Tag: poetry

Comic Valentine, sent from Charles Colton to James Butler

Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society.

Featuring hand-colored woodcut and lithograph caricatures of familiar social types, from raunchy spinsters to clumsy bachelors, mid-nineteenth century comic valentines encouraged buyers to observe the holiday through mischief.

Creators: Turner & Fisher Valentine Publishers (printer), Charles Colton (author)

Date of Creation: Dated February 12, 1847 (f1 r.); Written Feb. 20 (f1 v.); Sent Feb. 25 (f2 v.).

Place of origin: Printed in New York City; Sent from Charlestown, MA, to Enosburgh Falls, VT

Physical measurements: 2 leaves

Materials: Lettersheet, ink, watercolor paint, trace of wax seal

Process by which it was made: Handwritten letter; illustration made via wood-engraving, hand-colored with a stencil

Current location: American Antiquarian Society

converted PNM file

Information contributed by Don James McLaughlin.

“The Negro”

Courtesy of the Special Research Collection at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

A 1789 poem by Mary Leadbeater praising Edmund Burke’s speech supporting resolutions to end the slave trade.

Creators: Mary Leadbeater

Date of Creation: 1789

Place of origin: Ballitore, Ireland

Physical measurements: Eight-page manuscript booklet.

Materials: Laid paper, ink

Process by which it was made: Manuscript

Current location: UCSB Library Special Research Collections.

Further Reading

Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York, 2018.

Fuentes, Marisa. Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive. Philadelphia, 2016.

Ghaddar, J. J., and Michelle Caswell. “‘To go beyond’: Towards a Decolonial Archival Practice.” Archival Silence 19, no. 2 (June 2019): 71-85.

Hartman, Saidiya. “Venus in Two Acts.” Small Axe 12, no. 2 (June 2008): 1-14.
Schellenberg, Betty. Literary Coteries and the Making of Modern Print Culture, 1740-1790. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Information contributed by Rachael King.

Trilce

A book by the poet César Vallejo, manufactured by inmate-workers at the Lima penitentiary.

Creators: César Vallejo

Date of Creation: 1922

Place of origin: Lima

Physical measurements: 18.6 x 13 cm; 121 pages.

Materials: Paper and ink

Process by which it was made: Printed

Current location: Numerous copies across various libraries and private collections.

Information contributed by Carlos Aguirre.