Cabinet card of Mary Jane Hale Welles in a funeral dress by Elizabeth Keckley
- Photograph by
- Ulke, Henry, German-American, 1821 - 1910
- Subject of
- Welles, Mary Jane Hale, American, 1817 - 1886
- Keckley, Elizabeth Hobbs, American, 1818 - 1907
- Date
- 1866
- Medium
- albumen and silver on photographic paper on cardboard
- Dimensions
- H x W (Image): 5 1/2 × 3 7/8 in. (14 × 9.9 cm)
- H x W (Sheet): 6 7/16 × 4 3/16 in. (16.4 × 10.6 cm)
- Caption
- This portrait depicts Mary Jane Hale Welles, wife of Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, in a funeral dress. The dress is said to have been sewn and designed by Elizabeth Keckley for the funeral of her son Hubert Gideon Welles in 1862, and again worn by Welles at the funeral of President Lincoln in 1865.
- Description
- This is a cabinet card portrait of Mary Jane Hale Welles in a funeral dress, on a Henry Ulke mount that has a narrow black border. This full length portrait shows Mary Jane Hale Welles standing in a three quarters turn away from the camera. Wearing a dark colored full-length dress with a train and a dark colored lace shawl, she gazes directly at the viewer. Her right hand rests on a small side table next to her with two books stacked on it. The print is on a card mount with text on the reverse that reads "Henry Ulke, / 278 Pennsylvania Avenue. / Washington, D.C. / 1866."
- Place used
- Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
- Classification
- Media Arts-Photography
- Type
- cabinet photographs
- albumen prints
- portraits
- Topic
- Clothing and dress
- Craftsmanship
- Free communities of color
- Funeral customs and rites
- Motherhood
- Photography
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Object number
- 2018.35.2.2
- Restrictions & Rights
- Public domain
2 image(s)