The most oft used image of Mrs Pleasant is on the homepage of this website. It was taken by Isaiah West Taber in conjunction with the publication in the Pandex Press memoir in 1901. The image is now held at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. It contains an odd caption —
Now, a basic history of photography undermines this caption. While earlier forms of photography were available starting in the 1830s, portraiture as we know it did not start until the 1840s with daguerreotypes and more popularly in the US until the Civil War. Mary was born circa 1814–when there was no photography as we understand it now. What does this then mean? Was a sketch perhaps done? Images of Queen Emma of Hawaii are often attributed as a “young” Mary E. Pleasant but they’ve been reviewed by Hawaiian officials and determined unequivocably to be Queen Emma and not Mrs. Pleasant. Here is a review of the analysis
Two photographs of Mrs Pleasant were published in July 1899. They were used for an overtly biased San Francisco Chronicle article about her entitled Queen of the Voodoos. This article was reportedly written by James E Brown, Jr, son of one of Mary’s closest allies. Bitterness about the article and its ungrateful author likely lent to Mary’s “forgetting” the article and its associated photos existed. The SF Chronicle building burned in the 1906 fire subsequent to a major earthquake, hence no negatives of the two photos below are available and these grainy images are all that remains. Others noted in the later part of her life that one of her eyes seemed partially closed and they do seem consistent with the 1901 Pandex photo. One could theorize she didn’t like the 1899 article (who would?) and the associated photos, so she made a statement which was incorrectly made in 1901 as part of the Pandex Press article.
“She was rather tall, slender with sharp features, keen black eyes, very dark, almost black. She wore a purple silk dress, black velvet cape, purple bonnet and string tied under her neck.”
Hallie Q Brown, president of the National Association for Colored Women.
“One saw her picturesque and solitary figure passing through the streets of the financial district. ..she walked like a duchess, tall and slim. In all the years I saw her, she never varied the style of her costume, a long, full-skirted gown, with a kerchief crossed over her bosom and a wide black hat tied over her head…” Excerpt from The Fantastic City, Memoirs of the Social and Romantic Life of Old San Francisco. Amelia Ransome Neville.
Charles Dobie, a San Francisco writer however remembered Mrs Pleasant as having heterchromia–two different color eyes “one blue and one brown eye.”
The images below on the Holderedge books are more than likely actually Queen Emma of Hawaii. Mrs. Holdredge argued for the acceptance of these photos as a younger Mary Pleasant, taken in the 1850s. However, other scholars argue against this, stating the style of clothes as being consistent with the 1860s, the jewelry being present in other photos of Queen Emma, and the distinct physical features of both women, notably the eyes. Both the California Historical Society and Hawaiian authorities concluded the photos used by Mrs. Holdredge are Queen Emma and not Mrs. Pleasant. Here is a general discussion examining the conclusion and controversy.
