Mar 31, 2016 - Sale 2408

Sale 2408 - Lot 249

Price Realized: $ 531
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(EDUCATION.) DONALDSON, ARTHUR. Arthur Donaldson's New Year's Gift To His Scholars. Letterpress poetic broadside printed in two columns with an American eagle at the top of the sheet; within a floral woodcut boarder, 13-1/2 x 7-3/4 inches; creases where folded; tiny hole at the conjunction of folds; some staining, paper evenly toned. Philadelphia, circa 1815--1825
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Additional Details

In 1813 Philadelphia had 8 schools serving 414 African American and Haitian students. At least one of them, possibly more was run by a white educator named Arthur Donaldson. According to his printed petition dated 1810, seeking funds for the erection of a proper schoolhouse, Arthur Donaldson opened his school "for the tuition of Children of Colour of both sexes," as well as an afternoon "First day school [. . . ] for the instruction of grown people of Colour of both sexes." Donaldson, a white man, described himself as "well-wisher" to the African race. The poem itself is somewhat autobiographical, recounting his own past sins and salvation. Donaldson was the author/publisher of a short-lived periodical, The Juvenile Messenger (1811-1813) and The Orthographic (1814). Unrecorded: no copies at Library Company, or OCLC.