1864-Dated Civil War Period, Engraved Print titled, "READING THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.” with vignette Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, Published by Lucius Stebbins of Hartford, Connecticut, After a Painting by Henry W. Herrick, Engraved by James W. Watts, with its full original wide margins, Choice Crisp Extremely Fine.
A historically important and impressive crisp quality example of this Black History and Slavery related Engraved Lithograph, measuring 22 x 19 inches, titled "READING THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION." published in 1864 by Lucius Stebbins of Hartford, Connecticut, after a painting by Henry W. Herrick and engraved by James W. Watts. Scholars and institutions consistently flag this as one of only a handful of contemporary (1864) prints that actually portray Enslaved people themselves receiving and reacting to the news of Emancipation .

This print depicts an interior cabin scene in which a Union soldier stands reading a newspaper aloud to a formerly Enslaved family gathered around him, their faces ranging from astonishment to joy to quiet prayer, while a boy holds up a torch to light both the paper and the room. Below this central image sits a vignette portrait of Abraham Lincoln framed by words drawn directly from his own Emancipation Proclamation, reading, "And upon this act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God. Jany. 1, 1863."

This print stands among only a small handful of works published in this immediate aftermath of the Emancipation Proclamation, and to directly portray Enslaved people receiving news of their own liberation. It is a genuinely rare category being an excellent quality original printing within Civil War Era Print culture. Stebbins himself promoted this print as a "new national engraving" meant to adorn homes across this country as a record of what he called "a great event in the world's history." Framing this Union soldier as this essential messenger without whom, in his words, "the Proclamation would have remained a dead letter." Beyond its great historical subject matter, this print offers a rare window into how this North itself chose to visually process and sell Emancipation to this own public in real time. This is a sympathetic, sentimental, and unmistakably Christian “humanitarian” framing of American and world history that stood distinctly apart from much of this era's visual treatment of Black Americans.

[Civil War, Slavery and Abolition, Emancipation] [Abraham Lincoln, African American History, Union Army] [Lithographs, Prints, Printed Americana]