Theater Poster for Uncle Tom’s Cabin

An advertisement for a theatrical production of Uncle Tom's Cabin depicts a scene from the antislavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe. In the scene, slave catchers unleash their dogs on the self-emancipating Eliza and her child, who are attempting to cross the icebound Ohio River. The best-selling novel inspired countless stage productions during the mid-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This poster from 1881 promotes a staging by the "famous Jarrett & Palmer London Comp'y consolidated with Slavins Original American Troupe."