Clothing & Accessories

Work, play, fashion, economic class, religious faith, even politics—all these aspects of American life and more are woven into clothing. The Museum cares for one of the nation's foremost collections of men's, women's, and children's garments and accessories—from wedding gowns and military uniforms to Halloween costumes and bathing suits.

The collections include work uniforms, academic gowns, clothing of presidents and first ladies, T-shirts bearing protest slogans, and a clean-room "bunny suit" from a manufacturer of computer microchips. Beyond garments, the collections encompass jewelry, handbags, hair dryers, dress forms, hatboxes, suitcases, salesmen's samples, and thousands of fashion prints, photographs, and original illustrations. The more than 30,000 artifacts here represent the changing appearance of Americans from the 1700s to the present day.

This 1850 print offers a defense of slavery in America by satirically comparing it with a perceived system of “wage slavery” in England.
Description
This 1850 print offers a defense of slavery in America by satirically comparing it with a perceived system of “wage slavery” in England. In the top panel, two Northern men and two Southern men look upon a group of seemingly content slaves who are shown dancing, playing music, and smiling. The Northerners are surprised at this scene, amazed to find that popular assumptions at home about slavery were unfounded. The Southerners hope that the Northerners will return home with a new perspective on slavery, but demonstrate their readiness to fight for their rights if necessary. The lower panel shows a gathering of people outside of a cloth factory in England. On the side of the factory, a sign reads, “Sale / A Wife to be Sold.” On the left, a young farmer talks to his childhood friend, who appears as an old man. The older figure explains that life in a British factory producing cloth ages one more quickly, and that the workers die of old age at 40. To their right, a mother looks down upon her three children, lamenting “What wretched slaves, this factory life makes me & my children. Continuing right, two factory workers contemplate running away to the coal mines, where they would only work for 14 hours instead of their current 17. On the far right, two rotund men, a priest and a tax collector, approach the workers with books labeled “Tythes” and “Taxes.” In the right corner, a man thanks God that he will soon die and be free of his “factory slavery.” Below the panels is included a portrait of the bust of George Thompson, a Scottish abolitionist. An accompanying quote from Thompson reads, “I am proud to boast that Slavery does not breathe in England,” although the creators of this print would argue otherwise. It was printed by British born John Haven ( born ca 1817), who was active in New York City at 3 Broad Street 1846-1848. He then moved to 86 State Street, Boston where he was active 1848-1850. He is known for designing maps as well as for prints on Manifest Destiny and prints with political commentary.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1850
depicted
Thompson, George
maker
Haven, Joshua P.
ID Number
DL.60.3490
catalog number
60.3490
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
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
A color print of a galloping horse and jockey. It is black with a white nose and rear stockings.Longfellow was bred in 1867 by John Harper on Nantura Stock Farm in Midway, Kentucky. Harper also owned the famous sires Lexington and Glencoe.
Description
A color print of a galloping horse and jockey. It is black with a white nose and rear stockings.
Longfellow was bred in 1867 by John Harper on Nantura Stock Farm in Midway, Kentucky. Harper also owned the famous sires Lexington and Glencoe. Longfellow’s sire was Leamington and his dam was Nantura. At 17.0 hands, he was an above-average height for a racer, so Harper had to postpone his training until the colt grew into his size. Harper claimed he named the horse after his long legs. His racing career began when Longfellow turned 3. The beginning of Longfellow’s racing career was marked by several unfortunate events. He lost his first race, and then in 1871 before a match Harper’s siblings were murdered at his estate by a jealous nephew. Harper would have been killed as well, had he not been sleeping in Longfellow’s stall. After this event, Longfellow’s career began to accelerate, and he won 13 of his 16 starts in 1871, frequenting the tracks at Monmouth and Saratoga. Longfellow eventually earned the name “King of the Turf.” The match against Harry Bassett took place in Longfellow’s last season in the Monmouth Cup of 1872 where they were the only two horses entered. Longfellow beat Harry Bassett by over 100 yards. They met again in the Saratoga Cup, but at the start Longfellow twisted his foot. He managed to catch up to Harry Bassett and only lost by a length, but it was the last race of his racing career. His total earnings amounted to $11,200. At stud, Longfellow sired two Kentucky Derby winners and became the leading sire of 1891. Longfellow died on November 5, 1893 at age 26 and his grave was the second grave in Kentucky to be erected for a racehorse. Longfellow was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 1971.
Haskell and Allen’s most memorable productions were their horse prints. A Boston based lithograph publisher, the firm seems to have issued more large folio images than small. Haskell began as a print seller with Haskell and Ripley (1868) but a year later in 1869 he began a partnership with George Allen. In 1873 they moved to 61 Hanover St in Boston where they did well until they went bankrupt in 1878.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
maker
Haskell & Allen
ID Number
DL.60.3612
catalog number
60.3612
This abolitionist broadsides depicts six scenes revealing the cruelty and injustice of American slavery.
Description
This abolitionist broadsides depicts six scenes revealing the cruelty and injustice of American slavery. These scenes include: enslaved women working in the field while their children are left alone; a freedwoman and her child watching as their free papers are destroyed by a man who has kidnapped them from the street; enslaved men being whipped and beaten; an enslaved woman watching as her child is taken away from her and sold; a slave auction; and a shipment of slaves being loading onto a ship at Baltimore bound for New Orleans. Above the images, the broadside challenges how slaveholders could see their slaves as people but not adhere to the rule of “Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them.” Below the images, a quote from Unitarian preacher William Ellery Channing argues that keeping a man enslaved is just as much a crime as reducing him to slavery.
The print was produced and distributed by the Emancipator, a weekly newspaper published by the American Anti-Slavery Society. The Society was an abolitionist activist group founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan in 1833, which had gained between 150,000 and 200,000 members by 1840. The Society held public meetings, printed vast quantities of anti-slavery propaganda (such as this piece), petitioned Congress, and sponsored lecturers to further the cause of the Abolition Movement in the North. Its membership was composed of white Northerners with religious and/or philanthropic convictions, but also free black citizens, including Frederick Douglass, who often delivered first-hand accounts of his life as a slave during the Society’s public meetings.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1835
date made
ca 1836
maker
unknown
ID Number
DL.60.3489
catalog number
60.3489
Color print of the yard in front of a carriage shed. Two horses hitched to sulkies stand on either side of a large carriage pulled by two horse. A dog and three men on horseback are in the right foreground.
Description (Brief)
Color print of the yard in front of a carriage shed. Two horses hitched to sulkies stand on either side of a large carriage pulled by two horse. A dog and three men on horseback are in the right foreground. Advertisement for Brewster & Co., manufacturer of carriages.
Description
A color print of yard in front of a white shed with sign: “Hiram Woodruff.” There is a stir of activity as horses are hitched to sulkies. Men ride up on horseback, and two men in formal attire ride out of yard in open buggy with a high dashboard and low wheels, drawn by two horses. Dogs are underfoot. A black stable boy tends a horse. A portion of a white frame farmhouse seen to the right, with trees and grass in the distance.
Known as one of the leading lithography firms of the mid-19th Century, Endicott and Company was formed in 1852 as the successor to William Endicott and Company following the death of George Endicott in 1848 and William Endicott in 1852. The original partners of Endicott and Company were Sarah Endicott (William’s widow) and Charles mills. However, in 1853 the senior partner was Sarah and William’s son Frances Endicott. The company often did work for Currier and Ives and employed the well-known artist Charles Pearson. In 1856 the company was awarded a diploma for the best specimen of lithography at the 28th Annual Fair of the American Institute.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1862
publisher
Brewster & Co.
maker
Endicott and Company
artist
Oertel, Johannes Adam Simon
ID Number
DL.60.3563
catalog number
60.3563
Black and white print; full length portrait of a young man dressed as a woman, as indicated by the caption (see inscriptions). He wears a long patterned dress with full sleeves, carries a purse and a sachet, and wears long drop earrings.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black and white print; full length portrait of a young man dressed as a woman, as indicated by the caption (see inscriptions). He wears a long patterned dress with full sleeves, carries a purse and a sachet, and wears long drop earrings.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1836
depicted
Sewally, Peter
maker
Robinson, Henry R.
ID Number
DL.60.2363
catalog number
60.2363
accession number
228146
Color print, half length portrait of a man (James G. Birney) seated in a chair with his arm resting on document on a table in front of him. On a bracketed shelf to his left is a bust labeled "Wilberforce", indicating his interest in the abolition movement.
Description (Brief)
Color print, half length portrait of a man (James G. Birney) seated in a chair with his arm resting on document on a table in front of him. On a bracketed shelf to his left is a bust labeled "Wilberforce", indicating his interest in the abolition movement. In the far left background out a window are two black men hoeing a field. A column with green drapery is on the right behind him.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
depicted
Birney, James Gillespie
Wilberforce, William
maker
Sowle, John
Baillie, James S.
ID Number
DL.60.3182
catalog number
60.3182
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1839
maker
Childs, John
Clay, Edward Williams
ID Number
DL.60.3329
catalog number
60.3329
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
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1837
maker
Robinson, Henry R.
artist
Clay, Edward Williams
ID Number
DL.60.2289
catalog number
60.2289
accession number
228146
Color print of a large number of horse-drawn carriages on the road in front of a two-story brick road house (Turner"s Hotel).
Description (Brief)
Color print of a large number of horse-drawn carriages on the road in front of a two-story brick road house (Turner"s Hotel). Eighteen of the horses are numbered and indentified in a key below the image.
Description
A color print of a crowded road in front of a large roadhouse (Turner Hotel, Rape Ferry Rd.) filled with carriages and spirited horses. All of the carriages are occupied by fashionably dressed men. The buggies are without tops – they have flat floors and straight footboards. The roadhouse is in the colonial style. A two story structure stands with a large ring in the rear, three dormer windows above, and a veranda across the front. Here guests stand and watch. Stable boys wait outside the barn in the background. The grounds are well-kept with trees, shrubbery, and picket fences.
Point Breeze Park in Philadelphia was founded in 1855 and raced thoroughbreds for the first time in 1860. It was eventually converted into an automobile race course in the 1900s after trotting faded as a popular sport.
Pharazyn was a Philadelphia lithographer and colorist. He was born 1822 and died in 1902. He had offices at 103 South Street in 1856 and at 1725 Lombard Street in 1870. Made prints for different magazines, as well as fine prints for patrons. Created a large colored folio “Trotting Cracks of Philadelphia Returning from the Race at Point Breeze Park” in 1870. The horses are all named as usual in the subtitle, but the artists name isn’t given; this was normal as the horses were more important than the actual artists.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1870
maker
Pharazyn, H.
ID Number
DL.60.3557
catalog number
60.3557
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
depicted
Garrison, William Lloyd
Thompson, George
maker
unknown
ID Number
DL.60.3479
catalog number
60.3479
On May 22, 1856, during the Bleeding Kansas crisis, Massachusetts Republican Senator, Charles Sumner, delivered a speech to Congress in which he denounced the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and demanded that Kansas be admitted to the Union as a free state.
Description
On May 22, 1856, during the Bleeding Kansas crisis, Massachusetts Republican Senator, Charles Sumner, delivered a speech to Congress in which he denounced the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and demanded that Kansas be admitted to the Union as a free state. In his oration, he verbally attacked the pro-slavery South Carolina Senator, Andrew Butler. Two days later, Preston Brooks, a South Carolina Congressman and also Butler’s cousin, nearly beat Sumner to death on the Senate floor with a cane. Responses to the attack in the North and the South further polarized the people of the nation, leading it further down the path to war. Even before he had gained renown as the victim of “Bleeding Sumner,” the Senator had been a strong proponent of abolition and civil rights for African Americans. In 1848, the city of Boston denied Sarah Robert, a five-year-old black girl, enrollment at a white-only school. Sumner represented the Roberts in front of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, challenging the racial segregation of Boston schools in the state. Although the Court ruled in favor of Boston, deeming that racial segregation was not unconstitutional, Sumner’s argument was cited in Brown v. Board of Education, which prohibited segregated schools nationwide.
This print containing a three-quarter length portrait of the statesman celebrates one of his last efforts for racial equality. While Sumner tucks right hand tucked into his jacket, his left points down to a pile of papers exclaiming, “Equal Rights to All … Do Not Let the Civil Rights Bill Fail.” While the lithograph was produced to memorialize the Senator after his death in 1874, it also urged support for the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which Sumner drafted and proposed during the 41st Congress of the United States. The Act guaranteed African Americans equal access to public accommodations and transportation and was passed by Congress a year after Sumner’s death and signed into law by President Grant. The Act did indeed die, however, in 1883, when the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional during the Civil Rights Cases.
Henry Schile, the creator of this print, was probably a German immigrant, as many of his prints relate to the German immigrant population in New York. He founded the H. Schile and Company, producing very brightly colored chromolithography in the late 1860’s and 1870’s and much of his work is done on heavy black paper. He was married to Marguerite Schaeffer (1830-1895).
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1874
depicted
Sumner, Charles
maker
Schile, Henry
ID Number
DL.60.2458
catalog number
60.2458
accession number
228146
The subtitle, “A Scene on the Morning of the Fourth Day of July 1876,” dates the image to Centennial celebrations in Washington D.C.
Description
The subtitle, “A Scene on the Morning of the Fourth Day of July 1876,” dates the image to Centennial celebrations in Washington D.C. This inclusive chromolithograph depicts a black man, a white man, two women, and a child raising an American flag on a rooftop or terrace overlooking the U.S .Capitol. This chromolithograph was drawn by immigrant artist Dominique C. Fabronius and produced by E. P. & L. Restein. Its idealized view of America would have been popular as a Centennial commemorative.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1876
copyright holder
Munyon, J. M.
maker
E.P. & L. Restein
publisher
National Chromo Company
graphic artist
Fabronius, Dominique C.
ID Number
DL.60.2586
catalog number
60.2586
accession number
228146
This political cartoon satirizes the Presidential race of 1856, depicting it as a horse race. In the center, James Buchanan, dressed as a jockey, has been unseated from his mount, a buck with the head of his running mate, John C. Breckinridge.
Description
This political cartoon satirizes the Presidential race of 1856, depicting it as a horse race. In the center, James Buchanan, dressed as a jockey, has been unseated from his mount, a buck with the head of his running mate, John C. Breckinridge. The presidential hopeful clutches his shin and curses at a young black man, claiming that if it had not been for the “Slavery Plank” upsetting his buck, he certainly would have won. The youth stands upon two planks of wood labeled “Slavery” and “Cuba,” a reference to a plot by pro-slavery Democrats to annex the island and add it to the Union as a slave state. These boards are themselves supported by a crate marked, “Democratic Platform.” From his elevated platform, the boy mocks Buchanan, reminding the Democrat that he did not want to do away with the plank of slavery. On the left, Millard Fillmore, the American Party candidate, rides a goose with the head of his running mate, Andrew Jackson Donelson. He holds a lantern labeled “Know Nothing,” the nickname for the American Party. Although he is jeered from the sidelines, Fillmore warns the spectators that “if I'm not the next President the Union Will Be Disolved, The South Wont Stand It.” In the lower right corner, a boy hoists a pro-Democratic sign containing the slogans, “We Po'ked em in 44, We Peirce'd em in 52 and We'll "Buck em" in 56.” The child has climbed upon the back of another man, who turns in disgust and sarcastically replies, “Hello there!! are you a Fre'mounter.” This refers to the Republican candidate John C. Fremont, who is included in the background of the scene, cheered on by the crowds. He rides towards victory on a horse with the head of William L. Dayton. Above him, stands Brother Jonathan, a personification of the United States predating Uncle Sam, holding a timer’s watch. Although Fremont’s victory seems secure in this print, tensions over slavery divided the nation, and Buchanan emerged victorious.
John L. Magee was born in New York around 1820. In New York, he was employed by the lithographic firms of James Baillie and Nathaniel Currier. He started his own business in New York in 1850, but moved to Philadelphia sometime shortly after 1852. He was known for his political cartoons, which he produced until the 1860s.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1856
depicted
Fillmore, Millard
Buchanan, James
Fremont, John Charles
Donelson, Andrew Jackson
Breckenridge, John Cabell
Dayton, William L.
graphic artist
Magee, John L.
ID Number
DL.60.3444
catalog number
60.3444
Although the importation of slaves was outlawed in 1807, the domestic slave trade remained a major economic establishment in America until the Civil War.
Description
Although the importation of slaves was outlawed in 1807, the domestic slave trade remained a major economic establishment in America until the Civil War. Before its retrocession to Virginia, the city of Alexandria had been part of the District of Columbia and served as one of the largest slave markets in the U.S. Towards the middle of the 19th century, a number of abolitionists moved to the capital and began calling for the end of the slave trade there.
This 1836 broadside published by the American Anti-Slavery Society names D.C. the “Slave Market of America … The Residence of 7000 Slaves.” It begins by listing several passages on equality and freedom from the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, several state constitutions, and the Bible, which the reader would find incongruent with the visible reality of the ongoing slave trade in the capital. In the first row of vignettes, a scene on the left depicts the signing of the Declaration of Independence, entitled “The Land of the Free,” and is contrasted with another on the right, “The Home of the Oppressed,” which features a group of slaves being led past the Capitol Building. A map of Washington is included between these two scenes, and contains two insets of slaves, one in a kneeling, suppliant position, and the other running from slavery, accompanied by an inscription, “$200 Reward.” The next row contains three images of prisons in Washington, built to detain unsold slaves and runaways. The broadside claims that many of these prisoners are actually free men and women, falsely accused of being slaves. The final row contains three illustrations of chained slaves leaving the slave house of J.W. Neal & Co., slaves being loaded onto a ship in Alexandria harbor, and the private slave prison of Franklin and Armfield, an Alexandria firm that was one of the largest slave traders in the antebellum South. The broadside concludes with a list of names of Congressmen and their voting record on the issue of slavery in the District of Columbia.
The broadside was issued by the American Anti-Slavery Society, an abolitionist activist group founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan in 1833. By 1840, the Society had gained between 150,000 and 200,000 members. It held public meetings, printed vast quantities of anti-slavery propaganda (such as this piece), petitioned Congress, and sponsored lecturers to further the cause of the Abolition Movement in the North. Its membership was composed of white Northerners with religious and/or philanthropic convictions, but also free black citizens, including Frederick Douglass, who often delivered first-hand accounts of his life as a slave during the Society’s public meetings. This particular broadside was printed by William S. Dorr, who was based in New York City.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1836
publisher
American Anti-Slavery Society
maker
Dorr, William S.
ID Number
DL.60.2397
catalog number
60.2397
accession number
228146
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
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
Black and white print, 3/4 length portrait of a man (Henry Bibb) standing in front of drapery. Beneath the main image is a vignette of a runaway slave (Henry Bibb) being pursued by another man (Daniel Lane).
Description (Brief)
Black and white print, 3/4 length portrait of a man (Henry Bibb) standing in front of drapery. Beneath the main image is a vignette of a runaway slave (Henry Bibb) being pursued by another man (Daniel Lane). The caption below reads "Daniel Lane after Henry Bibb in Louisville, Kentucky June 1838..."
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1847
depicted; copyright holder
Bibb, Henry
maker
unknown
ID Number
DL.60.3218
catalog number
60.3218
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
maker
unknown
ID Number
DL.60.3452
catalog number
60.3452
Black and white print of five men (Martin and John Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, Louis Cass, and Edwin Croswell) and the "Goddess of Liberty" (with her Liberty cap on a pole) standing around a coffin in graveyard eulogising Silas Wright.
Description (Brief)
Black and white print of five men (Martin and John Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, Louis Cass, and Edwin Croswell) and the "Goddess of Liberty" (with her Liberty cap on a pole) standing around a coffin in graveyard eulogising Silas Wright. Martin Van Buren is leaning on a tombstone incribed dates and with his name as well as that of Washington, Jefferson, and Jackson. In the middle of the scene is a large sow with head of a black woman labeled "Federal Pap" and four piglets with human heads identified below the image as "Propaganda, Corning {Erastus Corning}, Dickinson {Daniel S. Dickinson}, and Foster {Henry A. Foster.}" The last three were all prominent Hunkers and in the dialog they are planning the defeat of Wright and Van Buren. In the background is a wolf. Additional dialog and phrases appear on the print. While the print is untitled, below the image is a three line quotation from an antislavery speech given by Daniel Washburn in Utica, New York on June 22, 1848 following the nomination of Lewis M. Cass by the Democratic National Canvention in Baltimore on May 22.
This print is in reference to the Election of 1848. Prior to the election, prominent Democratic politician, Silas Wright, who was thought to be a prime candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, unexpectedly passed away after losing his bid for reelection in the New York gubernatorial election. In this print, five men, Martin and John Van Buren, Zachery Taylor, Louis, Cass, and Edwin Caswell, and the “Goddess of Liberty” (with her liberty cap on a pole) are standing around Wright’s coffin eulogizing him. . Martin Van Buren is leaning on a tombstone inscribed dates and with his name as well as that of Washington, Jefferson, and Jackson. In the middle of the scene is a large sow with head of a black woman labeled "Federal Pap," and four piglets with human heads identified below the image as "Corning {Erastus Corning}, Dickinson {Daniel S. Dickinson}, and Foster {Henry A. Foster.}" Those men were all prominent Hunkers, and in the dialog they speak to how they plan to defeat Wright and Van Buren. Wright was part of the radical Barnburner faction of the Democratic Party, and his loss of the governorship was attributed to the lack of support amongst the conservative Hunker faction of the party. While the print is untitled, below the image is a three line quotation from an antislavery speech given by Daniel Washburn in Utica, New York on June 22, 1848 following the nomination of Lewis M. Cass at the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore.
The artist of this print is Peter Smith, who according to Harry T. Peters, is most likely a pseudonym for Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888). Currier was a well-known lithographer and one half of the iconic printmaking firm, Currier and Ives that operated in New York City from 1835 to 1907. This firm was very successful, and known for their cheap and colorful prints that were easily accessible to common people Currier likely used this pseudonym to publish his opinionated political prints to distance them from his business and guarantee that profits would not be impacted by his political stance.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1848
depicted
Van Buren, Martin
Taylor, Zachary
Van Buren, John
Cass, Lewis
Croswell, Edwin
depicted (in caricature)
Corning, Erastus
Dickinson, Daniel Stevens
Foster, Henry A.
maker
Smith, Peter
ID Number
DL.60.3354
catalog number
60.3354
Black and white advertising print for cigars depicting a horse pulling a jockey and sulky alongside a tobacco field.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black and white advertising print for cigars depicting a horse pulling a jockey and sulky alongside a tobacco field.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
maker
Donaldson Brothers
ID Number
DL.60.3093
catalog number
60.3093
accession number
228146
This medallion, first made in 1787, became a popular icon in the British movement for the abolition of the slave trade in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Description
This medallion, first made in 1787, became a popular icon in the British movement for the abolition of the slave trade in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Staffordshire pottery manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood probably engaged sculptor Henry Webber to create the design of a kneeling slave, his hands in chains, a figure based on the cameo gemstones of antiquity. The modeler, William Hackwood, then prepared the medallion for production in Wedgwood’s black jasper against a white ground of the same ceramic paste. Above the figure the words “AM I NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER” appeal to the reason and sentiment of late-eighteenth-century men and women, disturbed by accounts of atrocities committed on the trans-Atlantic slave trade routes, and informed by abolitionist literature distributed in coffee-houses, taverns, public assembly rooms, reading societies, and private homes. The medallion expressed in material form the growing horror at the barbarous practices of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the premises upon which that trade thrived. Wedgwood produced the medallion for the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave trade, founded in 1787 by Thomas Clarkson, who in 1786 published his Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species. Wedgwood was a member of the Committee – later known as the Society for the Abolition of the Slave trade - and it is likely that distribution of the medallions took place through the organization, and that Wedgwood bore the costs himself.
In America, Quaker groups were active in their opposition to the slave trade in the late seventeenth century. When British opposition emerged in the 18th century from among the non-conformist congregations - Quakers, Methodists, Baptists, and Unitarians – communication between the North American and British groups was quickly established. In 1788, Josiah Wedgwood sent a packet of his medallions to Benjamin Franklin, then president of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, with the words “It gives me great pleasure to be embarked on this occasion in the same great and good cause with you, and I ardently hope for the final completion of our wishes.” Franklin wrote to Wedgwood: "I am persuaded [the medallion] may have an Effect equal to that of the best written Pamphlet in procuring favour to those oppressed people." Neither Franklin, nor Wedgwood, lived to see those wishes fulfilled.
The medallion became the emblem for the British movement carried forward by Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce, leading to Parliament’s abolition of the slave trade in 1807. Men and women appropriated the cameo for personal ornament on snuff-box lids, shoe buckles, hair pins, pendants, and bracelets. By 1807, and before the abolition of slavery in all the British colonies in 1838, many versions of the kneeling slave found their way onto the surface of artifacts made in ceramic, metal, glass and fabric. The representation of the slave in the Wedgwood medallion carries several conflicting meanings. Here we see a man on his knees, pleading to his white masters, and perhaps to God at a time when many slaves took the Christian faith. The rhetorical question, “AM I NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER”, calls for pity, but at the same time demands a review of the black African’s place in the world as fellow human being, rather than a separate species, a status conferred upon them by slave owners and traders. The image of the kneeling slave is noble, but at the same time without threat; he kneels, and he is in chains. He may represent the literary figure of the “noble savage,” and at the same time draw forth in late 18th-century white men and women their sense of magnanimity. Materially, the medallion underscores the message with the figure rendered in black on a white, or in some versions a pale straw-colored background.
Against fierce opposition, and for all their contradictions, hypocrisies, and ill-informed sentiments, the British campaigners for the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and for the abolition of slavery, were astonishingly successful in achieving their aims. Strategies like widespread petitioning, the distribution of leaflets, pamphlets, and printed images, and the production of artifacts like this medallion, established the tactics for subsequent political and social pressure groups on local, national, and now on a global scale. The printed T-shirt, badges, and mugs distributed or sold today are the descendents of the Wedgwood medallion.
Guyatt, M. “The Wedgwood Slave Medallion,” Journal of Design History, 13, no. 2 (2000): 93-105
Margolin, S. “And Freedom to the Slave”: Antislavery ceramics, 1787-1865, Ceramics in America, edited by Robert Hunter (Hanover and London: Chipstone Foundation, 2002), pp. 80-109
Myers, S. ‘Wedgwood’s Slave Medallion and its Anti-Slavery Legacy’
Walvin, J. “British Abolitionism, 1787-1838,” Transatlantic Slavery: Against Human Dignity, edited by Anthony Tibbles (London: HMSO and National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, 1994), pp. 87-95
Date made
after 1787
maker
Josiah Wedgwood & Sons
ID Number
CE.68.150
catalog number
68.150
1987.0005.51
accession number
1987.0005

Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.

If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.