Mar 20 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2697 -

Sale 2697 - Lot 313

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(PHOTOGRAPHY.) Carte-de-visite portrait of "Aunt Mary." Albumen photograph, 3½ x 2¼ inches, on original photographer's mount, captioned in print in lower margin: "Aunt Mary. 'Honies, 'twill not be this poor old colored woman, but I'll be blooming in immortal youth, with palms of victory in my hands, and a crown of dazzling glory on my head'"; minor wear including a short faint crease in lower left margin. Philadelphia: F. Gutekunst, circa 1866
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Additional Details

Another example of this portrait is held by the National Gallery of Art, which identifies the sitter as Mary Dines. She escaped from slavery early in the Civil War and made her way to a Washington refugee camp. There, she later recalled leading a group of singers in spiritual songs, and spotted Abraham and Mary Lincoln among the audience: "To her great surprise, as she came out to call the next song, ‘Every Time I Feel the Spirit,' she saw President Lincoln wiping the tears off his face with his bare hands." (John E. Washington, "They Knew Lincoln, page 68).

The photographer moved to this 712 Arch Street address circa 1866.

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