Details
Title [Portrait of an unidentified woman] [graphic].
Publisher [Philadelphia]
Date [ca. 1850]
Physical Description 1 photograph : daguerreotype ; plate 83 x 108 mm (quarter plated format)
Description Three-quarter length, forward facing portrait of a seated, African American woman. Sitter has long, dark hair, parted in the middle, and looped behind her ears. She is attired in a dark-colored, long-sleeved, silk dress with a white lace collar, and black lace fingerless gloves. A broach adorns her collar. She rests her left forearm on a table covered in a patterned cloth. A book lies on the table. The sitter’s left hand rests on her lap. Her lips are tinted pink. Sitter is probably a member or acquaintance of the Dickerson Family of Philadelphia.
Notes Title supplied by cataloger.
Date inferred by sitter's attire.
Pink tinting on lips.
Pad: Deep purple velvet without a design.
Mat: Oval.
Case: Leather. Small vase of flowers in the center surrounded by ornate decorations. The"Flower Vase" design is reproduced as Plate 146 in Floyd and Marion Rinhart's American miniature case art (Cranbury, New Jersey: A. S. Barnes and Co., Inc., 1969.) Geometric design on verso.
The die-engraver's name is below the design in reverse, and properly reads A[nthony] C. Paquet.
Gift of Mary P. Dunn, 1993.
Lib. Company. Annual report, 1993, p. 17-24.
Reproduced on page 45 of Julie Winch's The Elite of our people (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000)
Description revised 2021.
Access points revised 2021.
Subject Dickerson family.
African American women -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
African American women -- Clothing & dress -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Books.
Studio props.
Women.
Genre Daguerreotypes -- 1840-1850.
Photograph cases -- 1840-1850.
Portrait photographs -- 1840-1850.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Cased photos - Dickerson Family Collection [P.9427.11]
Accession number P.9427.11