawn and published by Baltimore cartoonist Adalbert John Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada. The "first issue" of 10 prints (numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24), with imprint "London, 1863" were printed as etchings. The remaining 20 prints (numbered 4, 8, 9-11, 14, 17-20, 23, 25-27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 40, 45) headed "Second and third issues of V. Blada's war sketches" and dated "London, July 30, 1864" were printed as lithographs., Title and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Research file about artist available at repository., Accessioned 1935., RVCDC, 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.
Creator: Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
Date: [1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Volck - Sketches - Volck 12 [2990.F.3]

Title: Worship of the North
Description: Graphic cartoon steeped in Confederate bitterness toward the "Republican" North depicting a scene of Northern idolatry of the African American. Worshippers near a mound of skulls surround a blood-stained altar upon which lies the shackled sacrificed body of American youth. The altar, with a bust of Lincoln dressed as a clown overhead, is constructed from Northern principles such as "Puritanism," "Free Love," and "Negro Worship." Behind the altar an African American man idol, barefoot and bare-chested and portrayed in racist caricature, sits upon the "Chicago Platform." Near the idol stands the statue of "St. Ossawattomi" (i.e., John Brown). The worshippers include General Scott, General Halleck and a loot-laden General Butler, as well as Secretary Edwin Stanton, John Fremont, a knife wielding Henry Ward Beecher, a torch carrying Charles Sumner, Horace Greeley with a censer, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, praying and kneeling atop a volume of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Printed in the top corners is "Ego.", Published in: Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), pl. 1., Issued as plate 1 in Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), a series of pro-Confederacy cartoons drawn and published by Baltimore cartoonist Adalbert John Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada. The "first issue" of 10 prints (numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24), with imprint "London, 1863" were printed as etchings. The remaining 20 prints (numbered 4, 8, 9-11, 14, 17-20, 23, 25-27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 40, 45) headed "Second and third issues of V. Blada's war sketches" and dated "London, July 30, 1864" were printed as lithographs., Title and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Accessioned 1979., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War., 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., Aldabert Volck (1828-1912), i.e., V. Blada, was a prominent Southern cartoonist from Baltimore who is best known for his 1863 work "Sketches from the Civil War," later republished circa 1886 by Porter & Coates in Philadelphia under the title "Confederate War Etchings."
Creator: Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
Date: [1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1863 - Wor [P.2275.6]

Title: Enlistment of Sickles brigade
Description: Caustic satire depicting the enlistment by notorious New York Congressman Colonel Daniel Sickles of recruits from offices near New York's crime-ridden Five Points area. The congested scene depicts several men, including African American men, clustered on a city street near a liquor store. In the left, Sickles, unwigged, stands above the crowd, and holds out Bibles in each hand. In the right above the crowd, "Mrs. Higby," wife of a New York clergyman, hands out pipes to the men (an allusion to Sickles's men being given pipes and Bibles for enlisting). A sign near Sickles reads "The Capital in danger. Sickles Brigade to the Rescue!!" A sign near Mrs. Higby reads "Pipes for the noble saviors of their country by Mrs. Higby." The "enlisting" men wear torn, worn, and patched uniforms or street clothes and hold picket signs, guns, and clubs. Within the crowd, a pit bull terrier and a white boy watch the melee, which includes a white man, attired in a uniform and a "Colonel Sickles Brigade" cap, offering an African American man a medal, who scratches his head, next to another African American man, attired in uniform and portrayed in racist caricature, and seated on a barrel. A few years before the war in 1859, Sickles gained notoriety for murdering Philip Barton Key II for having an affair with his wife Teresa Bagioli. He was acquitted based on the first successful use of the insanity defense in the U.S., Inscribed upper left corner: 6., Issued as plate 6 in Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), a series of pro-Confederacy cartoons drawn and published by Baltimore cartoonist Adalbert John Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada. The "first issue" of 10 prints (numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24), with imprint "London, 1863" were printed as etchings. The remaining 20 prints (numbered 4, 8, 9-11, 14, 17-20, 23, 25-27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 40, 45) headed "Second and third issues of V. Blada's war sketches" and dated "London, July 30, 1864" were printed as lithographs., Tile and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Research file about artist available at repository., Accessioned 1935., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator: Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
Date: [1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Volck - Sketches - Volck 6 [2990.F.23]

Main menu