Art

Panorama of the Army of the Cumberland

The National Museum of American History is not an art museum. But works of art fill its collections and testify to the vital place of art in everyday American life. The ceramics collections hold hundreds of examples of American and European art glass and pottery. Fashion sketches, illustrations, and prints are part of the costume collections. Donations from ethnic and cultural communities include many homemade religious ornaments, paintings, and figures. The Harry T Peters "America on Stone" collection alone comprises some 1,700 color prints of scenes from the 1800s. The National Quilt Collection is art on fabric. And the tools of artists and artisans are part of the Museum's collections, too, in the form of printing plates, woodblock tools, photographic equipment, and potters' stamps, kilns, and wheels.

Culture: African Americans

What Is Love ?

Black and white print of a black man and woman who carry burlap bags of trash? lean across a trash barrel to kiss. Their clothes are in tatters. Two little boys observe from a doorway. This is one of over 100 in a series of comic parodies of popular songs.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black and white print of a black man and woman who carry burlap bags of trash? lean across a trash barrel to kiss. Their clothes are in tatters. Two little boys observe from a doorway. This is one of over 100 in a series of comic parodies of popular songs.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1875
maker
Vance, Parsloe and Company
ID Number
DL.60.3437
catalog number
60.3437

Faustin 1Er Empereur D'Haiti

Black & white print; full length portrait of a black man in elaborate robes and crown, standing in front of a throne. (Faustin 1st, Emperor of Haiti).Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black & white print; full length portrait of a black man in elaborate robes and crown, standing in front of a throne. (Faustin 1st, Emperor of Haiti).
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1852
depicted
Soulouque, Faustin-Elie
maker
Lacombe, Theodore
Grozelier, Leopold
original artist
Hartmann, Adam
ID Number
DL.60.3119
catalog number
60.3119
accession number
228146

Untitled Slave Auction print

Although the importation of slaves was outlawed in 1807, the domestic slave trade remained a major economic establishment up until the Civil War.
Description
Although the importation of slaves was outlawed in 1807, the domestic slave trade remained a major economic establishment up until the Civil War. In the decades leading up to the conflict, abolitionists would use the imagery of the slave trade to appeal to the sympathy of northern whites, spreading accounts of the auction of slaves to cruel masters and the tragic separation of families. These stories were disseminated to the Northern public through novels such as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, articles in newspaper operated by the American Anti-Slavery Society, and the published narratives of former slaves.
This print, possibly from 1858, may have been created as an illustration to accompany a slave narrative, a play, or a public abolition program. It depicts a young enslaved girl, being auctioned off in front of a crowd of well-dressed white men. The auction master raises his gavel, preparing to lock in the winning bid. To the left, an enslaved man comforts the girl’s weeping mother. A trademark below the auctioneer recognizes the print as a product of the little-known “Hudson Del. & Eng.” Above the illustration, a previous owner has penciled in, “The Methodist Church / Aug 10.”
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1858?
maker
Hudson
ID Number
DL.60.3002
catalog number
60.3002
accession number
228146

Come and Join Us Brothers.

Besides freeing all slaves held in areas of the United States under rebellion, the Emancipation Proclamation also allowed for black men to enlist in the United States Army. Around 190,000 African-Americans fought for the Union and made up one tenth of the entire Federal Army.
Description
Besides freeing all slaves held in areas of the United States under rebellion, the Emancipation Proclamation also allowed for black men to enlist in the United States Army. Around 190,000 African-Americans fought for the Union and made up one tenth of the entire Federal Army. Their successes in battle dispelled existing arguments that black men could not be trusted to bear arms. Despite this, they were only paid half as much a white soldiers, were often assigned menial tasks, and provided inferior clothing and medical care. The U.S.C.T. suffered an extremely high casualty rate, and 40,000 perished by the war’s end.
This print, published by the Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments, served as a recruitment poster for the U.S.C.T. In the illustration, 18 African American soldiers look out at potential black volunteers, calling upon them to join the fight in liberating those who remained enslaved. A black drummer boy plays in the lower right. The soldiers’ white commanding officer stands on the left, since black men could not become commissioned officers until the final months of the war. The men are stationed near Philadelphia at Camp Penn, the largest camp that exclusively trained U.S. Colored Troops. This image was based on a photograph taken in Philadelphia, in February 1864, of either Company C or G of the U.S.C.T.’s 25th Regiment.
Peter S. Duval, a French-born lithographer, was hired by Cephas G. Childs in 1831 to work for the firm of Childs & Inman in Philadelphia. Duval formed a partnership with George Lehman, and Lehman & Duval took over the business of Childs & Inman in 1835. From 1839 to 1843, Duval was part of the lithography and publishing house, Huddy & Duval. He established his own lithography firm in 1843, and was joined by his son, Stephen Orr Duval, in 1858.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1863 -1865
maker
P.S. Duval & Son Lith.
ID Number
DL.60.3320
catalog number
60.3320

An Amalgamation Waltz

This print, designed by E.W. Clay, a Northern opponent of the anti-slavery movement plays upon antebellum fears of miscegenation, or interracial mixing, to satirize abolitionism.
Description
This print, designed by E.W. Clay, a Northern opponent of the anti-slavery movement plays upon antebellum fears of miscegenation, or interracial mixing, to satirize abolitionism. Part of series of miscegenation prints done by Clay during 1839, the print depicts a dance in an elegantly furnished ballroom. In the middle of the scene, fashionably dressed, interracial couples are shown dancing. Each consists of a black man and white woman. Along the right wall, several black men ask seated white women to dance. On the left, members of a mixed race couple clasp hands and prepare to kiss. Above these proceedings, music is performed by an orchestra composed solely of white musicians.
Edward Williams Clay was born in Philadelphia in 1799. He originally found employment as an attorney and became a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association in 1825, but he later abandoned law for a career in art. He moved to New York City in 1837 but shortly after was forced to end his artistic career when his eyesight began to fail.
The work’s publisher, John Childs, was a New York lithographer, artist, and print colorist active between the years 1836 to 1844. For a brief period, he published a quantity of political cartoons, especially in 1840, when he published 34, of which 26 were drawn by Clay.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1839
maker
Childs, John
artist
Clay, Edward Williams
ID Number
DL.60.3340
catalog number
60.3340

Practical Amalgamation (The Dinner Party)

This print, designed by E.W. Clay, a Northern opponent of the abolition and anti-slavery movement plays upon antebellum fears of miscegenation, or interracial mixing, to satirize abolitionism.
Description
This print, designed by E.W. Clay, a Northern opponent of the abolition and anti-slavery movement plays upon antebellum fears of miscegenation, or interracial mixing, to satirize abolitionism. Part of series of miscegenation prints done by Clay during 1839, the print depicts a formal dinner party during which the black host of the party addresses his guests - six interracial couples who are seated on either side of the table. The host’s white wife sits across from him. Above the host’s head hang portraits of himself and his wife, and to the far right, one of their multiracial children. From the head of the table, the host toasts “De Union ob colors,” which “gibs a wholesome odour to fashionable siety.” Meanwhile, six white servants attend to the guests and serve drinks.
Edward Williams Clay was born in Philadelphia in 1799. He originally found employment as an attorney and became a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association in 1825, but he later abandoned law for a career in art. He moved to New York City in 1837 but shortly after was forced to end his artistic career when his eyesight began to fail.
The work’s publisher, John Childs, was a New York lithographer, artist, and print colorist active between the years 1836 to 1844. For a brief period, he published a quantity of political cartoons, especially in 1840, when he published 34, of which 26 were drawn by Clay.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1839
maker
Childs, John
artist
Clay, Edward Williams
ID Number
DL.60.3337
catalog number
60.3337

Painting of Duke Ellington

Acrylic on canvas painting of Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, done by his granddaughter, Gaye Ellington in 1985. Ms.
Description (Brief)
Acrylic on canvas painting of Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, done by his granddaughter, Gaye Ellington in 1985. Ms. Ellington painted this posthumous portrait in order to create a memorial that preserved her sense of the creative and loving legacy her grandfather had left her.
In a past interview, Gaye Ellington explained the reasons that led her to create this portrait, even though portraiture is not her usual subject matter: “Ever since my grandfather had died, a lot of people had done art work representing him. They were what other people saw in my grandfather. When I looked at them, they weren’t what I thought about him, and it disturbed me. … A lot of the photographs of him where very serious. I’m not saying he was always happy. But he would turn around in a minute and smile.”
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1985
depicted
Ellington, Duke
maker
Ellington, Gaye
ID Number
1989.0369.444
accession number
1989.0369
catalog number
1989.0369.444

Norfolk, 1864

Felix Darley made this 1864 sheet of signed pencil sketches of African Americans in Norfolk, Virginia, during the Civil War. The city was held by the Union Army from 1862 and became a haven for thousands of escaped slaves.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Felix Darley made this 1864 sheet of signed pencil sketches of African Americans in Norfolk, Virginia, during the Civil War. The city was held by the Union Army from 1862 and became a haven for thousands of escaped slaves.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1864
original artist
Darley, Felix Octavius Carr
ID Number
GA.16635
catalog number
16635
accession number
119780

Professor Pompey Magnetizing an Abolition Lady

This 1852 satirical print employs 19th century skepticism surrounding mesmerism, or animal magnetism, an early form of hypnosis, to attack women abolitionists and miscegenation – interracial coupling.
Description
This 1852 satirical print employs 19th century skepticism surrounding mesmerism, or animal magnetism, an early form of hypnosis, to attack women abolitionists and miscegenation – interracial coupling. A seated female abolitionist is mesmerized by the black Professor Pompey figure, who touches her breast and face, asking how she feels. Her answer reveals that she has begun to fall under his sexual control during the exercise: “Oh, I seem to be carried away into a dark wood where I inhale a perfume much like that of a skunk.” This print uses her dream to propose that whites should naturally find black people repugnant, yet the women abolitionists do not. The piece therefore presents a satirical depiction of women belonging to the abolitionist cause, suggesting their true motive to be interracial mixing. Other formally dressed black characters offer sexually suggestive commentary. A white minister standing behind Professor Pompey laments, “These are the days foretold by the prophet.” This is most likely an allusion to Acts 2:16-17: “But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” This Biblical passage not only speaks directly to the activity of mesmerism, but its reference to “the last days” mockingly adds apocalyptic undertones to the print and the prospect of abolition.
Thomas W. Strong was a New York-based printer and wood engraver who began his career around 1840. His shop specialized in comic literature and he employed many talented cartoonists and draftsmen who would go on to work for Harper’s Weekly and Vanity Fair.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1852
maker
Strong, Thomas W.
ID Number
DL.60.2290
catalog number
60.2290
accession number
228146

Uncle Tom and Little Eva

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in 1852, quickly becoming the nation’s bestselling book.
Description
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in 1852, quickly becoming the nation’s bestselling book. It features a spirited, religious-minded enslaved man named Tom, who is sold downriver by his financially-strapped owner in Kentucky to a plantation in Louisiana. There, his Christian beliefs spread hope to his fellow slaves and enable him to endure the harsh beatings of his cruel master. He is ultimately whipped to death after refusing to reveal the location of two runaway slaves. Published after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, the novel targeted Northern audiences, arguing against the injustice of slavery and spurring the abolition movement into action. Although the bestselling novel of the 19th century, many American were exposed to Uncle Tom’s Cabin through play adaptations known as Tom shows. The immense popularity of both the novel and plays transformed Uncle Tom into a cultural phenomenon in America and Europe, and manufacturers quickly capitalized on the production of “Tomitudes,” everyday commodities that referenced scenes and characters from the novel. These included card games, jigsaw puzzles, chinaware, jars and vases, snuffboxes, ceramic figurines, and decorative prints. Although some of these Tomitudes employed racial stereotypes and the imagery of blackface minstrelsy, most chose to depict the enslaved characters of Beecher’s novel in a sympathetic light, often carrying an anti-slavery message.
The most popular depictions of Uncle Tom were those in which he was accompanied by the young white girl, Eva St. Clare. Representations of their companionship conveyed a message of racial bonding, and celebrated the characters’ shared Christian faith, though undoubtly grabbed the attention of Victorian audiences viewing a very young white girl alone in the company of a mature black man. This print around 1853 depicts Tom sitting with Eva, whom he had had previously saved from drowning when she fell off the deck of a riverboat on the Mississippi. In return for saving his daughter, Eva’s father had purchases the enslaved Tom, and he moves with the St. Clare family into their New Orleans home as a house slave. In this illustration, from Chapter 22 of the novel, Eva reads to Tom from her Bible. Eva sits on a rock under an arbor and supposedly first points to the Bible in her lap, and then as depicted, she points up to the sky. Tom follows her gesture upwards with his eyes. They are having a conversation about Heaven, foreshadowing the untimely death of the terminally ill girl. Although Tom had gained much responsibility in the St. Clare household, even handling the family’s finances, he is portrayed in this print wearing the outfit of a field hand. In the 1852 illustrated Jon P. Jewett and Company edition of the book, with engravings by Hammett Billings, Eva is in a similar position with her hand pointing to the sky, but in that black and white engraving Uncle Tom is demicted in fancier attire of a house slave.
The lithograph was created by firm of E.C. Kellogg & Company, established in 1850, by Elijah Chapman Kellogg (1811–1881), after the dissolution of Kelloggs & Comstock. The business operated until Elijah again partnered with his brother, Edmund Burke Kellogg (1809-1872), changing the company name back to E.B. & E.C. Kellogg. The work was co-published by Thayer & Company, a lithography firm operated by Horace Thayer, who was born in 1811, in Hartwick, New York. Between 1846 and 1847, he was a partner in Kelloggs & Thayer in New York City. The partnership dissolved in 1847 and Thayer moved to Buffalo, New York, and became a map publisher. In Buffalo, he was involved in a variety of partnerships, most of which co-published Kelloggs prints. By 1859, he returned to New York City, remaining there until 1864, when he moved back to upstate New York.
Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) rose to fame in 1851 with the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which highlighted the evils of slavery, angered the slaveholding South, and inspired pro-slavery copy-cat works in defense of the institution of slavery. Stowe’s father was the famed Congregational minister Lyman Beecher and her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, was also a famous preacher and reformer. In 1824, she attended her sister Catherine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary, which exposed young women to many of the same courses available in men’s academies. Stowe became a teacher, working from 1829 to 1832 at the Seminary.
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote numerous articles, some of which were published in the renowned women’s magazine of the times, Godey’s Lady’s Book. She also wrote 30 books, covering a wide range of topics from homemaking to religion, as well as several novels. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which legally compelled Northerners to return runaway slaves, infuriated Stowe, and many in the North. She subsequently authored her most famous work, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Originally serialized in the National Era, Stowe saw her tale as a call to arms for Northerners to defy the Fugitive Slave Act. It was released as a book in 1852 and later performed on stage and translated into dozens of languages. Stowe used her fame to petition to end slavery. She toured nationally and internationally, speaking about her book, and donating some of what she earned to help the antislavery cause.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1852-1856
date made
1852
distributor
Horace Thayer & Co.
originator of scene
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
maker
E.C. Kellogg and Company
ID Number
DL.60.2332
catalog number
60.2332
accession number
228146

Jacobin/ Radical/ Republican/ Record.

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1868
maker
Godfrey, Joseph
ID Number
DL.60.3394
catalog number
60.3394

Bust of Duke Ellington

This bust of American composer and musician Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1899 - 1974) was made by Ed Dwight in Denver, Colorado in 1988.
Description (Brief)

This bust of American composer and musician Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1899 - 1974) was made by Ed Dwight in Denver, Colorado in 1988. Made of cast bronze, the sculpture depicts Ellington in a suit and bowtie, arms in a conducting pose, atop a stylized keyboard.

Ed Dwight began his career as a graduate engineer, was a former United States Air Force test pilot who became the first African American to be trained as an astronaut in 1962. Following a career in real estate, computer systems engineering, and consulting, Dwight pursued art and received a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Denver in 1977. Dwight’s works include fine art sculpture, large-scale memorials and public art projects.

Location
Currently not on view
date made
1988
depicted
Ellington, Duke
maker
Dwight, Ed
ID Number
1993.0032.01
catalog number
1993.0032.01
accession number
1993.0032

Death of Uncle Tom

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in 1852, quickly becoming the nation’s bestselling book.
Description
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in 1852, quickly becoming the nation’s bestselling book. It features a spirited, religious-minded enslaved black man named Tom, who is sold by his financially-strapped owner in Kentucky to a plantation in Louisiana. There, his Christian beliefs spread hope to his fellow slaves and enable him to endure the harsh beatings of his cruel master. He is ultimately whipped to death after refusing to reveal the location of two runaway slaves. Published after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, the novel targeted Northern audiences, arguing against the injustice of slavery and spurring the abolition movement into action. Although the bestselling novel of the 19th century, many American were exposed to Uncle Tom’s Cabin through play adaptations known as Tom shows. The immense popularity of both the novel and plays transformed Uncle Tom into a cultural phenomenon in America and Europe, and manufacturers quickly capitalized on the production of “Tomitudes,” everyday commodities that referenced scenes and characters from the novel. These included card games, jigsaw puzzles, chinaware, jars and vases, snuffboxes, ceramic figurines, and decorative prints. Although some of these Tomitudes employed racial stereotypes and the imagery of blackface minstrelsy, most chose to depict the enslaved characters of Beecher’s novel in a sympathetic light, often carrying an anti-slavery message.
After Tom had been sold from his Kentucky home to work in Louisiana, his wife, Chloe, convinced his former owners, the Shelby’s, to allow her to be hired out as a baker in Louisville. Her wages would then be saved and used to buy back Tom. Meanwhile, at Tom’s plantation in Louisiana, two slaves who have been sexually exploited by their owner, Simon Legree, decide to escape. When Tom does not reveal their location to his master, Legree has him whipped to the point of death. This colored print from around 1853 depicts the moment when George Shelby arrives to purchase Tom and finds the man about to die. Tom reclines against a pile of hay, although in the print, none of his injuries are visible and he appears frightened but healthy. George covers his face with one hand as he begins to cry and uses the other to clasp Tom’s outstretched hand. Behind George, stands a non-repentant looking Simon Legree, holding a whip, the instrument of Tom’s demise, in his right hand. Compared to the dominat and admirably-dressed figure of Shelby, Legree is depicted as a small, disheveled man.
Thomas W. Strong was a New York-based printer and wood engraver who began his career around 1840. His shop specialized in comic literature and he employed many talented cartoonists and draftsmen who would go on to work for Harper’s Weekly and Vanity Fair. This print was the fourth in a series by Strong of scenes from Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) rose to fame in 1851 with the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which highlighted the evils of slavery, angered the slaveholding South, and inspired pro-slavery copy-cat works in defense of the institution of slavery. Stowe’s father was the famed Congregational minister Lyman Beecher and her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, was also a famous preacher and reformer. In 1824, she attended her sister Catherine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary, which exposed young women to many of the same courses available in men’s academies. Stowe became a teacher, working from 1829 to 1832 at the Seminary.
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote numerous articles, some of which were published in the renowned women’s magazine of the times, Godey’s Lady’s Book. She also wrote 30 books, covering a wide range of topics from homemaking to religion, as well as several novels. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which legally compelled Northerners to return runaway slaves, infuriated Stowe, and many in the North. She subsequently authored her most famous work, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Originally serialized in the National Era, Stowe saw her tale as a call to arms for Northerners to defy the Fugitive Slave Act. It was released as a book in 1852 and later performed on stage and translated into dozens of languages. Stowe used her fame to petition to end slavery. She toured nationally and internationally, speaking about her book, and donating some of what she earned to help the antislavery cause.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1853
originator of scene
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
maker
Strong, Thomas W.
ID Number
DL.60.2375
catalog number
60.2375
accession number
228146

The Fifteenth Amendment Celebrated May 19th, 1870

This commemorative print celebrates the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. The central panel depicts the parade in Baltimore on May 19, 1870, the largest celebration honoring the amendment's passage.
Description
This commemorative print celebrates the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. The central panel depicts the parade in Baltimore on May 19, 1870, the largest celebration honoring the amendment's passage. The parade lasted more than five hours, was over a mile in length, and had more than 20,000 spectators. Note the Baltimore Washington Monument in the background, the troop of Zouave drummers, and the African American men wearing Masonic sashes. The central image is surrounded by sixteen small vignettes containing portraits of individuals and events that were influential in securing voting rights for all American males regardless of race. These include four white men: Abraham Lincoln, in upper left President Ulysses S. Grant, a bust of abolitionist John Brown, abolitionist, orator, and Grant’s Vice President Schuyler S. Colfax. The African American leaders in the center are D.C. US Marshall Frederick Douglas, Mississippi Senator Hiram Rhodes Revels depicted sitting in Congress, and Martin Robison Delany, author and 1st African American major in US Army. The surrounding scenes optimistically depict the of expected benefits of the amendment such as a African American wedding ceremony presuming freedom to marry without impediment, a African American man voting, scenes depicting African Americans at worship and in school, and an image of former slaves tilling their own fields.
The brightly colored chromolithograph was created by graphic artist James Carter Beard and published/ issued by the Irish immigrant lithographer Thomas Kelly. It was published in New York. Two sizes of this print were produced; this is the larger version. Thomas Kelly learned the craft of lithography in Philadelphia from his father. He moved to New York, where he established a print and frame dealership and continued to publish picturesque scenes of American life. He is possibly the same Thomas Kelly who printed Catholic Bibles and prayer-books in New York, winning an award for these at the 1876 Centennial Exposition.
For more detailed information about the vignettes in this print see: http://americanhistory.si.edu/Brown/resources/pdfs/unit1/2-15th-amendment-print.pdf
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1870
date of depicted image
1870-05-19
depicted
Delany, Martin Robinson
Lincoln, Abraham
Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson)
Douglass, Frederick
Brown, John
Colfax, Schuyler
Revels, Hiram Rhodes
maker
Kelly, Thomas
artist
Beard, James Carter
ID Number
DL.60.2611
catalog number
60.2611
accession number
228146

Watercolor Drawing, "New Bedford Oil and Lamp Store No 55 Chesnut St."

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1853
maker
Russell, Joseph Shoemaker
DELETEE
Russell, Joseph Shoemaker
ID Number
2012.0106.01
catalog number
2012.0106.01
accession number
2012.0106

Alabama Biochemist

Date made
1947
depicted (sitter)
Carver, George Washington
maker
Heller, Helen West
ID Number
GA.20060
catalog number
20060
accession number
182887

John Bull Makes a Discovery.

This anti-English political cartoon highlights Northern concerns that Great Britain would abandon its anti-slavery values and instead give support to the Confederacy out of economic interests.
Description
This anti-English political cartoon highlights Northern concerns that Great Britain would abandon its anti-slavery values and instead give support to the Confederacy out of economic interests. In 1862 and 1863, the Northern blockade of the South resulted in a cotton shortage in England, and the textile industry there suffered. In the print, John Bull, the figural representation of Great Britain holds a clump of cotton that he had grasped from a bale. He remarks, “Well yes! it is certain that cotton is more useful to me than wool!!” as he strokes the hair, or “wool,” on the head of a slave kneeling at his feet. Two other black man stand in the back left and proceed to cry. In the back right, a goateed Southern man with a straw hat watches the scene with a joyful look upon his face. Despite Northern anxieties and Southern hopes, Great Britain had little interest in embroiling itself in the American war and maintained a policy of neutrality.
Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888) was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and after serving an apprenticeship in Boston, he moved to New York City in 1834. In New York, he briefly partnered with Adam Stodart, but their firm dissolved within a year, and Currier went into business on his own until 1857. James M. Ives (1824-1895) was a native New York lithographer who was hired as a bookkeeper by Currier in 1852. In 1857, the two men partnered, forming the famous lithography firm of Currier and Ives, which continued under their sons until 1907.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
date made
1861-1863
maker
unknown
ID Number
DL.60.3368
catalog number
60.3368

Trubble in de Church

Black and white print; political propoganda cartoon of a Black church meeting. Minister presiding over congregation seated in three pews. A parrot perched on top of an overturned top hat behind the last pew disrupts the meeting (See inscriptions).
Description (Brief)
Black and white print; political propoganda cartoon of a Black church meeting. Minister presiding over congregation seated in three pews. A parrot perched on top of an overturned top hat behind the last pew disrupts the meeting (See inscriptions). Costumes and facial features are stereotypes. This print is the second of two. The companion print, which is not in the collection, depicts the preacher saying 'Pull down your vest."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1845-1870
maker
unknown
ID Number
DL.60.2398
catalog number
60.2398
accession number
228146

Farmers Nooning

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1843
engraver
Jones, Alfred
original artist
Mount, William Sidney
printer
Burton, James
publisher
Apollo Association
ID Number
GA.12804
catalog number
12804
accession number
29209

Slavery as It Is

This colored broadside advertises “The Great Moving Mirror of Slavery,” a travelling panoramic painting exhibited in New England in 1858. According to the inscription, it was on display in the Methodist Church.
Description
This colored broadside advertises “The Great Moving Mirror of Slavery,” a travelling panoramic painting exhibited in New England in 1858. According to the inscription, it was on display in the Methodist Church. Purported to reveal “Slavery As It Is,” this poster contains two preview illustrations. One shows a young girl lying in a canopied bed attended by a doctor, as her mother and a black man sit nearby. The other image depicts a white man riding a bucking horse as three black men and a black woman watch. Headings on the poster advertise, “Scenes in Africa,” an “Auction Sale of Slaves,” and “Life-Like Scenes!” The exhibit also promises a personal appearance by Anthony Burns.
Burns (1834-1862) was born a slave in Stafford County, Virginia in 1834, became a Baptist preacher,and escaped to Boston in 1853/1854. The next year, he was captured and put on public trial, inspiring protest by thousands of abolitionists. Several people were arrested and wounded, while they attempted to free Burns and a U.S. Marshall was fatally stabbed. Under the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act, Burns was returned to his "owner" in Virginia. In 1855, Leonard Grimes, a free black Baptist minister bought Burns’ freedom. Burns then travelled north and studied theology at Oberlin College in Ohio and emigrated to Canada and worked as a non-ordained minister . In 1858, he toured with “The Great Moving Mirror,” using the opportunity to sell copies of narrative of his life to sympathetic anti-slavery Northerners. He died in 1862 of tuberculosis at the age of 28, having never regained his health after enduring several months in a Richmond slave jail.
The print was created by the firm of J.H. & F.F. Farwell & Gordon Forrest. The three men founded a Boston lithographic firm active around the middle of the 19th century. Gordon Forrest enlisted in Company G of the First Massachusetts Infantry during the Civil War. He was killed on July 18, 1861, during a skirmish at Blackburn’s Ford, Virginia, one of the first engagements of the conflict. Little is known about J.H. and F.F. Farwell. The printers were also known as Farwells & Forest.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1858
referenced
Burns, Anthony
maker
Farwells & Forrest
ID Number
DL.60.3001
catalog number
60.3001
accession number
228146

Diorama of Fisk University Jubilee Singers

Diorama depicting the Fisk University Jubilee Singers, based on a painting by Edmund Havel, 1873. Made of wood and paper applied to plexiglass box with electrical low-voltage lights affixed to the side panels.
Description (Brief)

Diorama depicting the Fisk University Jubilee Singers, based on a painting by Edmund Havel, 1873. Made of wood and paper applied to plexiglass box with electrical low-voltage lights affixed to the side panels. Seven female figures and four male figures made of porcelain with cotton or synthetic lower torso. The diorama includes a grand piano and bench, two chairs, and a settee, all in miniature, made from painted wood and fabric. The women's clothing is made from silk taffeta and the men's clothing from wool. Made by Diedra Bell, Washington, D.C., assisted by Stephney Keyser, Falls Church, Virginia, 1994-1998.

From the nation’s beginning, Americans have grappled with who gets educated and who pays for education. Both public and private schools have relied on a combination of public and private funding. Disparities in wealth and political influence have affected Americans’ ability to support schools. As a result, educational philanthropy has reflected inequalities in the American economy and society. Giving through contributions of time and money have both created opportunities for students and increased inequalities among them.

Barred from schools for white children due to racist practices, African Americans in the late 1800s established and supported a wide variety of educational institutions of their own. In the 1870s the Fisk University Jubilee Singers began touring the United States and Europe to raise money for the African American school. Familiarizing white audiences with black spirituals, the group also advocated for African American rights and independence.

Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1994 - 1998
depicted
Fisk University Jubilee Singers
maker
Keyser, Stephney J.
visual artist
Havel, Edmund
maker
Keyser, Stephney J.
ID Number
1999.0174.01
accession number
1999.0174
catalog number
1999.0174.01

First Meeting of Uncle Tom and Eva

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in 1852, quickly becoming the nation’s bestselling book.
Description
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in 1852, quickly becoming the nation’s bestselling book. It features a spirited, religious-minded enslaved black man named Tom, who is sold downriver by his financially-strapped owner in Kentucky to a plantation in Louisiana. There, his Christian beliefs spread hope to his fellow slaves and enable him to endure the harsh beatings of his cruel master. He is ultimately whipped to death after refusing to reveal the location of two runaway slaves. Published after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, the novel targeted Northern audiences, arguing against the injustice of slavery and spurring the abolition movement into action.
Although the bestselling novel of the 19th century, many American were exposed to Uncle Tom’s Cabin through play adaptations known as Tom shows. The immense popularity of both the novel and plays transformed Uncle Tom into a cultural phenomenon in America and Europe, and manufacturers quickly capitalized on the production of “Tomitudes,” everyday commodities that referenced scenes and characters from the novel. These included card games, jigsaw puzzles, chinaware, jars and vases, snuffboxes, ceramic figurines, and decorative prints. Although some of these Tomitudes employed racial stereotypes and the imagery of blackface minstrelsy, most chose to depict the enslaved characters of Beecher’s novel in a sympathetic light, often carrying an anti-slavery message.
The most popular depictions of Uncle Tom were those in which he was accompanied by the young white girl, Eva St. Clare. Representations of their companionship conveyed a message of racial bonding and celebrated the characters’ shared Christian faith. While riding aboard a Mississippi riverboat on his journey to be sold downriver, Tom would occupy his time sitting among cotton bales and reading from his Bible. After he introduces himself to the saintly Eva, the young girl decides to ask her father to buy Tom. This print, illustrating a scene from Chapter 14 of the novel, depicts the pair’s first meeting. Tom has one hand placed on his Bible, while his other, enchained by a manacle, motions towards Eva. With his confident pose and flowing robes, Tom looks more like a classical philosopher than a slave learning to read. Eva, reclining on a bale of cotton, appear almost doll-like. After Tom rescues Eva from her fall overboard into the waters of the Mississippi, her father agrees to buy him.
Thomas W. Strong was a New York-based printer and wood engraver who began his career around 1840. His shop specialized in comic literature and he employed many talented cartoonists and draftsmen who would go on to work for Harper’s Weekly and Vanity Fair. This print was published around 1853 as the second in a series by Strong of scenes from Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) rose to fame in 1851 with the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which highlighted the evils of slavery, angered the slaveholding South, and inspired pro-slavery copy-cat works in defense of the institution of slavery. Stowe’s father was the famed Congregational minister Lyman Beecher and her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, was also a famous preacher and reformer. In 1824, she attended her sister Catherine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary, which exposed young women to many of the same courses available in men’s academies. Stowe became a teacher, working from 1829 to 1832 at the Seminary.
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote numerous articles, some of which were published in the renowned women’s magazine of the times, Godey’s Lady’s Book. She also wrote 30 books, covering a wide range of topics from homemaking to religion, as well as several novels. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which legally compelled Northerners to return runaway slaves, infuriated Stowe, and many in the North. She subsequently authored her most famous work, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Originally serialized in the National Era, Stowe saw her tale as a call to arms for Northerners to defy the Fugitive Slave Act. It was released as a book in 1852 and later performed on stage and translated into dozens of languages. Stowe used her fame to petition to end slavery. She toured nationally and internationally, speaking about her book, and donating some of what she earned to help the antislavery cause.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1853
originator of scene
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
maker
Strong, Thomas W.
ID Number
DL.60.2374
catalog number
60.2374
accession number
228146

L'Imperatrice Adelina

Black & white print; full length portrait of a black woman standing in elaborate gown and crown, standing in front of a throne. (The Empress Adelina of Haiti).Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black & white print; full length portrait of a black woman standing in elaborate gown and crown, standing in front of a throne. (The Empress Adelina of Haiti).
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1852
maker
Grozelier, Leopold
Lacombe, Theodore
original artist
Hartmann, Adam
ID Number
DL.60.3120
catalog number
60.3120
accession number
228146

Perilous Escape of Eliza and Child

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in 1852, quickly becoming the nation’s bestselling book.
Description
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in 1852, quickly becoming the nation’s bestselling book. It features a spirited, religious-minded enslaved black man named Tom, who is sold downriver by his financially-strapped owner in Kentucky to a plantation in Louisiana. There, his Christian beliefs spread hope to his fellow slaves and enable him to endure the harsh beatings of his cruel master. He is ultimately whipped to death after refusing to reveal the location of two runaway slaves. Published after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, the novel targeted Northern audiences, arguing against the injustice of slavery and spurring the abolition movement into action.
Although the bestselling novel of the 19th century, many American were exposed to Uncle Tom’s Cabin through play adaptations known as Tom shows. The immense popularity of both the novel and plays transformed Uncle Tom into a cultural phenomenon in America and Europe, and manufacturers quickly capitalized on the production of “Tomitudes,” everyday commodities that referenced scenes and characters from the novel. These included card games, jigsaw puzzles, chinaware, jars and vases, snuffboxes, ceramic figurines, and decorative prints. Although some of these Tomitudes employed racial stereotypes and the imagery of blackface minstrelsy, most chose to depict the enslaved characters of Beecher’s novel in a sympathetic light, often carrying an anti-slavery message.
In the novel, Tom’s owner in Kentucky, Arthur Shelby decides to sell two of his slaves, Tom and the child Harry, the young son of another slave named Eliza. In order to keep her son, Eliza determines to escape into the North across the Ohio River. Depicting Eliza’s dramatic flight from Chapter 7 of the novel, this print around 1853 presents the slave woman crossing the River in the winter, desperately leaping across ice floes, her son clutched in her arms. As Eliza steps forward, she turns her head back in the direction of Mr. Shelby, who has pursued her to the river’s bank. After her escape, Eliza is joined by her husband George, who is also on the run, and with the aid of sympathetic Northern Quakers, the trio escapes into Canada. In the novel, Harry is described as a young child of mixed race at about 4 or 5 years of age. Strong depicts him more as a child of 2 or 3 being carried though perhaps that was a deliberate infernce that the child was small due to malnutrition?
Thomas W. Strong was a New York-based printer and wood engraver who began his career around 1840. His shop specialized in comic literature and he employed many talented cartoonists and draftsmen who would go on to work for Harper’s Weekly and Vanity Fair. This print was the first in a series by Strong of scenes from Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) rose to fame in 1851 with the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which highlighted the evils of slavery, angered the slaveholding South, and inspired pro-slavery copy-cat works in defense of the institution of slavery. Stowe’s father was the famed Congregational minister Lyman Beecher and her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, was also a famous preacher and reformer. In 1824, she attended her sister Catherine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary, which exposed young women to many of the same courses available in men’s academies. Stowe became a teacher, working from 1829 to 1832 at the Seminary.
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote numerous articles, some of which were published in the renowned women’s magazine of the times, Godey’s Lady’s Book. She also wrote 30 books, covering a wide range of topics from homemaking to religion, as well as several novels. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which legally compelled Northerners to return runaway slaves, infuriated Stowe, and many in the North. She subsequently authored her most famous work, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Originally serialized in the National Era, Stowe saw her tale as a call to arms for Northerners to defy the Fugitive Slave Act. It was released as a book in 1852 and later performed on stage and translated into dozens of languages. Stowe used her fame to petition to end slavery. She toured nationally and internationally, speaking about her book, and donating some of what she earned to help the antislavery cause.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1853
originator of scene
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
maker
Strong, Thomas W.
ID Number
DL.60.2373
catalog number
60.2373
accession number
228146

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