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163. Gloria Deák. “The Print Legacy of Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes to the City of New York.” Vol. 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002), 2-11.

Architect and pioneering print collector I. N. Phelps Stokes (1867-1944) assembled a comprehensive collection of views of New York City, and eventually of the development of the entire United States. In 1930 he bequeathed his whole collection to The New York Public Library. Deák recounts the story of his collecting and his resolve to publish The Iconography of Manhattan Island, including reproductions of every map, plan, or view of New York City, whether in his collection or not. It eventually reached six volumes.

164. Erika Piola. “Object, Producer, and Consumer of Popular Prints: A Study of Afro-Americana Graphics at The Library Company of Philadelphia.” Vol. 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002), 12-22.

This article stems from questions that arose in cataloging the extensive holdings in Afro-Americana Graphics at The Library Company of Philadelphia (now accessible through the Library’s online catalog, Wolf-PAC: www.librarycompany.org). With a focus on the Philadelphia area, the Afro-Americana graphics “elicit an informal visual history of the African American presence in Philadelphia from the late eighteenth to late-nineteenth century.” Piola addresses such questions as how African Americans were represented in popular prints and the economic and social motives for producing and consuming prints with an African American theme.

165. William C. Cook. “The Coffin Handbills-America’s First Smear Campaign.” Vol. 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002), 23-37.

Cook focuses on the many versions of the “Coffin Handbills” attacking Andrew Jackson in the presidential campaign of 1828, when his opponent was John Quincy Adams. In its first version, published by John Binns in Philadelphia as a supplement to The Democratic Press, the handbill depicted six coffins. These represented six Tennesse militia men executed thirteen years earlier, Feb.21, 1815, after a court-martial found them guilty of disobedience. As Commander of the Seventh Military District, Jackson had let the court’s decision stand, and his opponents tried to use this to defame his judgment. Cook has located 27 “Coffin Handbills,” including one covered with 184 coffins. An annotated catalog of these follows the article.