?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
Walker, Dr. Mary Edwards (1832-1919) Full-length Photographic Portrait.
New York: Brown Brothers Photographers, Illustrators, & Correspondents, circa 1911, from a circa 1860 image.
The image mounted on card and marked up with blue pencil for publication, with label and markings on verso of mount; the image shows Dr. Walker in her first Prince Albert coat, wearing a man's hat, trousers and boots, and holding a walking stick in her right hand, her long hair cascades over her shoulders in ringlets, the image was published in several American newspapers in September 1911 and was adapted as a bust wood engraving in about the same period; top left corner of mount chipped, the image 5 1/2 x 3 7/8 in. on a 7 3/8 x 5 1/4 in. mount.
Mary Walker was raised in Oswego, New York by progressive parents who actively worked against stereotypical gender roles in their own lives and the socialization of their children. After finishing at Falley Seminary in Fulton, NY, she enrolled at Syracuse Medical College, graduating with honors in 1855. During the Civil War, denied the right to join the armed forces, she practiced as a civilian battlefield surgeon at the First Battle of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chattanooga, and the Battle of Chickamauga. She was captured and imprisoned by the Confederates at Castle Thunder in the spring and summer of 1864. After the war, she was awarded the Armed Forces Medal of Honor, and received a pension. Dr. Walker's progressive views extended to strong beliefs in women's suffrage and the abolition of slavery. She appeared conspicuous and unconventional to her contemporaries because of the way she dressed. Layers of petticoats, tight corsets, and long gowns were a hindrance to mobility and a danger to women's health, in Walker's opinion. She dressed in pants and other clothing considered to belong to men throughout her life, and advocated that restrictions and control over women's choice in clothing be abandoned. Arrested in New Orleans, jailed, mocked, denigrated, and bullied, she remained staunchly committed to her position until her death at the age of eighty-six.
