Celebrating the Bible in Women's History
Carte de Visite Photograph of Ann Wilkins
Carte de Visite Photograph of Ann Wilkins
PHO.000279.11
Photograph
mid-1800s
United States
N/A
Photographic Print
4.1 × 2.5 × 0.2 in. (10.4 × 6.3 × 0.5 cm)
Not on View
This photograph is of Ann Wilkins (1806–1857), the first unmarried female American Methodist missionary to be sent out alone. After hearing about ongoing missions in Liberia at a camp meeting, Ann wrote a note to the Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society stating, “A sister who has but little money at command, gives that little cheerfully, and is willing to give her life as a female teacher if she is wanted.” She left for Liberia in 1837 and later established the Millsburg Female Academy, one of the first mission schools dedicated to serving the indigenous Liberians. Here, Ann is seated in front of a window with a Liberian village visible in the background. She served in Liberia for 20 years.
Created in the mid-1800s by William Shaw Warren, Boston, Massachusetts.[1] Acquired by 2010 by Gene Albert (Christian Heritage Museum), Hagerstown, Maryland; Privately purchased in 2010 by Green Collection, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Donated in 2017 to National Christian Foundation (later The Signatry), under the curatorial care of Museum of the Bible, Washington, DC.
Notes: [1] W. [William] Shaw Warren was a photographer in Boston at 41 Winter Street in the mid to late 1800s and was prolific during the Carte de Visite era. The back of the photograph contains the photographer’s pictorial label. An inscription on the back of the card reads, “Ann Wilkins, 1st Missionary home to Africa.”
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