William Sidney Mount was known for his keenly-observed portraits and scenes of everyday life on Long Island during the first half of the 19th century. He portrayed farmers, fiddlers, tradesmen, and workers in their natural haunts, laughing, singing, and enjoying life.
But if you look closely, Mount’s pictures portray more than rural idylls. Many of the people in his paintings were taken from real life, and many of them were people of color. Katherine Kirkpatrick and Vivian Nicholson-Mueller took a deep dive into these paintings and cross referenced them with Mount’s journals and contemporary records, maps, the federal census, and cemetery gravestones. What they found looking back at them were the lives of Mount’s models, people of Black and Native American ancestry like Mary Brewster, Robin Mills, and Henry Brazier.
On this episode, Katherine and Vivian discuss their research and how it helped illuminate the world of William Sidney Mount, 19th century genre painting, and – most important of all – the lives of local Setauket, Stony Brook, and Old Field residents who had been forgotten by history.
You can listen to the episode here.
The Long Island History Project is an independent podcast featuring stories and interviews with people passionate about Long Island history. It is hosted by academic librarian Chris Kretz.
For a full list of this week’s New York Almanack podcasts announcements click HERE.
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