Hidden in Plain Sight

Hidden in Plain Sight: How a Folk Art Discovery Revealed a Rare Abolitionist Statement

The world of American Folk Art is often a game of detective work. Sometimes, the most significant discoveries aren't found in dusty attics, but hanging on a gallery wall, waiting for the right pair of eyes to recognize them.

This past August 2025, during Antiques Week in Manchester, New Hampshire, that exact scenario unfolded in the Saratoga Fine Arts booth. American Folk Art expert and specialist Emily Esser spotted a pair of portraits that were labeled and unsigned yet long-attributed to the well-known 19^th century American folk artist William Matthew Prior by Sotheby’s, which sold them as an undated pair of portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Stetson in 1974 (Figure 1).

Figure 1: William W. Kennedy, Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Stetson

Looking past the paintings’ label, or, as a matter of fact, never even looking at their label at all, Esser convinced us that she recognized the hand of a different, more elusive artist, William W. Kennedy (1817-1871). She showed us key differences in the two artists’ techniques and style and suddenly made it obvious that the portraits were, in fact, painted by Kennedy, not Prior. Esser, we learned, is, in fact, considered a leading scholar of the Prior-Hamblin School of artists, of which Kennedy is a core member. 

The Artist: Stepping Out of the Shadows

Scholars group five key painters into the Prior-Hamblin School: William Matthew Prior (1806–1873), his brother-in-law Sturtevant J. Hamblin (1817–1884), William W. Kennedy (1817– 1871), George G. Hartwell (1815–1901), and E.W. Blake (active c. 1840 to 1850s). If one includes the wider sphere of family members who were artisan painters, the group size increases. The artists are known for their flat, minimalist, and highly stylized portraits. When portraits by different Prior-Hamblin School artists are placed side-by-side, many look stylistically similar, which often makes it difficult to distinguish who painted which one.  

Because Kennedy rarely signed his work and shared the flat aesthetic of his peers, art historians have overshadowed his life and work with the better-known and -documented Prior’s. However, Kennedy’s work has a distinctive sensibility. His stylistic tells were very familiar to Esser, who has looked at more than 130 paintings attributed to William W. Kennedy.

Comparisons to signed or otherwise attributed works by Kennedy convincingly place the portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Stetson within Kennedy’s oeuvre. Specifically, a pair of portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Peace (1847) that are signed and inscribed by Kennedy and which Emily had researched and tagged as a key point in Kennedy’s work underpin her re-attribution (Figure 2).

Figure 2: The upper four photos show that the portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Stetson have a strong stylistic similarity to the bottom four photos of William W. Kennedy’s signed and inscribed portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Peace.

The Stetson portraits were likely painted around the same time as the Peace portraits, in 1847. They were also likely painted in the same location, Great Falls, New Hampshire. At this time and place, Kennedy reached what we might call “a happy medium” in his career, when he successfully merged the sharp details of his 1845 work with the softer rendering he had adopted in 1846.

Esser’s incisive re-attribution of our paintings and her attention to the social, political and industrial history of New Hampshire and the sitters’ and Kennedy’s milieu unlocked a fascinating story that bridges 19th century aesthetics with the fiery and secretive politics of the abolitionist movement. While this artistic re-attribution is a triumph for art historians, the true power of the pair of paintings lies in what Mr. Stetson is holding in his right hand. To gain a greater understanding of its significance to the sitter and the artist, Esser and colleagues extensively researched the social, political, and industrial history of New Hampshire and of the sitters’ and Kennedy’s milieu. In doing so, the scholars unlocked a fascinating story that bridges 19th century aesthetics with the fiery and secretive politics of the abolitionist movement.

The Smoking Gun: An Old Abolitionist Newspaper

In American Folk Art portraiture, the props that appear in paintings are rarely accidental. A book might signify literacy, a rose virtue. As seen In Figure 1, Mr. Elijah Stetson holds a very specific historical document in his right hand: the newspaper Herald of Freedom, Volume 10, No. 39, dated Friday, December 20, 1844, and published in Concord, New Hampshire.

Figure 3: William W. Kennedy, Elijah Stetson's hand holding the Harrold of Freedom. The actual issues masthead reads:"I enter no compromise with slavery. I am for justice in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living god".

This particular prop transforms the portrait from a simple likeness into a declaration of moral conviction because the Herald of Freedom was a radical abolitionist newspaper edited by Nathaniel Peabody Rogers, a tireless advocate for enslaved peoples’ immediate emancipation, women’s rights, animal rights, and temperance.

A Curious Anachronism 

The pair of Stetson portraits were painted circa 1847, yet the newspaper issue in Mr. Elijah Stetson’s hand is dated three years earlier, 1844, which is two years before the newspaper ceased publication in 1846, following Rogers’ death. Clearly the artefact must have meant something to Stetson: At the time, a well-known abolitionist publication would have served as a visual symbol of his political loyalties and been easily understood by his community.

So why did the sitter and the artist choose this particular prop? Its purposeful symbolism may operate on two levels simultaneously: as a symbol of the importance of human freedom and emancipation to Stetson and Kennedy, and as a tribute to the late Rogers and those who worked on the paper with him. Kennedy’s decision to feature this house organ of the New Hampshire Anti-Slavery Society implies more than a passing reference: it implies that, like William Matthew Prior, other Prior-Hamblin School artists supported the abolitionist cause.

The Intersection Between Abolitionists, Baptists, Seamen and Stetsons  

Esser’s research on the symbolism of the Stetson portraits finds that Great Falls, New Hampshire, was a vibrant center for the abolitionist movement. The town’s atmosphere during the mid-19th century was defined by the intersection of religious fervor and industrial power, while the town’s moral pulse was set by Free Will Baptists.

New Hampshire Baptists in the 19th century strongly linked human rights and abolition together through believers’ emphasis on individual conscience, autonomy, and biblical interpretation, with figures like Moses Cheney operating the Underground Railroad and Freewill Baptist publications like the Morning Star advocating immediate emancipation. This made New Hampshire Baptists key players in the broader northern evangelical anti-slavery movement. Our research confirms that the region was rich in Stetson family members who may have been Baptists, with at least one branch having a practicing Free Will Baptist minister who served in New Hampshire. Furthermore, the sitter’s first name, Elijah, is a classic Baptist name based on that of the biblical prophet.

Notably, the town of Great Falls (now Summersworth) is located less than 20 miles from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which was heavily dependent on shipbuilding and other maritime industries in the 19th century. The fact that Mr. Elijah Stetson sports a single gold earring in his portrait – another significant prop – links him to the tradition of sailors wearing gold earrings to carry wealth that could not easily be lost or stolen, to honor superstitions, and to signal that they were men who existed between worlds, land and sea. The seaman’s earring is most often associated with serving as payment for a sailor’s funeral if he washed ashore. While it is difficult to find historical ledgers proving specific transactions where an undertaker accepted a gold earring as payment, the custom is well-documented in folklore and 19th century maritime culture. While Esser’s extensive genealogical research did not surface documentation for a precise identification and exact location for Kennedy’s Stetson sitters, Esser holds that the artist was familiar with seamen, pointing to a signed 1845 portrait by William W. Kennedy of Captain David Worth, a seaman wearing an earring just like that of Mr. Elijah Stetson.

A Pair of American Folk Art Portraits Filled with (Art) Historical Significance

Saratoga Fine Art is pleased to offer such a significant pair of American Folk Art portraits for sale. This acquisition opportunity offers more than just aesthetic value. It documents a specific moment in the visual cultures of 19th century New Hampshire and America. The portraits capture how everyday citizens – not just famous activists – chose to present their political identities. Kennedy’s depictions of the Stetsons also provide an important and heretofore unproven link between Prior-Hamblin School artists other than Prior and the abolitionists, confirming that these artists moved in circles that supported emancipation since abolitionists tended to congregate together.

Signed or definitively attributed works by William W. Kennedy, like this pair, are rare. Moreover, the Stetson portraits are a testament to the fact that in American Folk Art, the details always matter. A newspaper is never just a newspaper, a portrait never merely a painting: it is a window into the soul of the sitter and, in this case, into the turbulent times in which Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Stetson and the artist lived, a decade before the start of the American Civil War.[i]

We would like to thank Ms. Emily Esser for sharing her research, insights, and writings about the pair of Stetson portraits and her identification and re-attribution of their artist as William W. Kennedy. Ms. Esser maintains a website at https://www.paintingsworthlookingat.com.