Poster for the Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church in Philadelphia

Mother Bethel AME Church, American, founded 1794 · 1916

A black-and-white poster with a pictorial history of the ministers and bishops of the Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church in Philadelphia, in celebration of the African Methodist Episcopal Church centennial celebration in 1916. At center is an oval portrait of founder Bishop Richard Allen. To the left of Allen is a depiction of a two-story blacksmith shop with the caption [FIRST CHURCH BUILT ON SPOT WHERE BLACKSMITH SHOP STOOD / INCORPORATED / 1796]. Beneath Allen's portrait is an interior scene of the two men laboring in the blacksmith shop with the caption [BLACKSMITH SHOP] and to the right is an illustration of the three-story masonry church building with the caption ["MOTHER" BETHEL PHILADELPHIA / PLACE OF MEETING OF THE / CENTENNIAL GENERAL / CONFERENCE / 1916]. Surrounding the center scenes is a montage of thirty-eight (38) numbered, oval portraits of church bishops and ministers from Allen to William Beckett, minister in 1916.