Unknown Young African-American Woman

Periodca. 1835 - 1845

MediumPen, ink and watercolor over graphite on paper

Dimensions4.2 × 4 in. (10.7 × 10.2 cm)

ClassificationsPortraits

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Ellen Noonan Adams, 2006

Object number2006.15.6

DescriptionPortrait of an African-American woman approximately twenty-five years of age, in left facing profile. The sitter wears her hair smoothed down and curved back over her temples. She wears a ruffled and puffed white day cap, drawn in graphite, and tied under her chin with short ties. She also wears a simple white collar with straight points over a black dress. The latter appears to have dropped shoulders with close-fitting long sleeves that are tight at the wrists. The skirt appears full, with possible cartridge pleating indicated. The subject holds a large black-bound book in her left hand. Her face is boldly and cleanly delineated with a fine black ink outline.
Curatorial RemarksThe backing board of this profile portrait appears to be from another frame, and quite probably from another work altogether. The backing board originally had a handwritten label affixed to its back. Only four small fragments where the corners were glued remain. The top left fragment appears to have the handwritten letter "h" visible. The bottom right fragment appears to have a handwritten date of "1858." The front of the board has glue residue from an earlier image matted and later removed, with fragments of bright green liner paper visible. In addition, the date of 1858 appears much later than the costume details of the portrait.NotesThis rare profile portrait, on loan to the Association from 1963 to 1985, documents the comfortable circumstance of a young woman who may have been part of the free black community in Monmouth County during the years before the Civil War. It, along with companion portraits of a male (accession number 1986.2.1) and female (accession number 1986.2.2) who may have been her parents, were sold to Mary Hartshorne Noonan by her cleaning lady, Dorothy Keyes Brooks, who said that they came from a former slave family who settled in the Navesink area. Research has shown that both of Dorothy's parents came from the south, which rules out her direct line. Another possibility is that they are ancestors of her first husband, Alfred Preval Shemo (1919 - 1998), whose great-grandfather Alfred A. Shemo (1844 - 1913) lived in a black community near Matawan that was called Africa. By 1850, there were 2,328 free blacks in Monmouth County. Many of those individuals still lived in white households working as laborers or domestics. But by that time there is evidence of a small but growing black middle class in the area.

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