Hannah Morgan Stillman

Hannah Morgan Stillman

Christian Gullager Boston, Massachusetts circa 1789
Oil on canvas
76.36
Friends of the Museum Purchase

Hannah Morgan Stillman’s expensive dress serves two purposes in her portrait. First, it distinguishes her as the matron of an affluent household. The expensive nature of the fabrics in this painting places her in Boston’s upper class. Secondly, the lack of fertility symbolism suggests that she is more of a caregiver and no longer a child-bearer. This we know to be true because by 1789, Hannah bore 14 children and in the next decade would establish the Boston Female Asylum, later the Boston Society for the Care of Girls.