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.  

The tintype is a recent acquisition of the Maryland Historical Society. It was purchased with a second photograph of Patty (a daguerreotype) at the Crocker Farm Auction House in Sparks, Maryland. Both photographs are a significant addition to the Maryland Historical Society collection, as images of urban slaves are rare; only 5 percent of slaves lived in cities by the early 1860s, and few traces of them survive. There were just 5,000 slaves in Baltimore prior to the Civil War, and two-thirds of these slaves were women. It is likely that most of these women, like Patty, worked in a single-family home.

The Patty tintype is on display in the Maryland Historical Society library, and it is open to the public from 10 to 5, Wednesday through Saturday.