Credit: Library of Congress Media type: engraving Museum Number: LC-USZ62-33937 Annotation: Three days after President Lincoln signed an act abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, the citizens rallied in celebration. This act would be a significant move toward emancipation. Year: 1866

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: engraving Museum Number: LC-USZ62-33264 Annotation: This illustration of African American women sewing appeared in Frank Leslie’s illustrated newspaper, v. 23, 1866 Sept. 22, p. 5. Though only intended to function one year after the end of the Civil War, U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (often called the Freedman’s Bureau), was responsible…

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: cartoon Museum Number: LC-USZC2-1921 Annotation: This lithograph is one of a pair by Currier and Ives that was issued as a satirical commentary on the women’s right movement, and the threat it appeared to pose to traditional gender roles. The two candidates “Susan Sharp-tongue the Celebrated Man-Tamer” (dressed in circus-performer costume) and “Miss…

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: advertisement Museum Number: Portfolio 27, Folder 26b Annotation: Sewing machine advertisement After Elias Howe patented his lock stitch sewing machine in 1846, dozens of sewing machine manufacturers flooded the American market with names like Grover & Baker, Weed, Shaw & Clark, and I.M. Singer and Co. In the face of such intense competetion,…