Carte-de-Visite Portrait of Amanda Berry Smith.
New York: R. A. Lewis, 160 Chatham Street, circa late 1860s to early 1870s. Albumen print on original mount. Approximately 2½ x 4 inches. Light toning and minor wear to mount; image clear and well-preserved. Item #Cat347
A studio portrait of Amanda Berry Smith, the formerly enslaved African-American evangelist who emerged in the late 1860s as one of the most prominent female preachers in the Methodist holiness movement. The photograph shows Smith seated in three-quarter view, wearing a plain bonnet and shawl, holding a book in her lap—an image consistent with her cultivated public identity as a modest yet authoritative religious figure. The imprint of R. A. Lewis at 160 Chatham Street places the photograph in New York during the period when Smith was actively preaching in the city and surrounding regions.
Following an experience of sanctification in 1868, Smith began preaching in African-American churches in New York and New Jersey, soon extending her ministry to mixed and predominantly white audiences at camp meetings and revival gatherings. By 1869, after the deaths of her husband and several of her children, she had committed herself fully to itinerant evangelism, traveling widely throughout the Northeast and Midwest. Her appearance before integrated congregations in the early 1870s, including Methodist holiness meetings, brought her unusual prominence as a Black woman preacher at a time when both racial and gender barriers sharply limited such roles. [1]
During the decade following 1870, Smith traveled extensively as an independent evangelist, addressing audiences across New England and the Middle States and gaining recognition for preaching on sanctification and the possibility of overcoming racial prejudice through religious experience. Her ministry in these years laid the foundation for her later international work in England, India, and West Africa.
Photographic images of Smith from this early period are scarce, particularly those issued by New York studios during her initial rise to prominence. The present portrait captures her at the moment she transitioned from local preacher to widely recognized itinerant evangelist. We find no examples of this image or records of similar cartes-de-visite in auction records or commerce.
[1] “Amanda Berry Smith,” Illinois Heritage, Northern Illinois University Libraries, archived September 19, 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20200919052750/https://www.lib.niu.edu/1998/ihwt9820.html.
Price: $6,000.00