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Lydia Maria Francis Child, 1802-1880
Lydia Maria Child served on the executive board of the American Anti-Slavery Society, believing that women could accomplish more by working along- side men than they could working separately. She also advocated for the rights of Native Americans. When Child sat for this silhouette in 1841, she was a prominent writer and ardent abolitionist.
Auguste Edouart depicts Child seated as she concentrates on reading a text whose even lines suggest a printed book. Child wrote novels, as well as fiction and poetry that appeared in periodicals and newspapers. Her most famous poem begins, "Over the river and through the woods." Child's popularity was due in part to her ability to write in an entertaining style that sustained middle-class morals. Yet she also wrote more controversial works, such as Hobomok: A Tale of Early Times. The novel, published under a pseudonym, focuses on the marriage between a white woman and a Native American man and the child they had together.
Auguste Edouart, 1841 |