Tickling the Ivories

LCP has an enormous collection of sheet music. One could almost say that it is elephantine in size. Amidst this veritable jungle of well-thumbed-through pages are examples of the polkas and mazurkas of the 1840s, as well as twangy hillbilly and cowboy songs, circa 1940. There is a gaggle of Civil War patriotics, sad ballads (“oh if I could only be in my mother’s arms before I die!”), and raucous melodies made famous by now long-forgotten quartets. Some of the earlier works sport beautifully printed and hand colored front covers, produced by the eminent lithographers of the day.

Much of LCP’s music collection is composed of scores for the piano (known in 1840s lingo as the piano forte). Our allusion to “tickling the ivories” refers to the archaic term for “playing the piano.” At one time piano keys were made of ivory. Since ivory-yielding animal species are endangered and protected by international treaty, piano manufacturers now utilize plastics that are more durable than their ivory counterparts. 

Of all the wonderful sheet music in LCP’s mammoth collection,  J. W. Wheeler’s “White Elephant March” of 1884, depicting the forlorn animal seen in this simple crude illustration, has been chosen to be highlighted since it unravels a tale of duplicity and greed. It also has a strong Philadelphia connection.

White elephants are albinos. Most of the white variety actually have yellowish or reddish brown skin. Historically, the lower class populations of Laos and Siam believed the white elephants to be divine. The lords of these countries captured the gargantuan white creatures and housed them in huge stables, where they drank from golden water jars laced with perfumed flowers and were bedded upon gold inlaid floors. In 1884 P. T. Barnum purchased “Toung Taloung” (English translation: “Gem of the Sky”), a towering white behemoth from Burma. He was advertised as the “first and only genuine sacred white elephant ever permitted to leave his native land.”

 Adam Forepaugh, born into an impoverished Philadelphia family, made his fortune during the Civil War dealing in livestock. He became a circus operator, opening a permanent circus building in Philadelphia. During his career, he actually owned more elephants than Barnum: 39 as compared to P.T.’s 36. Forepaugh, upon learning that Barnum was about to introduce his white elephant to the American public, formulated a dastardly plan to one-up the master showman. Six days before Barnum’s Toung Taloung was to appear in Madison Square Garden, Forepaugh trotted out his own white elephant, dubbed “The Light of Asia” (later renaming him “John”). While Barnum’s albino was actually a disappointing spotted brownish color, “The Light of Asia” was brilliant white since he had been painted that color by Forepaugh’s circus workers!

Upon Toung Taloung’s death, Barnum was quoted as saying “I was greatly disappointed in him. He was as genuine an animal as ever existed, but, in fact, there was never such an animal known. The white spots are simply diseased blotches… I can’t say that I grieved much over him.” The term “white elephant” has been handed down to us from Barnum’s era meaning something that has been given away, but is generally useless to the receiver.

Incidentally, Adam Forepaugh died in 1890 and was interred in the family vault at Laurel Hill Cemetery.

Gus Spector

Library Company of Philadelphia Volunteer

Rev. W.F. Johnson: Blind Phrenologist, Abolitionist, and Picture Show Lecturer

Beginning in April 2016, the Library Company will host Common Touch, a multimedia and sensory exhibition curated by artist Teresa Jaynes. Generously funded by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the exhibition inspired by historical embossed and raised-letter documents for the visually impaired will explore the nature of perception. The following is a shared blog post from the CommonTouch website, where in anticipation of the forthcoming exhibition we have been showcasing relevant items from our historical collections documenting the blind and other communities with disabilities.     

 

Camera Obscura! [United States, ca. 1853]. Printed handbill. 11.5 x 5 in.

Picture shows a handbill illustrated with a decorative border. The document will be described from the top of the page to the bottom.  Text reads: Camera Obscura! [new line] There will be an Exhibition [new line] of  [new line]  Paintings! [new line] Given this [blank] Even[in]g, [new line]  at 7 o’clock, [blank] 185[blank] [new line]. In the [blank]  [new line] at [blank]. [new line] At which [new line] Prof. W. F. Johnson,  [new line] A Colored Gentleman, of the N. Y. In-[new line] stitute for the Blind, will introduce to the citizens [new line] of this vicinity, and the public generally, without [new line] reference to Party or Politics, Fifteen Scenes, illus-[new line] trative of some of the features of the American In- [new line] stitution of Slavery, accompanied by some ap- [new line]propriate odes, “The Slave Mothers’s La-[new line] ment,” “Appeal to Christina,” “Un- [new line] cle Tom’s Religion.” To conclude with ten interesting Changing [new line] Views, magnified, active, and as large as life. [new line] Admission One Shilling. [new line] Children Under 10 years of age sixpence. [new line] [picture of pointed finger] Complimentary to Press and Clergy. [new line] Opinion of the Press.- Mr. Johnson, has been a re- [new line] sident of our village, when at home, for some 20 years, during much of [new line] which time we have been acquainted with him. Blind since his youth, [new line] he has, with untiring perseverance [sic], educated himself. During three [new line] years’ residence in New York Institute for the blind, he made him [new line] self acquainted with the science of Phrenology, under the instruction of [new line]  Prof. Fowler. The independence and strength of character exhibited by [new line] Mr. J. in procuring an education, with the privilege of sight denied him, [new line] is worthy of admirati[o]n;  and those who know him, stand ready at all [new line] times to attend his lectures and exhibitions. He has an instructive and [new line] entertaining exhibition. – Ithaca Journal. [End of description]

The Library Company has several collecting strengths and many often intersect and intertwine as in the case of this handbill advertising a circa 1853 picture show presented by the blind African American abolitionist, professor, and minister William F. Johnson. Pertinent to our African American history, visual culture, and disability studies collections, the print represents the career of a man whose profession was comprised of intertwined roles of educator, abolitionist, and phrenologist.

Born free in Baltimore, Maryland in 1822 and blind from a young age, Johnson is most remembered for his revered position as Superintendent of the Brooklyn Colored Howard Orphan Asylum from 1870 to his death in 1903. His earlier career as a lecturer, typically using a camera obscura to provide an illustrated presentation, is often overshadowed by his later calling.

Before movie theaters, camera obscura rooms provided a similar visual experience. Composed of a darkened room in which a light was shown through illustrated glass plates, the camera allowed for the images on the plate to be reproduced in color on an inside wall. During the 1850s Johnson not only informed his audience with an exhibition of paintings of “fifteen scenes, illustrative of some of the features of the American Institution of Slavery,” but also created a verbal picture “without reference to Party or Politics.” to deepen the understanding of their context for their viewers.

By promoting the non-partisanship of his exhibition, Johnson marketed his presentation to a diverse crowd that would likely not have attended his lecture if advertised more stridently.  People curious to see a blind man lecture on illustrations, which he himself could not physically see, certainly comprised a segment of the audience.  Enticed by the spectacle of Johnson, the curious there less to learn about the life of a slave and more to see Johnson, still received a visual, and more resonant, lesson of the injustices of slavery.

Audience members also typically partook of Johnson’s skills as a phrenologist. Phrenology, a pseudoscience that linked bumps on a person's head to certain aspects of the individual's personality, character, and mental capacity, had not only been taught at Johnson’s alma mater the New York Institute for the Blind, but also at the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Massachusetts. Based on touch, phrenology allowed Johnson, an African American man who was blind and likely educated through his fingers, to educate his audience, in a poignant manner, about their personal identity as well as their character in a society that permitted slavery.

Although absent itself of much illustration, this handbill provides a picture of the man, the culture, and the society that fostered its production. The printed sheet implies Johnson’s savvy understanding of the visual and popular culture of his time to facilitate his mission to end slavery through the power of sight and touch.

Selected Sources:

William Hanks Levy,  Blindness and the Blind: Or A Treatise on the Science of Typhology. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872.

1870 and 1900 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com

“From our Philadelphia Correspondent,” Provincial Freeman, June 23, 1855.

“The Howard Orphan Asylum,” New York Globe, June 14, 1884.

“New York and Brooklyn News,” Frederick Douglass’s Paper, February 2, 1855.

“Prof. W. F. Johnson,” The Christian Recorder, July 16, 1864.

“The Rev. W. F. Johnson,” New York Times, October 19, 1903.

Erika Piola

Associate Curator, Prints & Photographs

Co-director, VCP at LCP

 

The LCP Abolitionist Walking Tour: A Digital Humanities Intern Project

As the Digital Humanities Intern at the Library Company of Philadelphia (LCP) this summer I had the opportunity to build an online Abolitionist Walking Tour. This tour is based on the original walking tour students took part in with LCP Director Richard S. Newman during the NEH Summer Seminar for School Teachers. This summer seminar is now available in digital form at www.abolitionseminar.org, a web-based educational tool designed for students and educators. The tour consists of fifteen historic locations around the city of Philadelphia and highlights buildings, people, and events that played a role in the Abolitionist Movement in the United States of America - from the initial public protest of Quakers against slavery in 1688 through the organization of Black regiment training camps for the Civil War in 1863.

Considering that the majority of materials were already identified and audio recordings produced, my starting point was to determine the best program or app to work with. The goal was to structure our materials in relation to a location on a map, which would link the GPS point to the audio descriptions and relevant graphics and texts. We needed something that would be able to clearly connect the present-day locations and experience of Philadelphia with the history and collections held at LCP. I reviewed over 15 apps and potential designs that combined maps, tours, and history - all offering a wide range of services and structures, prices and flexibility. Each app had its pros and cons, but izi.TRAVEL was the best suited to meet our vision for the project.

izi.TRAVEL has a number of clear benefits. First, LCP can utilize it to produce outside walking tours and internal gallery tours. It is exciting to have a new outlet for sharing our expansive collections in a curated manner with new audiences. We can create an unlimited number of tours throughout Philadelphia and within our facilities that can be accessed for free by anyone with a smartphone or internet access around the world. Second, the structure of viewing each stop simply incorporates everything we want the user to be able to experience:  a walking route and directions, automatically (or manually) playing audio, and captions to the associated images with links to their official catalog records. Third, setting up the tour is quite easy on the creator’s end; while there are a few design quirks that I would prefer to make more consistent, it didn’t take much time to upload our materials in a clear format.

Learning about the different ways to organize and present LCP content to users is interesting in and of itself, but I was also fascinated by the information in the tour. In my academic research and previous work experience, I have largely focused on 20th century history, so looking intensely into 18th and 19th century materials was somewhat different. While searching beyond the already identified resources, I found (often with the support of helpful LCP staff) additional photographs, frontispieces of or promotions for relevant books, and original maps within the LCP collections that help tell a more complete story of the Abolitionist Movement in Philadelphia.  I think that some tour stops will be familiar to most people, like the Liberty Bell, but other essential figures like Frances Ellen Watkins Harper or the Adelphi Building, where the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed, will highlight valuable information to Philadelphians, tourists, and history aficionados who are interested in the shifting understanding of slavery in the city and the nation. 

I like the concept of layering history on top of our current experience of place, the way this walking tour can; it allows the way we move through our surroundings to be transformed.  It is important to consider how the world previously existed in the same spaces we now occupy, in part to give us a sense of how we came to this point.  A quote from the izi.TRAVEL website about their goals aligns with the Library Company’s mission: “We believe that every site or work of art has a story waiting to be told. That stories bring art, streets and cities to life. And that stories connect people.”  This tour will provide an innovative and exciting way to experience the history of the Abolitionist Movement in Philadelphia while connecting new audiences to the Library Company of Philadelphia collections.

Kate Philipson, 2015 Summer Digital Humanities Intern

From Common Touch : The Hostetler Family of Blind Musicians

Beginning in April 2016, the Library Company will host Common Touch, a multimedia and sensory exhibition curated by artist Teresa Jaynes. Generously funded by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the exhibition inspired by historical embossed and raised-letter documents for the visually impaired will explore the nature of perception. The following is a shared blog post from the CommonTouch website, where in anticipation of the forthcoming exhibition we have been showcasing relevant items from our historical collections documenting the blind and other communities with disabilities.     

Picture shows one woman and three men, seated next to each other, and holding instruments. The woman holds an accordion in her lap and she looks slightly down. To her left is a man, his eyes closed, who holds a viola perpendicular to his lap with one hand and a bow in his other. To his left is a man resting a cello between his legs. He holds a bow across the base of the cello with his right hand. To his left is the last man, his eyes closed, who holds a violin by his left shoulder and a raised bow in in his right hand. The woman, as well as the man who holds a cello, wear glasses. The woman wears a dark dash colored corseted dress with long sleeves and a long skirt. The men, who look toward the viewer, are bearded and wear dark dash colored suits.  [End of description]

 This circa 1866 carte-de-visite photograph of the musical Hostetler family represents a thread in the seams of the complex history of the representation of blind musicians in popular culture. Known in their local Fayette County, Pennsylvania newspapers as the “Blind Family,” the Hostetler siblings Catherine (1835-1890), Bartholomew (1845-1908), Jesse Samuel (1842-1923), and John Hostetler (1829-1911) were five of eight children born to their parents blind or visually impaired. The Hostetlers traveled throughout Western Pennsylvania performing in churches, schoolhouses, and the like, and by the early 1870s, were managed by their agent Prof. Buchinal.

The siblings appear to have received no formal music training. Nonetheless, such instruction was often strongly advocated by 19th-century educators of the blind, like Samuel G. Howe.  Howe, director of Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts, strongly urged music education over handicrafts for his students. In 1833 he wrote “The accuracy of the ear gives to blind persons a very great advantage in music; they depend entirely upon it; …” This rationale supported his stance that playing and teaching music necessarily provided the blind with a more realizable livelihood based in excellence than handicrafts. For Howe, the sighted could not help but excel in the latter trades, but not so in music.

With music and public performance as their profession, the possibility of the Hostetlers’ exploitation cannot be overlooked. This most respectfully posed portrait could still be seen as an object of curiosity at the time it was taken as well as today. Did those who acquired the image want it as a souvenir of the singing talents of the Hostetlers or the novelty of a blind family of singers?  Such questions raised by the photograph cannot help but challenge the viewer about their understanding of the role that music played in the education, portrayal, and life of individuals who were blind in the 19th century.    

 
Erika Piola
Associate Curator, Prints and Photographs
Co-Director, VCP at LCP