Bartley Campbell's Picturesque Drama The Galley Slave by Henry Atwell Thomas, 1879
date: label: Date made
content: 1879
name: label: referenced
content: Campbell, Bartley
label: referenced
content: Sullivan, J. J.
label: referenced
content: Evans, Frank
label: maker
content: Thomas, Henry Atwell
notes: label: Description
content: This black and white lithograph depicts a central scene of an interior with a woman wearing a veil, collapsed in an armchair. Two men standing near her appear to be arguing. The central scene rests on an easel and is surrounded by four vignettes, with a circular bust portrait of Bartley Campbell at the top center. The complicated plot involves the betrayal of a well-born woman by her artist husband and her ultimate vindication and revenge.
label: Description
content: The names of two actors, Frank Evans and J. J. Sullivan, have been added in colored lettering on the left and right margins. An early playbill contains the names of these actors as cast members for performances of <i> The Galley Slave </i>at Haverly’s Theatre in New York in 1880. <i> The Galley Slave </i> was made into a 1915 film starring Theda Bara.
label: Description
content: Bartley T. Campbell (1843-1888), was a journalist, novelist, poet, dramatist, and theatrical manager. He was born to Irish immigrant parents in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and began his writing career at age 15 as a reporter for the <i> Pittsburgh Post </i>. He also worked for newspapers in Louisville, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio, and founded the <i> Southern Monthly Magazine </i> in New Orleans, Louisiana. After the success of his first melodrama, <i> Through Fire </i>, in 1871, Campbell gave up journalism for playwrighting and experimented with everything from comedies to domestic dramas to military sagas. Several of his works, including <i> The White Slave </i>, focused on racial themes and the plight of mixed race characters. Another of his plays, <i> Siberia </i>, featured many prominent actors of the day and toured in England, Australia, and New Zealand. After an 1876 trip to London, Bartley Campbell began to write the western dramas for which he became especially famous, including <i> The Vigilantes </i>, or, <i> The Heart of the Sierras </i>. He has been described as America's first "first fully professional dramatist" (<i> The Oxford Companion to American Theatre </i>), and he also produced and directed plays. Later in life Bartley Campbell suffered from financial and mental problems and died at the State Hospital for the Insane in Middletown, New York.
label: Description
content: This lithograph was produced by Henry Atwell Thomas (1834-1904). He was an artist, portrait painter, and lithographer especially well known for his theatrical portraits. His New York firm was called H. A. Thomas Lith. Studio until 1887, when it became H. A. Thomas & Wylie Lithographic (sometimes cited as Lithography or Lithographing) Company.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: Subject
content: Theater
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
label: See more items in
content: Advertising
label: See more items in
content: Art
label: See more items in
content: Peters Prints
label: See more items in
content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.60.3065
label: catalog number
content: 60.3065
label: accession number
content: 228146
objectType: label: Object Name
content: lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: image: 18 1/2 in x 23 in; 46.99 cm x 58.42 cm