Library Company of Philadelphia
We hope you had as relaxing a weekend as the figures in these wholesome silhouettes!
In the latest Imperfect History blog post, Graphic Arts Curatorial Fellow Kinaya Hassane discusses the multiple interpretations of “The Irrepressible Conflict,” an 1860 political cartoon which satirizes Republican Party politics while also making subtle commentaries on race. Read more here: https://librarycompany.org/2020/08/24/one-lithograph-two-readings/
Miss standing in the crowd? Grab your stereoscope and look at this photograph!
Chestnut Street crowded (United States: ca. 1900). Gelatin silver on stereograph mount.
Image depicts view looking along Chestnut Street showing a crowd of spectators packing the street and sidewalks for an unidentified event. A large clock is visible across the street on the sidewalk.
#OnThisDay in 1920, the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, was ratified.
This trade card capitalized on the momentum and popularity of the women’s suffrage movement while continuing to perpetuate Victorian era notions of womanhood and domesticity.
Can you spot the subtle coloring on these daguerreotypes?
1st image: [Portrait of an unidentified woman], ca. 1850. ¼ plate daguerreotype.
2nd image: [Portrait of an unidentified woman], ca. 1850. 1/6 plate daguerreotype.
Stuck inside? Maybe it’s time to redecorate!
J.C. Finn & Son trade cards (United States: Chas. W. Frost, ca. 1881). Chromolithograph.
Image depicts a girl applying adhesive to wallpaper strips and sloppily hanging them on the wall.
#OnThisDay in 1854, Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden” was published. The book details Thoreau’s experience living in isolation for two years in Concord, Massachusetts. The influential text takes on new meaning when we consider the new way of life brought about by the pandemic.
“Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862,” ca. 1870. From the American Celebrities Album.
The Wissahickon Boys Club was founded shortly after the Civil War for children of formerly enslaved and domestic African Americans in Germantown. The Club was the only one of its kind to serve African Americans.
#OnThisDay in 1868, Secretary of State William Seward issued an official proclamation which certified the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Amendment guaranteed citizenship for “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” including formerly enslaved African Americans. It was also one of three Reconstruction Amendments which sought to codify equal rights for African Americans.
This engraving is a ticket for to the “Grand Mass Demonstration in favor of the Centennial Commemoration of American Independence, February 22, 1873” at the Academy of Music. The image contains scenes contrasting life in Philadelphia in 1776 with life in 1876, after the abolition of slavery.
Though he traveled widely and took thousands of photographs, Marriott C. Morris very rarely photographed African American subjects. Pictured here are David Murray and his unnamed wife. Murray worked as the Morris family’s waiter during their visit to Haverford College in 1885.