Colored print on folding gameboard. Playing surface has 33 diamond shaped positions arranged in the shape of a cross. The four corners of the board depict knights on horseback; the two on the right are engaged in combat.
Revolving or rotary toaster having an oblong grill frame with four rods (two on each side) between splayed sides tenoned and peened to a T-shaped base; two straight legs at frame ends, while rear leg tenoned into the handle has a small scroll foot. Long, stepped handle, rectangular in section is sockets at end with turned wooden grip and wire hanging loop. No marks.
This 1862 chromolithograph of Union soldiers in "Uncle Sam" costumes, parading down a road in formation, led by a uniformed Union officer with a raised sword. The costumes include striped beige pantaloons, blue tailcoats, red vests, white top hats, and jack boots, and each man carries a rifles over his shoulder. A drummer and fife player proceed at the front of the group the men behind them fly several large American flags. This patriotic print portrays the confident and smiling volunteers as righteous heroes, marching for freedom. The unrecognizable topography of the land across the river suggests that this print depicts an imagined view of either Boston, where the lithographer and publisher resided, or Washington, D.C. Visible in the distance is either the domed Massachusetts State House with wings prior to their actual construction or an anticipated vision of the completed U.S. Capitol with dome. Perhaps the indistinct setting was meant to appeal to Union supporters both in New England and nationally. Initially published as a sheet music cover, this colorful print was also used as a recruitment wall print. The image highlights the shift from Brother Jonathan, an early character representing New England and the Northern states, to Uncle Sam, a symbol of the strength of the federal government. By the end of the Civil War, Brother Jonathan had been replaced by this new personification of the American nation.
The lithographer of this print was John Henry Bufford (1829-1870/71). The son of a sign painter and gilder, Bufford trained with Pendleton's Lithography in Boston, 1829-1831. He worked in New York with George Endicott and Nathaniel Currier (1835-1839) before returning to Boston where he developed a reputation for printing and publishing popular prints, commercial work, labels, and trade cards. The company went through several iterations and name changes until about 1865. He became the chief artist for Benjamin Thayer until buying out the firm to found J. H. Bufford & Co. (1844-1851). He continued to work in the lithography and publishing business for the remainder of his life. In 1865, his sons Frank and Henry John became partners in Bufford & Sons or J.H. Bufford’s Sons Litho. Co. After his death they continued the family business as Bufford Brothers and as Bufford Sons Engraving & Lithographing Company until 1911.
The work was copyrighted by Charles Fessenden Morse of Boston. Morse joined the Second Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in 1861, and was a friend of Robert Gould Shaw, who commanded the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, one of the first all-black regiments formed during the Civil War. Morse fought at Cedar Mountain, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. After the war, he became influential in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was president of the Kansas City Stockyards.
This colored print depicts two scenes, one at the center and the other on the left, from the play The Colonel. The top corners each contain a circular portrait, one of Eric Bayley and the other of Mindha Bayley. Other characters are pictured down the right side and in an inset scene at the bottom, with a peacock and frogs in rushes in the light of a full moon. There are also several sunflowers in the design.
The Colonel tells the story of two imposters trying to get control of another family's fortune. It was written by F. C. Burnand (1836-1917), a British writer and editor of Punch, and based on an earlier drama called The Serious Family by Morris Barnett (1800-1856). It was first produced in London in 1881 and brought to the United States by Eric and Mindha Bayley in 1882. Eric Bayley played the role of Edward Langton and Mindha performed as a character named Olive.
This chromolithograph was produced by Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company and Joseph Edwin Baker. Baker (1837-1914) was a lithographer, cartoonist and pencil portraitist known for an 1860 portrait of Abraham Lincoln. He began his printing career as an apprentice at J. H. Bufford & Co. in 1857, and eventually became John Bufford’s principal draftsman and illustrator of sheet music. During the Civil War, Baker produced political cartoons and lithographs for Bufford. He also created playbills and advertisements for the Forbes Company and marine scenes. Baker later worked for Armstrong & Company, remaining active until 1888.
The Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company was founded by William H. Forbes (ca 1836-1915), who immigrated to the United States from Liverpool, England in 1848. Forbes became an apprentice in the lithography business while still a boy and established William H. Forbes and Company in Boston in 1861. The firm expanded to become Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company in 1875 with hundreds of employees and offices in Boston, New York, Chicago, and London. During World War II, the company became a major printer of allied military currency but went out of business later in the 20th century.
Colored print of a hunter and his dog. The hunter is dressed in fitted red coat with top hat on ground beside him. He is shooting at deer from behind a rock while a man on horseback watches from the right.
This is a wool carder owned by the Copp family of Stonington, Connecticut during the 18th and 19th century. The carding process is part of preparing wool for spinning into yarn. Wool is brushed between two hand carders (see DL*006833.02) to align fibers in the same direction. The wool is rolled off the carder into a rolag and then spun.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Black and white print; outdoor scene of three men standing in front of a gallows with a broken rope hanging from the gallows. One man is tarred and feathered from from the neck down and has the other half of the broken rope around his neck. This refers to the 1774 tar and feathering of British custom officer John Malcom. The American holding the teapot is wearing a hat with "45" ,indicating his membership in the Sons of Liberty.
Colored print. Man is entering bedroom with shoes in hand; woman seated at table with a prayer book in one hand and a watch in the other. The watch reads 3:00. Furnishings include a student lamp on a night table, a nightstand, a Renaissance Revival carved double bed, patterned carpeting and wallpaper. She is long flowing dressing gown over a nightgown and he is wearing a 3 piece suit. There is a small dog in the foreground.
Colored print of a family of quail, a male and female and ten baby chicks. They are surrounded by high weeds and grasses with a white country house in the far background.
Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater world. Romantic scenes picture devoted husbands with their contented, dutiful wives. In these prints, young women educated in reading, music, needlework, the arts, the language of flowers, basic math and science are subjugated to their family’s needs.
These prints became popular as lithography was introduced to 19th Century Americans. As a new art form, it was affordable for the masses and provided a means to share visual information by crossing the barriers of race, class and language. Sentimental prints encouraged the artistic endeavors of schoolgirls and promoted the ambitions of amateur artists, while serving as both moral instruction and home or business decoration. They are a pictorial record of our romanticized past.
This full length colored print is a rear view of a young woman lifting her skirt as she climbs into a coach. She wears a long dress and shawl. Her petticoat and hoop are both visible beneath her dress. A small dog watches her climb into the coach. The coach driver carries a crop and wears a top hat.
This lithograph was printed by John Henry Bufford (1810-1870), from Portsmouth, Massachusetts. Prior to moving to New York in 1835, Bufford apprenticed under William S. Pendleton. In New York, he worked for George Endicott and later Nathaniel Currier. In 1840, Bufford moved back to Boston and started work for another lithography firm. By 1844 the firm and shop name had changed to J.H. Bufford & Co. In 1867, Bufford became the manager of the New England Steam Lithographic Printing Company. He died three years later Boston.
This black and white print is a three-quarter length portrait of Gus Williams wearing a dress coat and hat and carrying a walking stick. Beneath the portrait are the words “American Star Comique.” The left side of the poster appears to have been cut off. A portion of the title (the letter "S") and the edge of another image are still visible. The Opera House performance dates are advertised on an affixed datebill that is pasted on the bottom margin. A torn fragment of a small oval portrait of Williams is affixed to the upper right corner.
Gus Williams (1848-1915) was an American comedian and songwriter. He was born Gustave Wilhelm Leweck, Jr., in New York City, the son of a German American furrier. Leweck set out for the American West in his early teens but got only as far as Indiana, where he went to work as a farmhand. In 1862, Leweck joined Union troops fighting the Civil War as part of the 48th Indiana Infantry. He apparently got his start as an entertainer putting on shows as a drummer boy for his fellow soldiers. He first appeared on stage in 1864 during the Union Army’s occupation of Huntsville, Alabama, where he performed in The Pirate’s Legacy: The Wrecker’s Fate by Charles H. Saunders. After the war, Leweck toured with Tony Pastor's vaudeville group and became known for singing and performing comic skits with a German accent. He appeared in a number of German farce comedies, including Our German Senator and One of the Finest . He was known for writing his own songs, both comic and sentimental. In 1885 Leweck took the stage name Gus Williams. He also worked to secure better wages for vaudeville performers and was said to have been the first to earn 500 dollars a week for doing stage monologues. Williams committed suicide in his sixties, possibly because of health concerns and his declining career.
This lithograph was produced by Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company. The Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company was founded by William H. Forbes (ca 1836-1915), who immigrated to the United States from Liverpool, England in 1848. Forbes became an apprentice in the lithography business while still a boy and established William H. Forbes and Company in Boston in 1861. The firm expanded to become Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company in 1875 with hundreds of employees and offices in Boston, New York, Chicago, and London. During World War II, the company became a major printer of allied military currency but went out of business later in the 20th Century.
This is a wool carder owned by the Copp family of Stonington, Connecticut during the 18th and 19th century. The carding process is part of preparing wool for spinning into yarn. Wool is brushed between two hand carders (see DL*006833.02) to align fibers in the same direction. The wool is rolled off the carder into a rolag and then spun.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Dutch oven on three, semicircular feet with a forged bail handle looped around pierced flat-top tabs; slightly flared lip. Low-domed cover has a triangular, arched handle and flaring sides. Both pieces hollow cast with single gate mark on bottom exterior of kettle or pot. No additional marks.
Colored print of individual drawings of birds who share the characteristic of scratching. Specific information for each bird appears below each drawing along with detailed drawings of their beaks and claws. Title and publisher information are printed in eight different sections, indicating that the print is meant to be cut.