Uncle Tom and Eva figure, unknown maker from England, United Kingdom

The nation’s official symbols were designated by the Continental Congress in 1782. These artifacts reveal the power and longevity of American iconography disseminated into objects of material culture. The inclusion of George Washington, Justice, and Liberty transformed imported British wares into tantalizing souvenirs of a violent revolution, domesticated and democratized for subsequent generations. National patriotic symbols could endorse a political candidate, such as the humble frontier log cabin and hard cider barrel utilized by William Henry “Tippicanoe and Tyler Too” Harrison for his campaign. They could convey messages of abolitionism as seen in the figure of Uncle Tom from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s famous novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. As consumers, Americans have endorsed national ideology with their patriotic purchasing power.

Exhibition Label: "Staffordshire Chimney Ornaments from the Nineteenth Century in the Collection of The University of Kansas Museum of Art," Jun-1973, Lea Rosson Staffordshire produced a number of figure groups with "Uncle Tom." There was much abolitionist sentiment in England during the 1850s , and Harriett Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was a popular book. In 1852 it was produced as a play in London. The group of Little Eva and Uncle Tom is sometimes captioned with a line from the book: "Eva, gaily laughing, was hanging a wreath of roses around Tom's neck.