Portrait of 18C American Woman

1767 James Claypoole 1743-1814 Ann Galloway Mrs Joseph Pemberton Phil Acad of Arts

Portrait of 18C American Woman

1765 John Singleton Copley 1738-1815 Elizabeth Deering Wentworth Gould Rogers aka Mrs. Nathaniel Rogers High Mus Art

Portrait of 18C American Woman

1765-67 John Wollaston 1733-1767 Lady in Gold Dress from Charleston Wisconsin

Portrait of 18C American Woman

1765 a John Singleton Copley 1738-1815 Mrs Geo Watson Eliz Oliver Nat Mus of Amer Ar

Portrait of 18C American Woman

1764John Singleton Copley 1738-1815 Mrs. Samuel Hill, nee Miriam Kilby Thyssen Bornemisza Mus Spain

A few 1760s-90s London prints of women doing domestic chores

Enterprising London printmakers published hundreds of popular & satirical mezzotints between 1760 and 1800, many of which quickly found their way to the British American colonies and later to the new republic. These prints were sometimes called drolls, were usually 10' by 14' and were relatively inexpensive. They could be seen in homes or in taverns & they give a glimpse into the everyday life of women in the larger British world, which is seldom found in more formal art.

The Landlord's Daughter. Haines and Son, London. 1798.

Lacemaking. John Fairburn. London. 1795.

Lady Working Tambour

March (Lady Holding Sewing). R. Dighton. Carrington Bowles. London. 1784.

The Fair Seamstress. Heilman pinxt J. Watson fecit. for John Bowles, London. 1760s.

The Tenant's Daughter. Haines and Son, London. 1798.

Love in a Village. Carrington Bowles, London, 1784

Rural Life. Robert Sayer and J. Bennett. London 1782

Rural Life Spinning Yarn Philip Mercier Pinxt. C. Corbutt fecit. Robt Sayer, 1760s London

Market Lass. Robert Dighton. Laurie and Whittle, London. 1794

Jockey and Jenny. Carington Bowles. London. 1782.

Portrait of 18C American Woman

1764  John Singleton Copley 1738-1815  Mrs Epes Sargent Catherine Osborne

Home-bred American fashions or taste A-La-Mode??

Fashion Before Ease.

 Just as British American colonials were recognizing that they were developing into a far different society than the hereditary and aristocratic world of the mother country, they were in the midst of a full-blown consumer revolution. It was just that consumer revolution which was giving unaccustomed power and wealth to the merchant class.

Affluent merchant families were building grand houses and filling them with imported goods. Textiles, furniture, and table wares flowed into the ports for merchants to sell, and local artisans began to flourish as well. Colonists, without the traditional genetic credentials, were displaying these new acquisitions to project an appearance of refinement and gentility akin to that of the landed gentry in England. Women became more aware of the latest taste in fashion and enhanced their appearance with wigs, cosmetics, hair ornaments, and hats.

As some in the middle of the 18th century worried about the loss of beauty and the enduring role of women as they grew older, others fretted about the ostentatious displays of fashion and cosmetic beauty. Visible distances between the classes were increasing. Values of economy and extravagance would be at war, until the real Revolutionary war would see American country-made economy would become a virtue, even if it was just a temporary trend.

As usual, 18th century pundits used sarcasm and irony to highlight the problem. One poem appearing in the 1756 March editions of both Boston and New York newspapers spoke to the complicit role of the portrait painter in ostentatious display.

THE PETITION
Artful Painter by this Plan
Draw a Female if you can.
Paint her Features bold and gay,
Casting Modesty away;
Let her Art the Mode express,
And fantastick be her Dress.
Cock her up a little Hat
Of various Colours, this and that;
Make her Cap the Fashion new,
An Inch of Gauze or Lace will do.
Cut her Hair the shortest Dock;
Nicely braid the Forehead Lock;
Put her on a Negligee,
A short Sack, or Shepherdee
Ruffled up to keep her warm,
Eight or Ten upon an Arm.
Let her Hoop extending wide
Show her Garters and her Pride.
Her Stockings must be pure and white
For they are seldom out of Sight.
Let her have a high heel'd Shoe,
And a glittering Buckle too.
Other Trifles that you find,
Make quite Careless as her Mind.
Thus equipped, she's charming Ware
For the Races or the Fair.
London's monthly Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure ridiculed the constant changes in female fashion,

Now dress'd in a cap,
now naked in none;
Now loose in a mob,
now close in a Joan;
Without handkerchief now,
and now buried in ruff;
Now plain as a Quaker,
now all in a puff;
Now a shape in neat stays,
now a slattern in jumps
Now high in French heels,
now low in your pumps;
Now monstrous in hoops,
now trapish, and walking
With your petticoats
clung to your heels like a maulkin;
Like the cock on the tower,
that shows you the weather,
You are hardly the same for two days together.
In 1754, a New York newspaper published the satirical view of the extravagance of women's fashion from a poem published in 1753 in London.

A RECEIPT FOR MODERN DRESS
Hang a small bugle cap on as big as a crown,
Snout it off with a flower, vulgo dict. a pompoon;
Let your powder be grey, and braid up your hair
Like the mane of a colt, to be sold at a fair.
A short pair of jumps half an ell from your chin,
To make you appear like one just lying in;
Before, for your breast, put a stomacher bib on
Ragout it with cutlets of silver and ribbon.
Your neck and your shoulders both naked should be,
Was it not for Vandyke blown with Chevaux de Frize.
Let your gown be a sack, blue, yellow, or green,
And frizzle your elbows with ruffles sixteen;
Furl off your lawn aprons with flounces in rows,
Puff and pucker up knots on your arms and your toes;
Make your petticoats short, that a hoop eight yards wide
May decently show how your garters are tied.
With fringes of knotting, your dicky cabob
On slippers of velvet set gold a-la-daube.
But mount on French heels when you go to a ball,
'Tis the fashion to totter and shew you can fall;
Throw modesty out from your manners and face,
A-la-mode de Frangois you're a bit for his Grace.
In 1756, a New York newspaper offered this satirical fashion advice,

The dress of the year 55 that was worn
Is laid in the grave and new fashions are born:
Then hear what your good correspondents advance,
'Tis the Pink of the Mode and dated from France:
Let your cap be a butterfly slightly hung on
Like the shell of a lapwing just hatch'd on her crown
Behind, with a coach horse short dock, cut your hair
Stick a flower before Screw-whiff 'with an air,
A Vandicke in frize your neck must surround,
Turn your lawns into gauze, let your Brussels be blond;
Let your stomacher reach from shoulder to shoulder,
And your breast will appear much fairer and bolder.
Wear a gown or a sack as fancies prevail,
Hut with flounces and furbelows ruffle your tail.
Let your hoop show your stockings & legs to your knees,
And leave men as little as may be to guess.
For other small ornaments, do as before,
Wear ribbons a hundred and ruffles a score;
Let your tail, like your dress, be fantastic and odd,
And then you'll show a way in taste A-la-mode.

A sarcastic and anonymous "Sally Tippet" wrote a letter to a New York newspaper in 1761.
"Ladies...Nothing however looks more surfeiting to me than your home-bred fashions and complements; there is something so rustic, so Bridget-Norton-like in them, which is visible in most of our city ladies, that I believe the one-half have neither milliners, dolls, dressing-maids, dancing-masters, nor indeed pier-glasses."

Portrait of 18C American Woman

1763 William Johnston 1732-1772 Mrs Thomas Mumford VI Brooklyn

Rare African American portraits connected to Philadlphia's 1st Mayor

Franklin Street (Philadelphia artist) Charles Montier (1818–1905) 1841

Franklin Street (Philadelphia artist) Elizabeth Brown Montier (1820–c. 1858)

The Philadelphia Museum of Art houses an extremely rare pair of portraits of African American sitters whose heritage can be traced back to the city’s first mayor, Humphrey Morrey (b. c. 1650, England; d. 1716, Philadelphia), appointed to his office by William Penn in 1691. In 1742, Mayor Humphrey Morrey's son Richard (1675-1754) married one of the family’s servants, Cremona Cremona Morrey (1710-1770) who was 35 years younger than he. The union resulted in five children, and in Cremona Morrey receiving 198 acres of land from Richard in 1746, near Guineatown in Cheltenham Township of Montgomery County just northwest of Philadelphia. One of their 5 children, Cremona, married a free black man, John Montier. Hiram Chales Montier descended from this union.

 The portraits were painted in 1841 and depict Hiram Charles Montier (1818–1905), who was a bootmaker on N.W. 7th Street at the time of the painting, and his wife Elizabeth Brown Montier (1820–ca. 1858) whom family records indicate had lived in the city’s Northern Liberties neighborhood.  Living in Philadelphia, the Montiers were members of one of the largest free African American communities in the North although Pennsylvania’s gradual emancipation law of 1780 permitted slavery well into the 19th century.  

The signature “Fr Street” on the reverse (now concealed by lining) of Elizabeth’s portrait corresponds to an artist named Franklin R. Street who was active in Philadelphia between 1839 and 1872. No other works by the artist are recorded and no contemporary exhibition records for him have been found, though he was listed in city directories and census records; he was likely a professional painter, producing commercial signs and fancy work as well as portraits. The paintings nevertheless adopt the conventions of high-style portraiture, including the elegant attire, grand architecture, and dramatic landscapes that characterize the works of Philadelphia masters such as Gilbert Stuart and Thomas Sully. At the time of these paintings, Franklin Street’s studio was located at 41 Chestnut Street.

Portrait of 18C American Woman

1763 John Singleton Copley 1738-1815 Sarah Tyler Mrs Samuel Phillips Savage

The Worchester Art Museum tells us that Sarah Tyler was born in Boston on March 21, 1717/18 and baptized nine days later at the Brattle Square (Congregational) Church. She was the daughter of William Tyler (1688–1758), a prosperous merchant, and Elizabeth Royall Tyler. Sarah later became a member of the Brattle Square Church and on November 11, 1742 she married Samuel Phillips Savage (1718–1797) there. The Savages had ten children, seven of whom lived to maturity. 

 Little personal record of Sarah Savage survives except for two letters that Samuel wrote to her during trips away from Boston. In one undated letter, Samuel advises her to get a receipt if she decides to buy a slave named Cloe. The other letter, written in July, 1747, is addressed informally to "Sally" and expresses Samuel’s wish to return home before planned. He explains that he will, however, keep his original schedule lest Sarah "discover the Fickleness of my Temper, and my over Fondness of Seeing you." Savage concludes, "Pray always for me that in all the Changes of Life I may be by Gods Grace enabled to Surmount all Difficulties & Temptations, and at last be victorious in Christ my Lord—." According to a manuscript genealogy in one of Samuel Savage’s diaries, "Sarah. . . died in Childbed a few hours after delivery with a Dead female child.—at 2 oClock on a Sabbath Day" in February of 1764. Shortly after Sarah’s death Samuel purchased sixteen mourning rings from Boston silversmith William Simpkins (1704–1780) for distribution to friends and family members. The year after Sarah’s death Samuel Savage moved to a seventy-five acre farm and grist mill in Weston, Massachusetts, where he experimented with crops and recorded meteorological and astronomical observations. Samuel married two more times: in 1767 to Bathsheba Thwing Johnston (1725–1792) and in 1794 to Mary Meserve (d. 1810). Johnston was the widow of Thomas Johnston, the craftsman who probably made the frames for Copley’s portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Savage. 

 Samuel Savage was a merchant and an entrepreneur in the shipping insurance business. He was the oldest child of Arthur Savage (1680–1735)—a wealthy sea captain, merchant, and public official whose estate was valued at more than 5,000 pounds—and Faith Phillips Savage (1690–1775). In 1741 Samuel began a short-lived business partnership with David Jeffries. After working independently for about a decade, Savage accepted his younger brother Arthur as his partner. The Savage brothers sold Bohea tea, coffee, chocolate, raisins, rice, indigo, sugar, molasses, rum, brandy, raisins, snuff, beef, cheese, flour, salt-fish, pepper, and ginger. Beginning in 1756 Samuel also sold insurance to fellow merchants who wanted to protect their precarious investments at sea. The partnership of Samuel and Arthur Savage dissolved in 1764, because the older brother proved to be an ardent patriot and the younger one a Loyalist. 

 Samuel held a number of public offices in Boston. He served as a constable in 1742, a clerk of the market in 1749 and 1750, and a selectman in 1760 and 1761.14 Savage is believed to have participated in 1765 in the Liberty Tree protest in which Andrew Oliver—the Secretary of the province whose job it was to distribute stamps under the Stamp Act—was hung in effigy. On December 15, 1773 Savage moderated the meeting during which the Boston Tea Party was planned. In 1774 he was chosen to be Weston’s representative in the Provincial Congress. In 1776 he was appointed to a nine-member Board of War and served as its president until the board was dissolved in 1781. Savage was also a judge of the Inferior Court of Middlesex County (1775–1782) and of the Court of Common Pleas (1782–1797).

Timothy Dwight's Journal of Madam Knight 1704 or 1824?

Sarah Kemble Knight’s (1666-1727) reported journal of a horseback journey from Boston to New York in 1704-05 was published in 1825, by Theodore Dwight (1797-1866), one of the Hartford Wits. An actual diary of the journey has never been found nor have any other manuscripts by Madam Knight been discovered, casting grave doubts on the authenticity of the journal. At least we can be absolutely certain that it was written before 1825.

As Timothy Dwight reported, in 1704, Sarah Kemble Knight recorded her October to March horseback journey from Boston to New York. She noted meeting with a variety of other women along the way.

"...after we left the Swamp, we come to Billinges, where I was to Lodg. My Guide dismounted and very Complasantly help't me down and shewd the door, signing to me wth his hand to Go in.; which I Gladly did—But had not gone many steps into...the Room, ere I was Interogated by a young Lady I understood afterwards was the Eldest daughter of the family, with these, or words to this purpose, Law for mee—what in the world brings You here at this time a night ?—I never see a woman on the Rode so Dreadfull late, in all the days of my versall life. Who are You ? Where are You going? I'm scar'd out of my witts—with much now of the same Kind. I stood aghast, Prepareing to reply, when in comes my Guide—to him Madam turn'd, Roareing out: Lawfull heart, John, is it You?—how de do! Where in the world are you going with this woman? Who is she? John made no Ansr... she then turned agin to mee and fell anew into her silly questions, without asking me to sitt down.

I told her she treated me very Rudely, and I did not think it my duty to answer her unmannerly Questions. But to get ridd of them, I told her I come there to have the post's company with me to-morrow on my Journey, &c. Miss star'd awhile, drew a chair, bid me sitt, And then run up stairs and putts on two or three rings, (or else I had not seen them before) and returning, sett herself just before me, showing the way to Reding, that I might see her Ornaments, perhaps to gain the more respect. But her Granmam's new Rung sow, had it appeared, would affected me as much....

And about two, afternoon. Arrived at the Post's second stage...Here, having called for something to eat, ye woman bro't in a Twisted thing like a cable, but something whiter; and laying it on the board, tugg'd for life to bring it into a capacity to spread; wich having with great pains accomplished, shee serv'd in a dish of Pork and Cabage. I suppose the remains of Dinner. The sause was of a deep Purple, wich I tho't was boil'd in her dye Kettle; the bread was Indian, and every thing on the Table service Agreeable to these. I, being hungry, gott a little down; but my stomach as soon cloy'd, and what cabbage I swallowed serv'd me for a Cudd the whole day after...

The family were the old man, his wife and two Children ; all and every part being the picture of poverty. Notwithstanding both the Hutt and its Inhabitance were very clean and tydee: to the crossing the Old Proverb, that bare walls make giddy hows-wifes...
We call'd at an Inn...Landlady come in, with her hair about her ears, and hands at full pay scratching. She told us she had some mutton wich shee would broil, wich I was glad to hear; But I supose forgot to wash her scratchers; in a little time shee brot it in; but it being pickled, and my Guide said it smelt strong of head sause, we left it, and pd sixpence a piece for our Dinners, wich was only smell...

Their Diversions in this part of the Country are on Lecture days and Training days mostly : on the former there is Riding from town to town...And on training dayes The Youth divert themselves by Shooting at the Target...

They generally marry very young: the males oftener as I am told under twentie than above; they generally make public weddings...Just before Joyning hands the Bridegroom quitts the place, who is soon followed by the Bridesmen, and as it were, dragg'd back to duty...


And they Generally lived very well and comfortably in their famelies. But too Indulgent (especially ye farmers) to their slaves: sufering too great familiarity from them, permitting ym to sit at Table and eat with them, (as they say to save time.) and into the dish goes the black hoof as freely as the white hand...
There are every where in the Towns as I passed, a Number of Indians the Natives...Govern'd by Lawr's of their own making;— they marry many wives and at pleasure put them away, and on the ye least dislike or fickle humor, on either side, saying stand away to one another is a sufficient Divorce...

They give the title of merchant to every trader... Pay is Grain, Pork, Beef, &c. at the prices sett by the General Court that Year; mony is pieces of Eight, Ryalls, or Boston or Bay shillings (as they call them,) or Good hard money, as sometimes silver coin is termed by them; also Wampom, viz' Indian beads wch serves for change...
They are generaly very plain in their dress, throuout all ye Colony, as I saw, and follow one another in their modes; that You may know where they belong, especially the women, meet them where you will...

The English go very fasheonable in their dress. But the Dutch, especially the middling sort, differ from our women, in their habitt go loose, weare French muches wich are like a Capp and a head band in one, leaving their ears bare, which are sett out wth Jewells of a large size and many in number. And their fingers hoep't with Rings, some with large stones in them of many Coullers as were their pendants in their ears, which You should see very old women wear as well as Young...

Their Diversions in the Winter is Riding Sleys about three or four Miles out of Town, where they have Houses of entertainment at a place called the Bowery, and some go to friends Houses who handsomely treat them.Mr. Burroughs carry'd his spouse and Daughter and myself out to one Madame Dowes, a Gentlewoman that lived at a farm House, who gave us a handsome Entertainment of five or six Dishes and choice Beer and metheglin, Cyder, &c. all which she said was the produce of her farm. I believe we mett...slays that day—they fly with great swiftness and some are so furious that they'le turn out of the path for none except a Loaclen Cart. Nor do they spare for any diversion the place affords, and sociable to a degree, they'r Tables being as free to their Naybours as to themselves...

...being overtaken by a great storm of wind and snow which set full in our faces about dark, we were very uneasy. But meeting one Gardner who lived in a Cottage thereabout, offered us his fire to set by, having but one poor Bedd, and his wife not well, &c. or he would go to a House with us, where he thought we might be better accommodated —thither we went, But a surly old shee Creature, not worthy the name of woman, who would hardly let us go into her Door, though the weather was so stormy none but shee would have turnd out a Dogg...

Being got to Milford, it being late in the night...I was invited to Lodg at Mrs. a very kind and civill Gentlewoman, by whom I was handsomely and kindly entertained till the next night. The people here go very plain in their apparel (more plain than I had observed in the towns I had passed) and seem to be very grave and serious. They told me there was a singing Quaker lived there, or at least had a strong inclination to be so, His Spouse not at all affected that way. Some of the singing Crew come there one day to visit him, who being then abroad, they sat down (to the woman's no small vexation) Humming and singing and groneing after their conjuring way—Says the woman are you singing quakers? Yea says They—Then take my squalling Brat of a child here and sing to it says she for I have almost split my throat singing to him and cant get the Rogue to sleep. They took this as a great Indignity, and mediately departed. Shaking the dust from their Heels left the good woman and her Child among the number of the wicked...

March 3d wee got safe home to Boston, where I found my aged and tender mother and my Dear and only Child in good health with open arms redy to receive me..."

Portrait of 18C American Woman

1765 Jeremiah Theus 1716-1774 Mary Hazzard (1718-1787), Mrs James Cuthbert Nat Gal Art

Daughter of Col. William Hazzard, Sr. and Elizabeth Russell Hazzard. She was the wife of  James Cuthbert.(1716-1776).  Mary was born: 1718 - Hazzards Neck, SC.  Mary died: Mar 19 1787 - Beaufort, Beaufort, SC. 

Her siblings included  Susannah Marshall (born Hazzard), Rachel Shephard (born Hazzard), William Hazzard, Peter Hazzard, Stanley Hazzard, Elizabeth Hazzard. 

Her children included John Alexander Cuthbert, James Hazzard Cuthbert, Betsy Cuthbert, Elizabeth Cuthbert, George Cuthbert, Joseph Cuthbert.

Free Black Men and Women in Maryland

In Church. The Illustrated London News

From the 17C on there was a growing free black population in Maryland. This population grew quickly in the antebellum years. African Americans were usually emancipated for diligent work, good conduct, familial connections, or commendable service. At other times white owners experienced a change of heart, an attack of conscience, or, in the case of Quaker meetings, freed their slaves in following their religion.

The methods for manumission in Maryland included court actions, instructions in owners' wills, self-purchase, purchase of one's own family member's freedom with money earned when hired out, governmental decrees, or rewards for military service. In Maryland, according to acts of 1697 and 1692, the law declared that children followed the condition of their mother. Thus, when children were born to a free mother, they were free also.

In 1752, the population of Baltimore County included 166 mulatto slaves, 96 free mulattoes, 4,027 black slaves and eight free blacks. The census of 1790 recorded that about eight thousand free blacks lived in the state at that time. The free black population was concentrated in northern and western Maryland.

In 1830, the free black population was just under 53,000, about 12 percent of Maryland's population, according to the U.S. Census. That meant that about one-third of the entire Maryland African American population in Maryland was free.

Free blacks generally were not accorded the same privileges as white citizens. Maryland changed its laws relating to free blacks depending on the political climate. For a brief period some free blacks had the right to vote, but the law was later rescinded. Blacks could not carry firearms or testify against whites in court.

Free black men & women & especially children lived under the threat of being beaten or kidnapped by whites who would sell them into slavery. One reason whites formed the Maryland Abolition Society was to try to protect free blacks from kidnappers. Maryland passed and repealed several laws prohibiting blacks from assembling or carrying firearms. Maryland county governments often vacillated about the right of free blacks to hold and bequeath property. Whites often sought to restrict the type of work blacks could do because they did not want to compete with them. At various times the Maryland Assembly tried to pass laws prohibiting blacks from reading abolitionist literature, operating boats, obtaining licenses for pedaling, participating in certain trades, or having or driving hacks, carts or drays. There was also an effort keep free blacks from owning dogs. Slaveholders' motive for many of the laws, particularly those prohibiting free blacks from owning conveyances, was to prevent them from aiding runaway slaves.

In spite of numerous restrictions, free black men & women in Maryland formed their own churches, schools, benevolent societies, and businesses. By 1847 there were at least thirteen black churches in Baltimore alone. Many churches were a part of larger denominations which met periodically in various states to discuss both religious and political matters.

The 1850 Census indicates that over 50 percent of Maryland free black men & women could read and/or write. Free persons of color worked as domestics, small farmers, innkeepers, street vendors, ship caulkers, stevedores, sailors and boatmen, draymen, barbers, teamsters, blacksmiths, and liverymen. Blacks who had purchased their freedom were usually able to do so, because they had earned money with their skilled labor.

Some free blacks, like astronomer Benjamin Banneker and preacher Daniel Coker, were able to record their own experiences. Banneker published an almanac and aided in the survey of the Federal District, later to become the District of Columbia. Coker became one of the first emigrants to return to Africa with the American Colonization Society.

Portrait of 18C American Woman

1763 John Singleton Copley 1738-1815 Mrs. John Scoally (Mercy Greenleaf) pvt