Campus Voices

In 1983, when the Association of Black Princeton Alumni commissioned Hardison to sculpt a cast-iron bust of Frederick Douglass, they specifically requested that the artist portray Douglass’s younger self. The bust was meant to honor recipients of the University’s annual Frederick Douglass Award; thus, a younger version of the abolitionist was fitting. This rendered Hardison’s earlier sculpture, which showed Douglass as a bearded, wise man, inappropriate for the commission.

Douglass remains the most photographed individual of the nineteenth century, but representations that depict younger versions of him are rare. The best-known images of him date from the late 1870s. Thus, Hardison likely drew on a rare 1840s daguerreotype of the young Douglass to sculpt her bust for the Princeton commission. From this production, Hardison was able to capture a beardless, rigid young man quite different from typical representations.

-Lesa Redmond, Princeton University Class of 2017