Twelve Funny Little Travellers. No. 1

No publisher place: No publisher listed, No date [c. 1880]. Ephemera no binding. 11 ½” x 13”; cotton-even weave, perhaps lawn; copper plate or roller printed in color; left side selvage, 3 sides hand-rolled and stitched hems; light soiling, age-toning of cotton, foxing; very good. Not recorded or in WorldCat. Very good. Item #944

A copper plate or copper roller printed handkerchief, or more correctly, bandana. Perhaps part of a larger set, as this one is labeled “No. 1”, it portrays a color printed scene of travelers and immigrants at a ticketing station, many barefoot and drawn as ethnic caricatures. The French sailor with his broad straw hat and striped shirt; a Negro carrying a heavy sack, possibly in prison garb; a Scotsman in a kilt; a Russian wearing a large bear hat; a carpetbagger with a leg shackle on his right ankle; and some drawn as “toughs”, with their cap pulled low over their eyes. A two-stanza rhyming verse with a five-bar musical score is printed under the illustration, and all surrounded by a geometric black border. Immigration was on the minds of Americans, especially after the Civil War, and the 1870s to 1890s saw high levels relocation from Europe and other countries. In 1891 the federal government passed the Immigration Act and removed the power of individual states to regulate immigration.

Price: $400.00