Portrait of unidentified African American woman

The subject of this portrait sits on a wooden chair, leaning against a cloth-covered table, and wears a few rings as well as a brooch on her shirt. In her hands, she holds a book. “Thomas Easterly provided many citizens on the western frontier with their first opportunity to see themselves immortalized through the powers of the new invention,” wrote Dolores Kilgo in Likeness and Landscape: Thomas M. Easterly and the Art of the Daguerreotype (Missouri Historical Society Press, 1994).

Object Title and Accession Number

Portrait of an unidentified African American woman. Daguerreotype by Thomas M. Easterly, ca. 1850–1870. N17333.

Black and white photo portrait of a Black woman in a shawl

A 19th-century portrait of a woman with styled hair, wearing a long, patterned dress and a shawl. She is seated, holding a book, with a solemn expression. The image is framed in an ornate, oval, golden frame.