Broadside for 1852 performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin at Royal Olympic Theatre: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Broadside for an October 1852 performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin at Royal Olympic Theatre in London. The broadside is a rare and unique example of an advertisement for a very early production of Uncle Tom's Cabin, the most popular stage property of the 19th century and perhaps all of American history. This production was among the first in England and a testament to the transatlantic popularity of the book in 1852, its year of publication. The two-act play was performed at the Royal Olympic Theatre, 30 Brompton Square, Wych Street, Strand, London. The production’s title, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Negro life in America,” is printed atop the broadside, with details of cast, characters, acts, and settings beneath. The broadside also bears titles and information about two other productions performed on the same evening. The broadside was likely printed in October 1852, as it advertises performances starting October 18, 1852. Handwriting at the top of the broadside suggests that its original owner attended a performance October 23, 1852.

Written by American author and abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly was a popular, influential, and controversial anti-slavery novel first published in 1852. The novel tells the story of fictional enslaved African Americans Tom, Eliza, Harry, Cassy, and others, chronicling their experiences and interactions with a variety of white slaveholders including the cruel Simon Legree. The book is a sentimental and melodramatic denunciation of slavery as an immoral and evil institution, imbued with Christian imagery and themes and celebrating the moral authority of women to champion social reform.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a remarkable popular success, quickly becoming the best-selling novel of the 19th century and igniting fierce debates about race, representation, and social reform that continue to resonate in the 21st century. Abolitionists like Frederick Douglass praised the novel for its depiction of the cruelty and inhumanity of slavery; other supporters like historian Thomas Macaulay called it “the most valuable addition that America has made to English literature.” Some Black readers like Martin Delany appreciated the book’s anti-slavery message while criticizing Stowe’s promotion of African colonization. Stowe’s caricaturized and condescending characterizations of the Black characters – especially pickaninny-type Topsy, “tragic mulatto” Eliza, and servile Uncle Tom – helped cement racist stereotypes in American culture even while the novel did much to expose non-slaveholding white Americans to the brutal realities of plantation slavery. The docile, loyal, and resigned Uncle Tom character became a byword for self-defeating collaboration and inaction in the 20th century civil rights struggle.

Meanwhile, supporters of slavery savaged the book as slanderous propaganda, pointing out that Stowe had never visited a slaveholding plantation and had little direct experience in the American South. Some critics published “Anti-Tom” response books seeking to subvert the picture of southern slavery Stowe painted, positing that enslavement was a positive benefit for Black Americans. The book certainly helped escalate rising political and sectional tensions over slavery in the years before the Civil War.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin has been adapted for stage and screen in countless productions beginning in 1852 with its first theatrical production by C.W. Taylor at Purdy's National Theater in New York City. From the beginning, these performances would combine elements of straight melodrama from the pages of the book with more theatrical and spectacular performances – blackface minstrel comedy and musical routines, fantastic chases with dogs across ice floes, racing horses, and revised happy endings. These shows were even more popular and successful than the book, with lax copyright laws allowing troupes and theaters all over the country to stage their own “Tom Shows” without oversight or official license, bringing the story to many more than would have ever read the book itself.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was nearly as popular in England as the United States, with the first London edition appearing in May 1852 and selling 200,000 copies. Various theatrical productions were popular there as well. This broadside represents one of the first three productions to be staged in England, at the Royal Olympic Theatre in 1852 (others were staged at the Standard and Surrey theatres).

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1852
• used date: October 23, 1852
• Associated Name: Stowe, Harriet Beecher
• Object Name: broadside
• Object Name: poster
• Object Name: program
• Physical Description: woodblock print (overall production method/technique)
• Physical Description: iron gall ink (overall material)
• Physical Description: paper (overall material)
• Physical Description: printed (overall production method/technique)
• Measurements: overall: 20 in x 19 1/2 in; 50.8 cm x 49.53 cm
• place made: United Kingdom: England, London
• Subject: Theater
• Subject: Race Relations
• Subject: Uncle Tom
• ID Number: 2022.0117.01
• accession number: 2022.0117
• catalog number: 2022.0117.01
• Credit Line: Gift of the Roberts family in honor of Martha Gilmer Roberts
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.