Three-quarter length portrait of the African American itinerant preacher, abolitionist, and women's rights advocate born into slavery and originally known as Isabella Baumfree. Shows Truth, seated, and attired in a dark-colored, long sleeved dress with white collar, white shawl with fringe, and a white cap. She wears wire-rimmed glasses and faces front and is turned slightly to her left. She holds knitting in her left hand which rests on a small table that has a decorative table cloth. A notebook and vase of flowers adorn the table. A string of yarn runs across her lap. Truth escaped to freedom in 1826. During the period of the Civil War, Truth captioned, marketed, placed under copyright, and sold at least eleven different carte-de-visite portraits of herself at her lectures and through the mail to earn personal funds and advocate for the abolition of slavery. Her knitting probably alludes to her promotion of the handcraft as an industry for advancement for former enslaved persons., Title from item., Publication information from copyright statement on verso: Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1864, by Sojourner Truth, in the Clerk's Office, of the U. S. District Court, for the Eastern District of Mich., Lib. Company. Annual report, 2017, p. 66-67., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Date
1864
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits - sitter - Truth [P.2017.27]
Stereograph depicting “Uncle Jimmie,” an older African American man knitting the corner edge of a mesh fishing net extended out in front of him from a pole on the porch of a wood cabin. Shows the man, with receding, short, cropped hair, seated, and in profile. He wears a white, long-sleeve, button-down shirt; dark-colored pants; and work shoes. The man, possibly Gullah, uses a flat rule and needle on the edge of the net. Behind the man, in the background, an open door to an entryway with an open window is visible. A vertical beam is also visible in the left of the image. Knitting fish net was and is one of a number of Gullah traditions (customs developed by enslaved Africans living along the Atlantic coast of South Carolina) practiced in Beaufort, S.C., Title from manuscript note on verso., Date inferred from active dates of Wilson & Havens partnership., Orange mount with rounded corners., Description reviewed 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator
Wilson & Havens, photographer
Date
[ca. 1880]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - misc. photographer - Wilson & Havens [P.2020.38]
