Sallie Venning Holden and Louise Venning

The ladies above belonged to a middle-class African American family that was active in the Philadelphia African American political, social, educational, and cultural community from the 1850s to the 20th century. The family was involved in several prominent local African American institutions, including the St. Thomas P.E. Church, Church of the Crucifixion, Central Presbyterian Church, the Colored Institute of Youth, and the Citizens Republican Club.

The collection includes primarily studio portraits and snapshots of members of the Venning line of the middle-class Philadelphia African American family descended from the 19th-century white South Carolinian Richard Walpole Cogdell (1787-1866), and Sarah Martha Sanders (1815-1850), a black enslaved woman. Includes professionally photographed group portraits depicting the family's participation in the Philadelphia African American music community of the early 20th century, including: the Mendelssohn Singing Society; Sid Stratton's Orchestra; the Treble Clef Mandolin and Guitar Club; and the Soap Box Social, a minstrel club associated with the African American political club, Citizen's Republican Club. Other formal portraiture includes the graduation portrait for the South Philadelphia High School for Girls class of 1921 including renowned African American contralto, Marian Anderson, and a group portrait of the Citizens Republican Club (ca. 1910). Collection also contains studio portraits and snaphots photographed during family summer excursions to Pleasantville and Atlantic City, New Jersey; portraits of family friends and family members through marriage.

Sitters include members from the Cogdell family, the Venning family, and the Capps family. Cogdell family members include: Cecilia Cogdell, wife of Richard Walpole Cogdell, and three of their sons - James Gordon Cogdell, George Burgess Cogdell, and John Walpole Cogdell. Venning family members include: Richard Cogdell and Sarah Sanders' daughter, Julia Sanders Venning, her husband Edward Y. Venning (a contractor), and his brother, Richard DeReef Venning (a government clerk). Julia Sanders Venning and Edward Y. Venning's children - Louise Sanders Venning, Miranda Cogdell Venning (a school principal), Oliver Casey Venning (family historian), Martha Sanders Venning, George Edward Venning (a postal worker), Sarah (Sallie) Venning Holden, and her husband William B. Holden. George Edward Venning and Julia Capps Venning's children - Mary Vandewort Venning, Martha Baron Nixon Venning Bowie, and her husband Charles Bowie. Capps family members include: Julia Capps Venning's father Augustus Capps, and her siblings, Lillie Capps Adams (a musician), Oscar Capps, Adolphus Capps (an undertaker), Berkley Capps, and Meta Capps. Other sitters include family members George Sanders; Georgia Rex Sanders; Richard Sanders Chew; Georgine S. Chew; Agnes Sanders; and Charles Sanders Chew; and acquaintances African American bibliophile and Tribune columnist William Bolivar, African American undertaker Joseph Seth, Mrs. and Dr. Perry, Mary S. Patterson, and Susan S. Williams.

The Library Company of Philadelphia; Stevens-Cogdell and Sanders-Venning Family Portrait Collection