Snapshots of the Past

Phillis Wheatley, Negro servant to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston – Historic Reproduction

Phillis Wheatley, Negro servant to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston, [London], Archd. Bell, 1773 Sept. 1. — antique engraving
Phillis Wheatley, Negro servant to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston, [London], Archd. Bell, 1773 Sept. 1.. Antique engraving from the African American History collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

A window into the past: Phillis Wheatley, Negro servant to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston, preserved in this antique engraving. An authentic image from the Library of Congress, it carries the weight of the real historical record.

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Phillis Wheatley, Negro servant to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston

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Titled as Mr. John Wheatley's servant, this engraving shows Phillis Wheatley as the frontispiece to her 1773 *Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral*, printed in London by the bookseller Archibald Bell. The book was published in England because no Boston printer would take it on, and a preface signed by prominent Boston men attested that an enslaved African woman had written the verses. The engraving is generally thought to derive from a design by Scipio Moorhead, an enslaved artist in Boston whom Wheatley addressed in one of her poems.

Created / published[London], Archd. Bell, 1773 Sept. 1.
Medium1 print : engraving.
GenreBook illustrations 1770-1780.Frontispieces 1770-1780.Portrait prints 1770-1780.Engravings 1770-1780.
NotesIllus. in: Poems on various subjects, religious and moral / Phillis Wheatley. London : Printed for A. Bell, bookseller, Aldgate, 1773, frontispiece. Reference copy in Prints and Photographs Division, BIOG FILE - Wheatley, Phillis, 1753-1784. Published in: American women : a Library of Congress guide for the study of women's history and culture in the United States / edited by Sheridan Harvey ... [et al.]. Washington : Library of Congress, 2001, p. 181.
SubjectsWheatley, Phillis,--1753-1784. African Americans--Women--1770-1780. Women--1770-1780. Poets--1770-1780.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,140 × 1,463 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-219112

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