The Fifteenth Amendment Celebrated May 19th, 1870

The Fifteenth Amendment Celebrated May 19th, 1870

A celebration honoring the Fifteenth Amendment.

This commemorative print celebrates the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. The central panel depicts the parade in Baltimore on May 19, 1870, the largest celebration honoring the amendment's passage. The parade lasted more than five hours, was over a mile in length, and had more than 20,000 spectators. Note the Baltimore Washington Monument in the background, the troop of Zouave drummers, and the African American men wearing Masonic sashes. The central image is surrounded by sixteen small vignettes containing portraits of individuals and events that were influential in securing voting rights for all American males regardless of race. These include four white men: Abraham Lincoln, in upper left President Ulysses S. Grant, a bust of abolitionist John Brown, abolitionist, orator, and Grant’s Vice President Schuyler S. Colfax. The African American leaders in the center are D.C. US Marshall Frederick Douglas, Mississippi Senator Hiram Rhodes Revels depicted sitting in Congress, and Martin Robison Delany, author and 1st African American major in US Army. The surrounding scenes optimistically depict the of expected benefits of the amendment such as a African American wedding ceremony presuming freedom to marry without impediment, a African American man voting, scenes depicting African Americans at worship and in school, and an image of former slaves tilling their own fields.
The brightly colored chromolithograph was crated by James Carter Beard and issued by the Irish immigrant Thomas Kelly. It was published in New York. Two sizes of this print were produced; this is the larger version.

Beard, James Carter

Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection

The Smithsonian

May 19th, 1870

paper (overall material)
ink (overall material)

English

Lithograph

Maryland, Baltimore

paper (overall material)
ink (overall material)

18 5/8 in x 25 1/2 in; 47.3075 cm x 64.77 cm