New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-10-01

rare; they command very high price, both
in this country and England, where he ranked
as high as Bierstadt
Chaplin is graduate of one of the most
celebrated art schools Of Germany, and still
lives at Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, where
he is now preparing for the Centennial 1.-THE
Dream of Nebuchadnezzar."
He is represented in Mr.. Dorsey's studio,
and copies embracing variety Of subjects
Toussaint IOuverture, photograph in COL
ors, is from a picture in the possession of
Bishop Payne, Of the A. M. f. Church, a
correct likeness, corresponding to one in the
Great National Library of France. King
Lear, in the storm scene, Macbeth, Me-
phlstopheles in Faust, Emancipation, and
the Nubian are orginals--ihe latter two, if
chromoed, would find very extensive sale
among that class of Americans to whom they
would be specially interesting; Rembrandt,
Michael Angelo, and the Sentinel, are among
the most noteworthy copies.
The scrap books of Mr.. Dorsey contain
many interesting extracts. One Of the first
photographs is that of Nick Biddle, of Potts
vile, Pennsylvania, the negro, and the
first man rounded in the late rebellioa-one day
before the Massachusetts regiment was fired
upon in the streets of Baltimore. Nick was
in the employ of Pennsylvania regiment at
the time, and was wounded by the same
rebel mob while passing through Baltimore.
A portrait of Robert Boyle introduces to the
present generation a prominent colored ca
terer and undertaken, who fiourished forty
years ago IN Philadelphia. II was common
thing for Boyle to be seen officiating in his
professional capacity at funeral in the after
noon and at party on the evening Of the
same day. He was a man of many with
cisms, and was the subject in a facetious
post prandial poem by Nicholas Biddle, of
the old Pennsylvania Bank, in which he is
spoken as that cOlorless colored man.
Two engravings, one of Rev. Absalom
Jones, the founder and first pastor of the
first and oldest colored church organization
| in this cOuntry-St. Thomas Z. f.. Church,
in Philadelphia the other of Bishop Richard
Allen, the founder of the a. NJ. L. Church
organization, were the property of Bishop
Allen, and given by his daughter. Mrs. Adj
ans. TO Mr.. Dorsey.
Among the other portraits, letters, and
autographs are those of Frederick Douglass,
]. 1. Gaines, Sella Martin, J. NJ. I.angston,
j. w. c. Pennington, John Peterson, Lewis
Fl. Douglass, editor of the NEW NATIONAL
ERA; Samuel Ringgold Ward, the black
Dan. Webster; Thomas Downing; Frank
Johnson, the celebrated musician Ira AL
bridge; Alexander Dumas, pere and ills !,
Cirque, Gefl'rard, Boyer, Pierre Toussaint,
and st. Benedict, black priest Of the order
Of st. Francis.
Mr.. Dorsey is the son OF the popular ca
terer, Thomas Dorsey, of Philadelphia,
whose hospitality is proverbial, and to the
bounty of which thousands all over this
country can bear willing testimony. During
late years Mr.. Dorsey has spent but little
time with his brush-at least it is candor to
state that, as an artist, he has been lost from
the public eye. The materials in his posses
sion will inspire him, we trust, to emerge
from his accustomed quietude and present to
the world an artistic production that will
stamp his talent to be of the first order, and
that will ensure that substantial success
which is essential to promoting high en-
deavor J.. W. G.. CROMWELL.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 1874.