Images(5)

Portrait of Martin Delany

Object number2023.166.1

Artist Loïs Mailou Jones (1905 - 1998)

Date1938

MediumPaper; Charcoal; Ink; Graphite

Credit LineMuseum purchase

DescriptionCharcoal drawing on rectangular textured lightweight buff wove paper. Bust portrait depicts African American male dressed in a black double-breasted military jacket with white shirt beneath. Subject's body is in front view and his head is in three-quarter view facing slightly proper right. Subject has close-cropped black hair and black mustache. Background is light gray. DimensionsHeight x Width: 19 x 14.5 in. (48.3 x 36.8 cm)
SignedArtist signature in charcoal above the subject's proper left shoulder "Loïs M. Jones".
InscriptionsFront has handwritten numbers in pencil in the viewer's top left corner margin "5/6".

Reverse has handwritten numbers in pencil in the viewer's bottom left corner "6 5/8 x 8 1/8" and viewer's bottom right corner "85 / 8576 / 2".
MarksReverse has handwritten text in black ink the viewer's bottom right quadrant "Signed April 28th 1990 / Lois Mailou Jones".
Historical NotesThis charcoal drawing of Martin Delany is one of 30 portraits that Lois Mailou Jones created for Carter G. Woodson's book "African Heroes and Heroines" that was published in 1939. According to an inscription on the back of the frame, this portrait was also later published as a cover illustration for a 1971 publication of Carter G. Woodson's pamphlet "African Then and Now." Martin Robison Delany, born in Charles Town, Virginia, 1812, moved to Pittsburgh in 1831. A staunch abolitionist and proponent of African emigration, Delany met with President Abraham Lincoln in February 1865 and was commissioned a major in the United States Colored Troops, 104th Regiment Department of the South during the Civil War. This commission made Delany the highest ranking African American officer in United States military history.

Related person Martin Robison Delany (1812 - 1885)

Previous owner Dr. James K. Hill (1935 - 2020)

Subjects