[Rarebooks] FS: Civil War Minstrel broadside - Confederate Imprint

[Bob Petrilla]

Libby Prison. THE LIBBY PRISON MINSTRELS!...THURSDAY EVENING, DEC. 24TH,
1863. PROGRAMME ... RIVAL LOVERS ... COUNTRYMAN IN A PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY ...
MASQUERADE BALL ... GRAND WALK-AROUND ... ADJT. R.C. KNAGGS, BUSINESS
AGENT. [Richmond, Virginia]: Libby Prison Inmates, 1863. First Edition.
Broadside, printed in display type on off-white stock; two large dampmarks;
framed and glazed. Overall, 16.75" x 6.5". Lists many songs and skits with
the surnames and ranks of the Union officers performing them. Characters
include: Joe Skimmerhorn, Mose, Black Swan, Broadway Swell, Richard III,
and others. Good .
"On Christmas Eve, 1863...the Union prisoners of war in the Libby Prison in
Richmond, all of them officers in the U.S. Army, presented a program of the
Libby Prison Minstrels to the Richmond citizens...." (Neely, The Civil War
and the Limits of Destruction). "Lieutenant W.H.H. Welsh, of Company D, had
a remarkable prison experience....In order to while away the monotony of
prison life, he assisted Captain E.A. Mass of the 88th Pennsylvania
Regiment in organizing a troupe which they called the 'Libby Prison
Minstrels'. For the amusement of 1800 other officers in this noted prison
pen, they gave two entertainments weekly. This was kept up until Christmas,
1863...." (Prowell, History of the 87th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers).
 [WorldCat finds five holdings of this broadside: Connecticut State
Library, Harvard, Library of Virginia, U Virginia, Duke. See: Crandall,
Confederate Imprints, 3243; Hummel, Southeastern Broadsides before 1877,
4802.]    $1,500.00

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