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Ira Aldridge as Mungo in 'The Padlock'

3 of 5 portraits by William Paine

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Ira Aldridge as Mungo in 'The Padlock'

by T. Hollis, published by John Tallis & Company, after William Paine
stipple and line engraving, published circa 1850
10 3/4 in. x 6 7/8 in. (274 mm x 176 mm) paper size
Purchased with help from the Friends of the National Libraries and the Pilgrim Trust, 1966
Reference Collection
NPG D17895

Sitterback to top

Artistsback to top

  • T. Hollis (active 1849), Engraver. Artist or producer associated with 3 portraits.
  • William Paine (active 1849-1858), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 5 portraits.
  • John Tallis & Company, Publishers. Artist or producer associated with 9 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This print shows Aldridge in one of his most famous roles as the slave, Mungo in the operetta The Padlock by Bickerstaffe, in which he sang, danced and played guitar, mixing protest with comedy.

Related worksback to top

  • NPG D17967: Ira Aldridge as Aaron in 'Titus Andronicus' (mounted together)

Placesback to top

Events of 1850back to top

Current affairs

Cardinal Wiseman, a Catholic priest who had exerted a strong influence on the Oxford movement, is made a Cardinal and leader of the Catholic church in England, thus restoring Roman Catholic hierarchy in England.

Art and science

Death of poet laureate William Wordsworth; his great autobiographical poem The Prelude is published posthumously, famously charting the growth of the poet's mind.
Tennyson's In Memoriam is also published. A poignant record of his grief over the death of his friend Arthur Hallam, the poem also movingly questions the strength of faith in an increasingly scientific age.

International

Up to 50,000 pioneers travel west in wagons on the Oregon trail in the United States, one of the main overland migration routes across the continent. Spanning over half the continent, the trail led 2,170 miles through territories and land which would later become six US states, including Kansas, Wyoming and Oregon, helping the US to implement its goal of Manifest Destiny - building a nation spanning the North American continent.

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