Object Details
- Attribution
- Raphaelle Peale, 17 Feb 1774 - 4 Mar 1825
- Sitter
- Abigail Smith Adams, 11 Nov 1744 - 28 Oct 1818
- Exhibition Label
- Abigail Smith Adams challenged social and political limitations by advocating for women’s rights, education, and the abolition of slavery. She readily expressed her opinions in letters to her husband, John Adams, by reminding him to “Remember the Ladies” as he helped to establish the new nation’s institutions. Always outspoken, Adams struggled to suppress her opinions when her husband served as president. Adams and her husband retired to Quincy, Massachusetts, at the close of his presidential term in 1800. This hollow-cut silhouette was probably made in October 1804 when the artist Raphaelle Peale stayed with the Adamses while traveling along the eastern seaboard in search of sitters for profile portraits. The inscription and date were added in 1809 by John Quincy Adams when he grouped a number of family members’ silhouettes together in one frame.
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
- 1804
- Object number
- NPG.78.282
- Restrictions & Rights
- CC0
- Type
- Silhouette
- Medium
- Hollow-cut silhouette, white paper on modern black paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 9 × 3 cm (3 9/16 × 1 3/16")
- Sheet: 10.4 × 8.6 cm (4 1/8 × 3 3/8")
- Mount: 17.9 × 14 cm (7 1/16 × 5 1/2")
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Location
- Currently not on view
- National Portrait Gallery
- Topic
- Silhouette\Hollow-cut
- Costume\Headgear\Hat\Bonnet
- Abigail Smith Adams: Female
- Abigail Smith Adams: Politics and Government\First Lady\First Lady of US
- Abigail Smith Adams: Arts and Culture\Literature\Writer\Letter writer
- Portrait
- Record ID
- npg_NPG.78.282
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm49b960e9a-36e5-4d71-bdfa-d17f6d6fb846
