#lcpmanuscripts

Arabic Fragment, a West African Gris-Gris, 1773.

A gris-gris or wanga is a traditional West African talisman consisting of transcribed prayers, roots, herbs, and other objects used to ward off evil. An enslaved Islamic priest wrote this snippet of Arabic calligraphy. It was written in Leyogan in colonial Saint-Domingue (now Ayiti/Haiti). Translation: “In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful Say: He is Allah, the One and Only! Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not nor is He begotten. And there is none like unto Him.”

Fan, late 19th century. Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders Venning Collection.

This fan is a keepsake from the Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning family papers. The whole collection documents the development of a prominent middle-class mixed race family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

These characters drawn on the flyleaf of a financial daybook (1791-1792) from the Benjamin Rush papers show that doodling in otherwise meticulous notebooks is a centuries-old pastime.