Images(55)

Album of Silhouettes

Date1803-1830

Artist/Maker Peale Museum

Artist/Maker James Thackara (1767-1848)

Artist/Maker John Vallance (ca. 1770-1823)

Compiler Mrs. James Canby (Elizabeth Roberts) (1781 - 1868)

OriginAmerica, Delaware, Wilmington (probably)

MediumPaper, ink or watercolor, graphite, thread, and silk swatches in a paper binding

DimensionsOverall (Closed album): 6 1/2 x 5 5/8 x 15/16in. (16.5 x 14.3 x 2.4cm)

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Rumford, II

Object number1982.306.3

DescriptionA small booklet hand-bound in slate blue paper. It has 90 pages. Glued onto the pages are 2 engraved profiles, 4 flatly-painted profiles, and 46 hollow-cut profiles, the latter figure including 2 double portraits. Separate black swatches of silks, black pieces of paper, and the black album pages themselves were used as contrasting backings for the hollow-cut images.
The images are fixed to paper that is black on one side and slate blue on the other. The sheets were cut, folded, and sewn into book form; as a result, in the first half of the book, each left page is black, while in the second half, each right page is black.
N. B. The profiles in the album have been catalogued individually, but this information can be found only in the object file, which see. See "Notes" for an index to the identified subjects.
Label TextBound collections of profile portraits can be viewed as precursors of family photograph albums, convenient, pleasant ways of preserving images of friends and relations for one's own enjoyment and edification and that of future generations. Yet this particular album and a number of others created by Quakers served additional uses as well. During the first third of the nineteenth century, members of the Society of Friends, primarily those living in the Philadelphia area, created albums such as this one to set families and friends within the larger context of their sect, nationality, and time. The inclusion of likenesses of unrelated Quakers and even selected non-Quakers helps illustrate these albums' broader functions as emblems of group identity.
Silhouettes were executed in abundance in the nineteenth century (when they usually were called "shades" or "shadows"), but intact American albums of them are rare. This example incorporates images from the greater Delaware River Valley area. It was compiled by Elizabeth Roberts Canby (1781-1868). Inscribed names, dates, and statistics of births, deaths, and marriages enhance the collection's value as a socio-historical document.
InscribedIn ink in script on the cover, running parallel to the bound edge, is "Elisabeth Canbys/Profiles".
On the primary supports of many of the profiles, there are both ink and pencil inscriptions. The pencil ones seem to have been made about the same time as the profiles (or, at least, describe the subjects at the time the profiles were made). The ink inscriptions were added at a later date. (These deductions had relevance for determining the marital status of some of the female subjects). Please see the object file for a complete transcription of the inscriptions.
Markings16 images bear the blind stamp "MUSEUM" and 7 bear the blind stamp "PEALE'S MUSEUM".
One engraved profile bears the subject name "JAMES PEMBERTON." and, below the image, "Nat. 1723 Ib, 1809."
The second engraved profile in the book bears the subject name "JOHN HOWARD, L.L.D. F.R.S." and, below the image, "Engrav'd by Thackara & Vallance Philada".
ProvenanceFrom the compiler, Mrs. James Canby (Elizabeth Roberts)(1781-1868), to her son, Samuel Canby (1811-1875); to his daughter, Mrs. Charles Grubb Rumford (Elizabeth Morris Canby)(1848-1933); to her son, Lewis Rumford (1877-1961); about 1953, to his nephew, Lewis Rumford II (1905-1997), who, with his wife, was AARFAM's donor.