(SLAVERY ABOLITION) Carte de visite portrait of Sojourner T

Sale 2598 - Lot 54

Price Realized: $ 5,250

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000

(SLAVERY & ABOLITION.) Carte-de-visite portrait of Sojourner Truth: "I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance." Albumen photograph, 3 1/4 x 2 inches, on original printed mount with caption on recto and her copyright imprint on verso; tack hole in upper margin just touching photograph, 1/2-inch tear in caption area, other minor wear to mount. Michigan, copyright 1864

Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

Sojourner Truth (circa 1797-1883) escaped from slavery in 1826 and became one of the most influential orators of the abolitionist movement. She produced and copyrighted a series of carte-de-visite portraits in various poses to support her work--and to maintain control over her image. This seems to have been her favorite portrait, as it appears on a variety of different mounts and was used as the basis for the engraved frontispiece of her 1875 autobiography. Grigsby, Enduring Truths: Sojourner's Shadows and Substance, pages 43, 73-76 and images 52-56 (with slightly different mounts).