Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral

A first edition of the book Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, by Phillis Wheatley, while she was enslaved to Mr. John Wheatley of Boston. The book has a brown leather cover, the original morocco spine label, and a frontispiece featuring a portrait of Wheatley by Scipio Morehead. Along the top of the portrait are the words [PHILLIS WHEATLEY, NEGRO SERVANT TO MR. JOHN WHEATLEY OF BOSTON]. The book also has the armorial bookplate of Daniel P. Griswold, a small circular ticket from the Library of George W. Brinely, as well as a larger one from Henry Weston Sackett.

Credit: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture