Mary P. Turpin Booth and Ann[e] Elizabeth Turpin Allen

Inscriptions

Brass mat, stamped, lower left: A. WASHINGTON; stamped, lower right: 136 MAIN ST. / HARTFORD; case, embossed, on reverse [in oval]: WASHINGTON / 136 / GALLERY / MAIN ST. / HARTFORD; accompanying slip of paper, inscribed, in graphite: L. / Mary P. / Booth; R. / Anne / Elizabeth J. / Turpin [squeezed in ] / Allen

Label

This studio portrait of two well-appointed sisters is by the free African American and South Asian daguerreotypist Augustus Washington, who made photographs to support his studies at Dartmouth. Ultimately unable to afford the College, he moved to Hartford, Connecticut, and set up his studio within a decade of the introduction of the photographic process to the world. Despite prospering as one of the leading daguerreotypists in the region, he grew very concerned about the threat to his and his family’s freedom following the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which led to numerous free Black people being kidnapped and sold into slavery. Eventually, this fear led to him and his family immigrating to Liberia, Africa.

From the 2026 exhibition Inhabiting Historical Time: Slavery and Its Afterlives, curated by Amelia Kahl (Barbara C. & Harvey P. Hood 1918 Senior Curator of Academic Programming) and Alisa Swindell (Associate Curator of Photography)

Course History

ARTH 48.08, The Photographic Medium, Allan Doyle, Winter 2019

SART 29, Photography I, Christina Seely, Spring 2019

ARTH 48.02, History of Photography, Katie Hornstein, Winter 2020

HIST 7.32, Civil War Photographs, Robert Bonner, Winter 2022

WRIT 5.05, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Fall 2022

WRIT 5.06, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Fall 2022

Writing 5.24, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Fall 2023

Writing 5.25, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Fall 2023

English 30.01, African and African American Studies 34.01, Early Black American LIterature, Michael Chaney, Winter 2024

Writing 5.32, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Winter 2024

Writing 5.33, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Winter 2024

Art History 48.02, Histories of Photography, Katie Hornstein, Spring 2024

African and African American Studies 7.01, Picturing African American History, Michael Chaney, Spring 2024

Writing 5.20, Foundations at Dartmouth, Doug Moody, Fall 2024

Writing 5.23, Foundations of Dartmouth: Samson Occom, Edward Mitchell, and the History and Cultures of Native American, African American, and “Minority” Students at Dartmouth College, Doug Moody, Winter 2025

Exhibition History

American Works on Paper to 1950: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Friends and Owen Robertson Cheatham Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 22-December 9, 2007.

Augustus Washington, African American Daguerreotypist, Gene Y. Kim Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 2006.

Inhabiting Historical Time: Slavery and Its Afterlives, Jaffe and Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 20, 2025 - July 11, 2026.

Publication History

Barbara J. MacAdam, Recent Alumni Gifts Represent Dartmouth Artists Augustus Washington and Paul Sample, Hood Museum of Art Quarterly, No. 16, Summer 2006, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College.

Annual Report 2005-6, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2006, ill. p.12.

Provenance

Unidentified Ohio dealer found the image in Painesville, Lake County, Ohio, along with other images including some identified as Eli Booth and a couple more identified as Mary Booth (said to have come from an old hotel); (the 1870 census for Mauch Chuck, Pennsylvania lists a Hotel Keeper Elias Booth and his wife Mary P. Booth, born Connecticut and at the corresponding age for Mary P. Turpin in 1860 Census); sold to Walt Plunkett, Tuscon, Arizona (dealer); sold via e-bay to Andrew Lewin, Scarsdale, New York, 2005; given to present collection, 2005.

This record is part of an active database that includes information from historic documentation that may not have been recently reviewed. Information may be inaccurate or incomplete. We also acknowledge some language and imagery may be offensive, violent, or discriminatory. These records reflect the institution’s history or the views of artists or scholars, past and present. Our collections research is ongoing.

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Subjects