Mechanics Hall Portraits Project
Established in 1842, the Worcester County Mechanics Association (WCMA) was an educational and charitable organization which fostered skills in the mechanical arts required in the new industrial age. The Worcester Mechanics were at the forefront of America’s Industrial Revolution and believed in the importance of education and self-improvement. The Association built Mechanics Hall, which opened in 1857.
Three social issues were of major concern to the Worcester Mechanics: Abolition, Women’s Rights, and Temperance. As early as the 1840s, Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists were invited on many occasions to speak to the Association membership and the wider community. Women’s rights advocates and temperance advocates also used Mechanics Hall as their platform for social reform.
The Great Hall portrait gallery is a commanding installation honoring the innovators of Worcester in the 19th century. The subjects in the portrait gallery today represent a combination of interests that honor the values of the Association founders: education, excellence, human welfare, and a wider vision of human endeavor. The gallery includes Mechanics, Social Reformers, Civil War Heroes, and Political Leaders. Many of the individuals portrayed crossover these categories. Four prominent women of the same time period were added to the gallery in 1999 and each of them exemplifies the same values.
The Association now has an opportunity to include impactful Black Americans of the 19th century in the Great Hall portrait gallery. It is a permanent declaration that Black history is American history. Including women's portraits, one Black and one mixed race heritage, further illuminates the depth, range, and strength of social reformer activity within our city. Abolition, women's rights, and temperance were not issues being discussed everywhere — the Mechanics Hall stage was one of the nation's major social reform platforms.
The Portraits Project will boldly show that Black American history is American history. When installed, the portraits of Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and William and Martha Brown, will permanently change the narrative told by the Great Hall portraits. Today, the gallery art portrays 19th century Worcester Mechanics, social reformers, Civil War heroes, and political leaders. The new portraits will rectify the omission in the gallery of Black leaders of the 19th century and will honor their contributions to American and Worcester history.
The Portraits Project also marks a transformational era for Mechanics Hall that includes building deeper partnerships with other cultural organizations and deliberate solicitation and curation of events of artistic excellence and cultural relevance that reflect the rich diversity of the Worcester community. More people of Worcester will be able to recognize themselves in the images honored in the gallery.
Programming for youth and adults is part of the extended project, along with portraits preservation. Talks, demonstrations, and performances will expand our understanding of Worcester in the 19th century and the subjects of the portraits. Programs will also explore the issues of slavery, women’s rights, industrialization, innovation, and public discourse, along with education, music, arts, and culture of the 19th and 21st centuries.
William & Martha Brown
William Brown (1824-1892)
Business Owner, Inventor, Abolitionist
William Brown was a successful 19th century Worcester upholsterer and carpetmaker. A free man, Brown came to Worcester from Boston, establishing his trade here in 1841. He and his wife, Martha operated the business located in the Central Exchange Building, in the heart of downtown. William Brown was first recognized by the Worcester County Mechanics Association in 1849 for the skill he exhibited at that year's Mechanics Fair. In 1867, he became the first Black member of the WCMA. His son, Charles, also became a member and was an expert draper and interior decorator.
According to family tradition, William Brown was involved with the work of the Underground Railroad. Upon the death of his wife, Martha, William received letters of condolence from such influential men as Frederick Douglass, Stephen Salisbury III, Charles Washburn, and Edward Everett Hale, indicating the respect of his friends and colleagues. William was a successful inventor as well. He held patents on his own inventions, including “Browns Patent Fruit Picker” (1867) and “A New Improved Sofa Bed” (1868). The fruit picker was mentioned in an 1867 issue of Scientific American.
Martha Brown (1821-1889)
Churchwoman, Entrepreneur, Social Activist, Abolitionist
Martha Tulip Lewis Brown was married to William Brown and was his partner in life, in business, and in abolitionist work. Martha, a free woman, was of mixed heritage. She worked alongside William and later their son, Charles, in the family carpet and upholstery business. She was the first woman of color to become a member of the Ladies Benevolent Society of the First Unitarian Church of Worcester. She and other women raised money for the welfare of freed slaves and fugitive slaves. She was very likely involved in Underground Railroad work with her husband William and his colleagues, which included Frederick Douglass. Annually at the New Year, the women hosted a fundraising formal social – likely at Mechanics Hall – to assist their efforts in supporting Black Americans.
It is not unusual that several generations of a family have been Mechanics Hall members. We are happy to note that Dr. John Goldsberry, now a lifetime Honorary Trustee of Mechanics Hall, served on our Board for many years. Dr. Goldsberry is William Brown’s great-grandson.
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)
Abolitionist, Orator, Author, Statesman, Women's Rights Advocate
One of the most prominent civil rights figures in history, Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery and spent his life advocating for social justice. It is often asserted that Frederick Douglass was the most influential American of the 19th century.
In 1841, while attending anti-slavery meetings Douglass met William Lloyd Garrison one of the most outspoken abolitionists in the country. Garrison encouraged Douglass to share his story, catapulting his career. Douglass began giving lectures at abolitionist conventions, quickly earning a reputation as an eloquent and compelling speaker. He was invited to address the Worcester County Mechanics Association on at least five occasions before Mechanics Hall was built. He was among the first to take the Mechanics Hall stage in March 1857.
In 1845, Douglass, with the encouragement of Garrison and Wendell Phillips, another prominent abolitionist, published his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave. The work was an instant success. Critics charged that it was so well-written that it could never have even composed by a black man. The narrative made Douglass a widely-known public figure, even beyond abolitionist circles.
During the 1850s Douglass worked tirelessly for emancipation. By the Civil War, Frederick Douglass was the most prominent Black man in the United States. During the War Douglass continually petitioned President Lincoln to make emancipation a focus of the war and to sanction the formation of colored regiments. Two of his sons served in the 54th Massachusetts regiment.
Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)
Evangelist, Itinerant Preacher, Abolitionist, Women's Rights Advocate
Sojourner Truth, born Isabella Baumfree, was one of the two most impactful Black women of the 19th century (the other was Harriet Tubman). Already in middle-age, Sojourner Truth began her 30-year speaking career in Worcester at the first National Women’s Rights Convention in 1850.
She was an abolitionist and passionate advocate of women’s rights. She also advocated for temperance, an important social issue among laborer families. She was born into slavery in Ulster County New York and gained her freedom in 1826 by walking off the farm where she was enslaved. In 1828, she sued a white man for illegally selling her son and became the first black woman to win a court case of that nature.
She was a member of the Northampton Association of Educations and Industry — an abolitionist and utopian community in Massachusetts where she lived for several years. She met and knew Frederick Douglass there. Another member was William Lloyd Garrison (also in the portrait gallery).
Throughout her life, she tirelessly advocated for the rights of African Americans, women, and for numerous reform causes.
Imo Nse Imeh
Painting the portrait of Frederick Douglass
Imo Nse Imeh, of Holyoke, Massachusetts, is a visual artist and scholar of African Diaspora art. His work focuses on historical and philosophical issues around the Black body and cultural identity. He is also Associate Professor of Art and Art History at Westfield State University in Westfield, MA. Imeh's works are in the collection of the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art; University Museum of Contemporary Art University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and Danny Simmons Collection of Art, among others. Imeh is a recipient of the Mass Cultural Artist Fellowship, as well as grants from the Holyoke and Springfield Cultural Council, and the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts. He received his doctorate in Art History from Yale University, where he studied the art and aesthetics of the African Diaspora.
Manu Saluja
Painting the portrait of Sojourner Truth
Manu Saluja was born in Brooklyn, New York and now lives and works in Long Island. Her paintings have been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art in Wisconsin, the Butler Institute of American Art in Ohio, and the Aberdeen Art Gallery in Scotland. She is the 2019 winner of the prestigious BP Portrait Travel Award. Saluja has participated in numerous group shows and has work in public and private collections in the U.S., Canada, U.K., and India. Press coverage of her paintings includes American Art Collector, Fine Art Connoisseur, Artists & Illustrators, the Huffington Post, and Fast Company Design. Saluja studied with artist John Frederick Murray privately and at New York's School of Visual Arts, where she earned a B.F.A. degree. She is Adjunct Professor of Painting at the New York Academy of Art, where she received her M.F.A. in 2013.
Brenda Zlamany
Portrait of William & Martha Brown
Brenda Zlamany is a painter who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Since 1982 her work has appeared nationally and internationally in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. In 2015, Zlamany won the competition to paint a portrait of Yale's first seven women Ph.D.s. The painting is permanently installed in the university's Sterling Memorial Library. Her other public works include Portrait of Discovery, a monumental painting depicting five trailblazing women scientists from The Rockefeller University and the Davenport Dining Room Scene, a painting on two panels of nine diverse portrait subjects installed at Yale University. In 2007, she became the first female artist to be commissioned by the World Bank when she painted a portrait of the bank's retiring president, James D. Wolfensohn. Her portrait of feminist icon Elga Ruth Wasserman was unveiled at Yale University in late 2022. She is a graduate of Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine, and has a B.A. degree from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn.
James Goldsberry
Great Great Grandson of
Martha and William Brown
Mechanics Hall Trustee
Legacy Donors
MA Cultural Council/Commonwealth of Massachusetts
The Fletcher Foundation
George I. Alden Trust
Saint- Gobain
The Goldsberry Family
Arthur & Martha Pappas Foundation
M&T Bank
Clark University
Worcester State University
Ruth A. and Warren H. Ellsworth Foundation
The Estate of Edward Robbins
Margaret Wong
Carolyn & Howard Stempler
To learn more about Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, please visit our Literacy Library.
To read the full Press Release about the Portraits Project, click here.
Worcester County Mechanics Association • Mechanics Hall
321 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01608
Info: 508-752-5608 • Tickets: 508-752-0888 • Questions: info@mechanicshall.org