Featured Objects

Veneered Traveling Chest with Drawers

Frederic Franck de la Roche was aide-de-camp to the Marquis de Lafayette during the Revolutionary War, and he may have used this chest during his service. After the war, Franck obtained American citizenship. He was also given membership to the Society of the Cincinnati, an order exclusive to Washington’s former generals and their descendants. He died in 1805.

The chest contains a variety of toiletries, including two razors with straps, a silver shaving pan, a wooden wig curler, a snuff box, a silver powder box, two Sheffield candle sticks, a comb, and a tooth polisher.

Nineteenth-Century “Patty” Tintype

This striking photograph depicts Martha Ann “Patty” Atavis and Alice Lee Whitridge, daughter of Dr. John Whitridge of Baltimore. It was produced during the mid-nineteenth century, when Patty was slave to the Whitridge family. Patty served the Whitridges until her death in 1875, and she is buried in their plot in Green Mount Cemetery. Patty’s inclusion in this tintype demonstrates her great importance to the family.

Silk Hand-Painted Flag of the Fourth Regiment of the United States Colored Troops

In 1863, the “Colored Ladies of Baltimore” presented this hand-painted, hand-sewn silk flag to the Fourth Regiment of the U.S. Colored Troops. It is the only surviving flag used by the Fourth Regiment, and one of only twenty-five U.S. Colored Troops flags in existence.

Regiments carried both national and regimental flags into battle. Regimental flags helped them determine the movements of a specific regiment. The flag of the Fourth Regiment was originally 6.5 feet tall by 6 feet wide, but wear over time has significantly eroded its dimensions.

Featured Objects

Veneered Traveling Chest with Drawers

Nineteenth-Century “Patty” Tintype

Silk Hand-Painted Flag of the Fourth Regiment of the United States Colored Troops

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