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Title: Mrs. Amanda Smith
Description: Three-quarter length portrait of the African American Methodist evangelist preacher, missionary, and temperance advocate who was born to enslaved parents in Maryland. Shows Smith, standing, slightly turned to her right, and attired in medium-colored, Quaker-like garb including a shawl, shirtwaist with an upright lace collar adorned with a pendant, skirt, and scoop bonnet. She holds a book, possibly a Bible, in her right hand, top edge down, and with her fingers interspersed between a few pages. A chair is partially visible in the right of the image and dark-colored drapery serves as the backdrop. Smith, her freedom bought by her father when a child, entered preaching in 1869. Known as a compelling speaker and singer, she preached at Methodist Episcopal churches throughout the East and Midwest, including Philadelphia. In 1878 she felt called to travel to Keswick, England for a Methodist convention and remained in the country to minister and then worked as a missionary in India (1879-1881) and West Africa (1882-1890). In 1890 she returned to the United States and settled in Chicago where she was also a prominent member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (Smith joined in the 1870s). In 1893 her "Autobiography" was published, from which she began to raise funds for an orphanage for African American children. 1n 1899 the Amanda Smith Orphan's Home, later the Amanda Smith Industrial Home opened in Harvey, Il. The home was razed by fire in 1918., Title from manuscript note on verso., Photographer's imprint printed on mount., Publisher's imprint printed on verso. Also includes a vignette depicting the British coat of arms., Mount designer's imprint printed on verso., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 2018, p. 59 - 60., RVCDC, Description reviewed 2022., Access points revised 2022.
Creator: Pettitt, Alfred, -1880
Date: [1878]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits - sitter - Smith [P.2018.13]

Title: I sell the shadow to support the substance. Sojourner Truth
Description: 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]

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