Rev. Henry Simmons portrait, 1838
Permanent ID:
877
Date:
1838
Image Description:
Reverend Henry Simmons was born a Virginia slave. He purchased his freedom and traveled to Philadelphia for opportunity to establish an African Baptist congregation. Working as a ragman, he saved up enough to purchase a plot of land and build his church. In 1809, construction was completed on the “First Incorporated African Baptist Church in the City of Philadelphia,” and Simmons achieved his dream and became its Pastor. There is less written about Simmons, but it has been argued, that he was just as influential in the early black community of Philadelphia as his contemporaries, the reverends Absalom Jones and Richard Allen. The church was located near 10th and Vine Street. The engraver of this grandiose portrait, like its subject, had also overcome many obstacles. Albert Newsam was born deaf and orphaned at an early age in his home state of Ohio. He was eventually placed in the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. After graduation, he apprenticed to an engraver in 1827, and later became the primary engraver for publisher Peter S. Duval. His health and eyesight declined in old age and Newsam died destitute in the Living Home for the Sick and Well in Delaware. HSP holds a collection of his delicate, chalk-style portraits.
Inscription:
P.S. Duval Lith. Philada. / Joseph Kyle pinxt. / Engraved by A. Newsam. / REVD. HENRY SIMMONS / Pastor of the First incorporated African Baptist Church in the City of Philadelphia. / Published by Joseph How. / JESUS came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John in Jordan. St. Mark C IV 9. / Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1838. by Joseph How, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylva.
(Beneath Portrait)
Address:
Philadelphia
Format:
Lithographs
Dimensions:
Width: 51.9 cm, Height: 38.2 cm
