Object Details
- depicted
- Delany, Martin Robinson
- Lincoln, Abraham
- Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson)
- Douglass, Frederick
- Brown, John
- Colfax, Schuyler
- Revels, Hiram Rhodes
- Kelly, Thomas
- artist
- Beard, James Carter
- 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
- Credit Line
- Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
- 1870
- date of depicted image
- 1870-05-19
- ID Number
- DL.60.2611
- catalog number
- 60.2611
- accession number
- 228146
- Object Name
- Lithograph
- Object Type
- Lithograph
- Physical Description
- paper (overall material)
- ink (overall material)
- Measurements
- image: 18 5/8 in x 25 1/2 in; 47.3075 cm x 64.77 cm
- place made
- United States: New York, New York City
- depicted
- United States: Maryland, Baltimore
- See more items in
- Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
- American Civil War Prints
- American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith
- Art
- Domestic Furnishings
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Horses
- Patriotism and Patriotic Symbols
- Children
- Uniforms, Military
- Reform Movements
- depicted
- African American
- Subject
- Uniforms, fraternal
- U.S. National Government, executive branch
- U.S. National Government, judiciary
- U.S. National Government, legislative branch
- Chronology: 1870-1879
- Holidays and Celebrations, general
- referenced
- United States Constitution, Fifteenth Amendment
- depicted
- Blacks
- referenced
- Civil War
- Record ID
- nmah_324921
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b5-1316-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
