2-849-051 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Untitled ("I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance"), 1864/65. [Portrait of Sojourner Truth, born Isabella "Belle" Baumfree (c. 1797-1883), African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in upstate New York, but escaped with her infant daughter in 1826. She copyrighted her own image, allowing the activist who had herself once been sold as property, to profit from the sale of her photograph. Here she holds a piece of knitting. The printed caption alludes to one of photography's early slogans: "Secure the shadow [the photograph] ere the substance [body] fade"]. Albumen print.