Silhouette of Peale's Museum premier African American silhouettist, facing left. Williams wears his hair in a ponytail adorned with a bow at the end. A bow adorns his collar as well. Williams was enslaved by Charles Willson Peale following the manumission of his parents in 1786. After his manumission in 1804, Williams began work as a silhouettist in Peale's Museum., Probably by Moses Williams or possibly Raphaelle Peale., Title from manuscript note on recto., Manuscript note on verso: Moses Williams, the Cutter of Profiles. Peales Museum., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., See Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, " 'Moses Williams, Cutter of Profiles': Silhouettes and African American Identity in the Early Republic," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 49 (March 2005), particularly p. 36., See Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, "'Moses Williams, Cutter of Profiles,' Silhouettes and African American Identity in the Early Republic," in Portraits of a People. Picturing African Americans in the Nineteenth Century (Seattle & London: Addison Gallery of American Art in association with the University of Washington Press, 2006 ), pp. 45-55, 69., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of portraits., McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date
[ca. 1803]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Silhouette Collection [(3)5750.F.153b]
Album containing amateurly-cut, primarily bust-length silhouettes of men and women. Majority include caricatured or non-descript features. Small number of the prints depict full-length silhouettes, including a man holding an eye glass, a man holding a book near a table, and a man holding a filled basket. Also includes a silhouette of a tall male figure and squat female figure and corresponding pencil sketch. Many silhouettes also include hair adornments and other fashion details.
