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The Filson Historical Society Digital Projects The Filson Historical Society Digital Projects
The Filson Historical Society Digital Projects

Browse Items (13 total)

  • Jemima Pearsall Castleman married Johannes "Lewis" Castleman in Frederick, Virginia, in 1765, when she was approximately fifteen years of age. She was the mother of eight children that were born between 1770 and 1797. She came to the frontier with her husband sometime between 1787 and 1800. They lived on a farm along Clear Creek in Woodford County that included a tannery and a distillery that made apple brandy. The Castlemans enslaved ten persons in 1810 and eighteen persons in 1819.
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  • Wearing what appears to be a mourning brooch similar in style to 1962.3.1 and 1962.3.4.

  • Hannah Deweese was married to Cornelius DeWeese and lived on a 900 acre farm, Hunter’s Bottom, in Carroll County, Kentucky. She was in her 30s when this portrait was painted of her, with what appears to be hair and/or mourning jewelry, including a brooch similar in style to pieces in the Filson's collection (see 1962.3.1 & 1962.3.3), a bracelet, and a ring. When Hannah died in 1884, eight of her thirteen children preceded her in death.

  • Hattie Leona Palmer, who was just 3 years old when she passed in 1876 was memorialized in a large portrait. Hattie or “Little Leona” was the daughter of Reuben Palmer (1824-1909) and Hattie J. Knepfly Main (1849-1911). A framed hand inscribed death announcement immortalizes Leona as a “bright little cherub, not only the pet of the household, but the favorite of the neighborhood. Well may it be said that ‘Death loves a shining mark,’ and his icy grasp heeds not age or condition. “Little Leona” the fairest flower, has been plucked from the bosom of living friends to be transplanted above and bloom in eternal spring.” See also the dress she wore in the painting (2011.23.2).

  • Fanny was the daughter of James W. Henning (brother of Fanny Henning Speed) and Mildred E. Maupin (b. 1821), who died in 1850 of accidental poisoning, along with an infant she was nursing. Fanny died in October, 1866 around the age of 18 or 19 from Phthisis, also known as tuberculosis. A year after Fannie’s death, her father commissioned artist G.P.A Healy to paint several family portraits. Fanny’s portrait shows her as a child rather than a teenager. It is believed that the only known image of her was a daguerreotype taken when she was a child. The photograph only depicted her from the bust up. Her half-sister Lulie, born in 1860 to J.W Henning and his second wife Sarah Katherine Cowan Buck (1827-1919) wore Fanny’s dress and modeled for the artist.

  • Joshua Fry Speed (1814-1882) and Fanny Henning Speed (1820-1902) portrait. Oil on canvas 45.5 x 55.5 inches. Fanny Speed is wearing what appears to be a mourning brooch, similar to brooches in the Filson's collection (see 1982.13.10 and 1990.5.2). See also 1981.8.20.

  • Henning and Hobb family miniature portraits, including mourning portrait of Susan Henning Hobbs (1816-1835) (top), first wife of Edward Dorsey Hobbs. Painted in grisaille manner to indicate her death around the age 19. The family miniatures were later framed together. Other miniatures include: Edward Dorsey Hobbs (left-center) (son of Mary Ann Hobbs), Mary Ann Dorsey Hobbs (center), Susan Hobbs Luckett (right-center)(daughter of Marry Ann Hobbs), and Fanny Henning Speed (bottom) (see also 1935.14).

  • Miniature portrait of Caleb Bates. On the reverse is a photograph of his granddaughter, Florence Montgomery Durrett (1863-1869), who died at the age of 6.

  • Portrait of Julius Friedman in his studio by Jim Cantrell.

  • Patty Thum was known for her paintings of flowers, especially roses but she was also a talented landscape and portrait artist. She is one of the city's earliest professional woman artists. She also was an author, inventor, and major advocate for the arts in the City of Louisville. She dedicated her life to art from the age of 16 right up until her death at the age of 73.

    Born in Louisville in 1853, Patty was the eldest child of Louisa Miller and Mandeville Thum, a doctor with a practice on Jefferson Street. Patty attended the Louisville Girl's School (the city's first public school). Patty was 9 years old when her father died in 1862, serving as a surgeon for the Confederate 7th Arkansas Infantry. Louisa never remarried and ensured her sons and daughters all attended college.

    In 1869, at the age of 16, Thum left home and traveled north to study art at Vassar College, established in 1861 to "accomplish for young women what our colleges are accomplishing for young men."

  • Portrait of Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston

  • Hand-knitted and embroidered textile created in honor of Eliza Hundley Curtis Tevis Coleman.

    Eliza Tevis was born into slavery ca. 1800, most likely in Virginia. In her early life she was enslaved by John and Thomas Hundley, who owned an estate in southeast Jefferson County. She was emancipated in 1833, and Thomas Hundley left her property, money, and household furnishings in his will. When she married Henry Tevis in 1843, instead of forfeiting her legal rights and possessions to her husband, she arranged a prenuptial agreement with her lawyer, James Guthrie.

    Irene Mudd is a visual artist based in Louisville, Kentucky. Utilizing many different types of media, her work explores themes of women’s untold stories and how folklore and mythology interplay with this undocumented history. She originally created her knitted portraits for a Bachelor of Fine Arts show at the University of Louisville.
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  • Five undated images of Hobart Russell with various props and poses.
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