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Untitled ("I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance")

An older black woman in white bonnet, wire glasses, long dress, and shawl sits holding yarn. She looks at the camera thoughtfully, one hand raised, with her elbow resting on a small table. Beneath her is the caption "I sell the shadow to support the substance. Sojourner Truth."
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • An older black woman in white bonnet, wire glasses, long dress, and shawl sits holding yarn. She looks at the camera thoughtfully, one hand raised, with her elbow resting on a small table. Beneath her is the caption "I sell the shadow to support the substance. Sojourner Truth."

Date:

1864-65

Artist:

Sojourner Truth, American (c. 1797-1883)
in collaboration with S. C. Wright, American (active mid-late 19th century)

About this artwork

Isabella Baumfree was born into slavery in upstate New York, but she escaped with her infant daughter in 1826. Under the name Sojourner Truth, she campaigned for abolition, protections for emancipated slaves, and voting rights for African Americans and women, disseminating her message by writing several memoirs and lecturing widely to rapt audiences. Truth used photography in shrewd ways to promote her causes. She sat for her portrait several times, selling cartes de visite—small, inexpensive images widely circulated in the 1860s and 1870s by celebrities and everyday sitters alike—to fund her activities. In an unprecedented move, Truth copyrighted her own image, allowing the activist who had herself once been sold as property to profit from the sale of her photograph. The printed caption plays on one of photography’s early slogans: “Secure the shadow [the photograph] ere the substance [body] fade.”

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Sojourner Truth

Title

Untitled ("I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance")

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1864–1865

Medium

Albumen print

Dimensions

Image/paper: 8.8 × 5.6 cm (3 1/2 × 2 1/4 in.); Mount: 10 × 6.2 cm (3 15/16 × 2 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of W. Bruce and Delaney H. Lundberg

Reference Number

2016.468

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/238249/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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