Lesson Plans
Unit Introduction

Image 3:

John Singleton Copley
American, 1737-1815
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Mifflin (Sarah Morris), 1773
Oil on ticking, 60 ½ x 48"

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Information:

This painting is not included in the About Face exhibit, but it is included in the teaching materials as the basis of an optional lesson plan. This husband and wife double portrait explores issues of identity and the contributions of colonial women towards the patriotic cause. The Mifflin's were prominent Philadelphians. Among other things, Thomas was a radical Whig and a delegate to the Continental Congress. Sarah Morris Mifflin was also an active Patriot. In this image we see a husband and wife each involved in activities suitable to their gender. Thomas was reading, and has paused with his finger holding his page in order to look at his wife. Sarah is in the middle of weaving and appears to have momentarily glanced up at the viewer from her handwork.

The prominence of Sarah in this double portrait is uncommon in colonial portraits of husbands and wives. The visual priority given to Sarah's efforts at the loom hints at its importance. During the years leading up the American Revolution, women participated in the patriotic cause by boycotting products imported from England. Many colonial women refused to drink tea and/or purchase English fabric and clothing. This was an appropriately feminine way for women to participate in the public realm of politics. Colonial women's patriotic activities took them even further out into the public sphere with the advent of spinning bees. These were organized to bring a number of women together to spin and weave American-made clothing. The popularity of these spinning bees added to women's public role and their contribution towards the American cause. Therefore, the visual priority given to Sarah Mifflin's activity at the loom alludes to her involvement in the patriotic cause and her desire to have this activity act as a defining characteristic of her identity (Staiti, p. 320).

Vocabulary:

identity - the characteristics and qualities of a person, considered collectively and regarded as essential to that person's self-awareness.

Whig - another name for a Patriot.

Tory - the derogatory name Patriots (Whigs) called Loyalists.

gender - the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex.

double portrait - a work of art that represents two specific people.

Source:

Staiti, Paul, "Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Mifflin (Sarah Morris)," in Rebora, Carrie and Staiti, Paul, et. al. John Singleton Copley in America. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, 1995. pp. 318-321

Lesson:

Identity of Women in Portraiture: Signs, symbols, identities, and women in the American Revolution