A thrift store painting that came out of Philly’s 1864 Black elite

Once home, he posted his find on Instagram. In a matter of hours he was contacted by 1838 Black Metropolis, a digital history project of Morgan Lloyd and Michiko Quinones who research and present online stories and walking tours of Philadelphia’s Black community from the mid-19th century.

The name Dorsey is well known to Quinones, who has written about William’s father, Thomas Dorsey. He escaped slavery in Maryland with his two brothers in 1836. They came through the Underground Railroad network and landed in Philadelphia, where Thomas started a successful catering business.

An 1896 Philadelphia Times article said the elder Dorsey could “rule the social world through its stomach” and had “the sway of an imperial dictator,” making him a very wealthy man. So much so, his children inherited a life of financial comfort. His son William was able to devote much of his energies to art, history and community work.

William Dorsey co-founded the American Negro Historical Society, which tracked, collected and archived Black history. Among the activities that ANHS followed was baseball, recording game stats of the Philadelphia Pythians, the team co-founded and led by Octavius Catto until his assassination in 1871. Those records are now kept at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Dorsey was also an avid collector, turning two rooms of his house on Dean Street, now South Camac Street, into a museum of African American history and art. That house, which no longer stands, was two blocks from where the Historical Society of Pennsylvania now sits.

“The fact that he was collecting work by Black and white artists speaks to the wealth his family had accumulated,” Brigham said. “To be able to buy paintings by prominent artists was not available to most people, Black or white. The fact that he was filling his home with beautiful things and inviting people to come and see them speaks volumes.”

Dorsey exhibited 11 paintings at PAFA in 1867 and 1868, one of which was titled “The Fisherman,” according to records at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.  It is possible that painting is the one discovered at New Life Thrift.