Maryland Historical Society

Description

Black and white photograph of a Maryland Historical Society (MHS) lithograph of the oil-on-canvas color painting entitled "Moses, the Baltimore News Vendor." The original painting of that title was completed by Thomas Waterman Wood (1823-1903) in 1858. According to a letter from the artist (source: Baltimore Sun), Moses (Moses Small), the African American news vendor, had sold the Baltimore Patriot newspaper for more than fifty years at the time of the painting. In the photograph, however, Moses, who is wearing gentleman's clothing including a long coat over a buttoned vest, shirt, and cravat, with dark-colored trousers and a top hat, is holding a stack of newspapers entitled The Baltimore Gazette. Also, the signature in the lower right corner is that of Sindall, not Wood. It is believed that the artist Sindall was Harry S. Sindall, a Baltimorean who had been commissioned to be the artist on Captain John Pope's expedition to the Texas-New Mexico area between 1855 and 1857 and had joined the Confederacy in 1861 as part of the First Maryland Artillery. To add to the confusion, at the time of the sale of Wood's painting, a dispute arose as to who the buyer of the painting was to be. It is said that the buyer who lost the court case over ownership liked Wood's painting so much that he had employed James H. Cafferty, a renowned New York artist, to create a copy of the Wood's painting. Thus at this time it is not known whether the photograph...

Record Contributed By

Enoch Pratt Free Library / State Library Resource Center

Record Harvested From

Digital Maryland