1932
James VanDerZee – Couple in Raccoon Coats (1932)
James VanDerZee’s Couple in Raccoon Coats is one of the most celebrated photographic portraits of the Harlem Renaissance. The image depicts…
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Photography186293Legendary
Frederick Douglass Signed Carte-de-Visite (Hurn, 1862)
Description
A boldly signed carte-de-visite photograph of Frederick Douglass — "Frederick Douglass" in his full hand beneath his image — taken at the Philadelphia studio of John White Hurn, most likely during Douglass's January 14, 1862 visit to the city to speak at National Hall, one block from Hurn's studio (Library of Congress, Freeman's/Fleischer's Auctions). Douglass is shown in a 4/5 bust pose, dressed in coat, waistcoat, and tie; there's no photographer's imprint, but the pose is unquestionably attributed to Hurn's studio and this sitting (AbeBooks listing).
Significance
As the most prominent African American abolitionist, orator, journalist, and antislavery leader of the 19th century, Douglass rarely signed photographs of himself, and this example directly documents the personal network — Hurn, Underground Railroad organizer Miller McKim, and the Thomas and Louisa Dorsey family — that protected him after Harpers Ferry, linking a major artifact of Black portrait photography to one of the most consequential personal-safety episodes of the Underground Railroad era.
Key Notes
- Useful for teaching about the Underground Railroad's informal protection networks, the carte-de-visite format's role in 19th-century celebrity and activist self-presentation, and how Douglass — famously the most photographed American of the 19th century — used photography deliberately to counter dehumanizing depictions of Black Americans.
Sources Referenced
Provenance
John White Hurn (1823–1887) was a Philadelphia telegraph operator and photographer who, in 1859, intercepted and delayed a telegram ordering Douglass's arrest as a suspected conspirator after John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry — giving Douglass time to reach the Underground Railroad and escape to Rochester, then Canada. Douglass later credited Hurn directly: "You, no doubt, saved my life" ( DC Theater Arts — Hurn family account ). Douglass returned to sit for Hurn's camera in 1862, 1866, and 1873, producing as many as nine surviving photographs — the most by any Douglass photographer ( Longreads — "By the Reflection of What Is" ). The current dealer, Gerard A.J. Stodolski, Inc. Autographs (ABAA/ILAB member), states this specific signed pose cannot be located in any of the 65 major repositories known to hold Douglass photographs, making it possibly a unique surviving signed example. Condition is listed as used/near fine, with minor faults ( AbeBooks listing ).
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