Annis Sharper

DateCirca 1850

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensions19 1/4 × 24 in. (48.9 × 61 cm)

Object number00.31

Institutional Credit LineCourtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum

DescriptionThe painting shows Annis Sharper (c. 1758/1772 - ?), a dark-skinned Wampanoag woman and the last resident of the 1676 historic Captain Thomas Taber House in Fairhaven, MA. The State Almshouse, where she moved in 1851, records her as colored and born in Falmouth, MA. Old museum labels name her “Indian Annis” or “Black Annis” and describe Annis as “one of the last full-blooded Indians in the greater New Bedford area.” Such descriptions don't give Annis much agency. How would Annis describe herself? How does this picture (by an amateur white female artist) complicate Native representation? How do language and images perpetuate myths and stereotypes? Is this a picture of Annis or the house, the future, or the past?

Thomas Taber (1646-1730) was a son-in-law of John Cook. His house was sold to William Wood in 1742. Wood built a house (191 Main Street) directly to the west of the old Thomas Taber house. This is the house seen in the background of the picture. The property was sold in 1793 by his son Zerviah Wood to Joseph Bates, Sr., of Rochester, who was living in New Bedford at the time. His son, Joseph Bates, Jr. inherited it. He was founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He sold it to his brother in 1831. Franklin, the brother, in turn sold it to Genevieve Marston Darden's ancestors. It stays in that family from 1835-2005. The painting of Annis Sharper was supposedly on view and in the house until 2002. Adventist Heritage Ministry, a historical holding organization, purchased the property in 2005.
Exhibition History“Harboring Hope in Old Dartmouth” (NBWM, May 30, 2014)
"Visualizing Melville" (NBWM, January 8-August 20, 2011)

On View

On view