This silhouette portrait of Mrs. Rachel Asbury was cut in 1825 by an unidentified artist and bears a melancholy inscription that reveals that the image was taken on her death bed on the 10th of February 1825.

Keeping memories alive

Before the advent of photography, most people had no way to create a permanent image of their loved ones. One could, and many did, save locks of hair—sometimes artfully arranged on paper or set into jewelry, but more commonly just a curl of hair tucked into a piece of paper with a name--but capturing an image was a challenge. Painted portraits were expensive to commission and most people did not possess the artistic ability to produce one on their own. But in the late 1700s and early 1800s, an art form that was inexpensive to produce and easy enough for even an amateur to learn reigned supreme—the silhouette. Although lacking the detail of a portrait, these profiles—whether cut from paper or painted in India ink—captured the imagination of 19th century audiences.

E. Nevill Jackson’s The History of Silhouettes provides us with a romantic but likely apocryphal account of the origin of silhouettes, although it is one that meshes well with our featured object:

The subtle appeal of the silhouette is inevitably associated with death, in its legendary origin. Filled with joyous anticipation, thrilling with the thought of the woman he would soon hold in his arms, a lover returned after a short absence to find that his betrothed was dead; he rushed into the death chamber, maddened with grief, to look his last on the face of his beloved before it should be hidden from him for ever. There on the wall the shadow of the dead woman’s features appeared in perfect outline, for a taper at the head of the bier cast the shadow. With reverent hand the man traced the portrait, which he believed to have been specially sent as consolation.

At the turn of the 19th century, silhouettes or profiles became an inexpensive and popular way for people to acquire, preserve, and exchange images of themselves. Itinerant silhouette artists set up in town halls and other public buildings, offering to cut profile portraits for as little as 25 cents. To attract audiences, many profile makers offered entertaining extras, even money back guarantees. In addition to having one’s likeness produced, visitors to the young prodigy Master James Hubard in Boston in 1825 were treated to an exhibition of—and performance of--the “Panharmonicum,” a “wonderful piece of musical mechanism, which, in itself, performs a delightful concert on 206 instruments.” In 1828, visitors to Master Hankes in Salem could “see the Gallery of Cuttings, and … obtain a Correct Likeness in Bust, cut in a few seconds without drawing or machine. By sight alone! and simply with a common pair of scissors by Mr. Hankes …” for a mere 25 cents.

After exhausting the supply of sitters in one town, the artists simply moved on to the next. But, since the creation of silhouettes required little more than a light source, a steady hand, and sharp scissors, even amateurs could produce images of their friends and family members. As popular as silhouettes were, however, they would be replaced within a few decades by increasingly sophisticated and inexpensive photographs as the means to record, preserve, and share one’s image.

Who was Mrs. Rachel Asbury?

Rachel (Binney) Asbury was born in 1795 in Hull, Massachusetts, the daughter of Spencer and Molly (Jones) Binney. According to the memoir penned by her husband, Rachel experienced a spiritual awakening after the death of her father in 1811. She moved to Boston and under the preaching of Rev. Elijah Hedding, “fasted, prayed, and attended to all the means of grace, public and private, until the Lord Jesus appeared for her deliverance.” She was known for her “exemplary conduct before men, as well as by her constant attendance upon all the ordinances of religion.” In July of 1823, she married an itinerant Methodist Episcopal minister named Thomas Asbury; the two set out the next month for Ohio, pausing for a time in New York state, where the couple’s son, Thomas Binney Asbury, was born in 1824.

In Autumn of that year, the Asbury family finally arrived in Ohio, settling in Urbana, where they “were kindly received and treated.” Here, the story takes its tragic turn. In the words of Rev. Asbury, “the fatal hectic, a family disorder [consumption], made its appearance on the cheek of my dear Rachel, and admonished me of the almost certainty that her stay with me would not be long.” Rachel herself was well aware of her plight, telling her husband that the “pains and afflictions which I have borne for some time past, I am fast sinking under, and death only will deliver me from them.” Comforted by her faith, she viewed her suffering as God “preparing me for the glory of heaven.” On the 10th of February 1825, Rachel “breathed her life out sweetly” at the age of 29, having first had her image preserved by an unknown silhouette artist. One can only imagine the comfort taken in this profile portrait by her grieving husband and the son who was just an infant at the time of her death.

Silhouettes at the Massachusetts Historical Society

Among the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society are 350 cataloged silhouettes ranging from members of the Adams family; to Lucy Flucker Knox with her elaborate wig and precariously perched hat; and many others whose identities are long since lost, for example, an unidentified young girl. The collection contains examples by many of the known itinerant silhouette artists including the young masters Hankes and Hubard who plied their trade in Boston and beyond during the 1820s and Miss Martha Ann Honeywell who was able to master the art despite having been born with no hands and only three toes. The collection also includes examples by more prominent artists Charles Willson Peale, Rembrandt Peale, William King, and William M. S. Doyle.