2 1/4 x 3 3/4 in. CDV on cardstock mount (toning, light wear and soiling to mount edges and corners). Vignetted oval bust portrait of Helen Pitts Douglass wearing floral accents in her hair and on her dress. 

Suffragist Helen Pitts Douglass (1838-1903) was born to a prominent New York family and attended Mount Holyoke College, from which she graduated in 1859. After teaching at Virginia's Hampton Institute, Pitts was hired to work for Douglass in Washington, DC, clerking in the office of the Recorder of Deeds while he worked on his autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Two years after the passing of Douglass's first wife, Anna Murray Douglass, Pitts and Douglass were married in 1884. Their marriage would last for 11 years, until Douglass died of a heart attack. Their union drew heavy criticism, even from members of their own families, including Douglass's children. Their home at Cedar Hill was inherited by Douglass's children, from whom Pitts purchased it and established the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association.

RARE: We could locate only one other example, a larger version of this portrait, curated by the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.