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March 11-13, 1863

Wednesday, March 11, 1863.

it being so stormy hannah brown stoped to see me to day my side has bin very troubelsom every since mondy the huctchinsons give a concert to

Thursday 12

night to is one of […] hes one day as one minut it is clear the next it is snowing Nellie and i went to have our Photagraphhes taken but we did not succede we went

Friday 13

to see Celestine I was quite sick all the evening Nellie and i stood for our Photagrapphe this afternoon

Annotation 1

The Hutchinson Family gave a benefit concert for the “S.C. Statistical Association of the Colored People of Pennsylvania” at Sansom Street Hall. The group sang songs about “home, patriotism, and freedom.” Tickets cost twenty-five cents. The Social, Civil and Statistical Association of the Colored People of Pennsylvania was founded in 1860 to combat racism, violence, and prejudice against the African American community of Philadelphia. The association’s membership consisted of many prominent black Philadelphians. During the war years, the association hosted frequent lectures, attracting black and white orators alike, including Frederick Douglass, the Reverend James Sella Martin, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and Philadelphia judge and Republican Congressman William D. Kelley. Octavius Catto and other institution members organized black Philadelphians to push for the end of discrimination on the city’s street cars. “The Hutchinson Family, ‘Tribe of Asa,’” The Christian Recorder, March 7, 1863; Weigley, Philadelphia, 415-416.

Annotation 2

Advertisements for establishments such as the “Photograph Gallery of Mr. B.F. Reimer” and “Mr. Brown” encouraged Philadelphians to have their photos taken. Reimer’s galleries, “where the best and cheapest pictures can be obtained,” were located at 615 and 617 North Second Street and No. 624 Arch St. Reimer. Reimer’s advertisement promised that the photographers made “no distinction as to color, or between rich and poor, but treats all with the same graceful and natural consideration.” Mr. Brown was located on Sixth Street, above Walnut. “Photographs,” The Christian Recorder, April 18, 1863; “Photographs,” The Christian Recorder, May 12, 1864. For more information about the significance of African Americans’ access to photography, see Gallman, “Snapshots,” 127-151.

 

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