Anne Green became publisher of the Maryland Gazette, the colony's only newspaper, in 1767, upon the death of her husband, Jonas Green. One of a small number of women in the printing trade in colonial America, she was also appointed the official printer of documents for the colony. In this portrait, probably among the first that Charles Willson Peale painted after returning from London in 1769, she is holding a copy of the Gazette. The newspaper announced Peale's return and also printed a notice about his portrait of William Pitt. Mrs. Green's obituary stressed her personal traits, rather than her professional accomplishments: "She was of a mild and benevolent Disposition, and for conjugal Affection, and parental Tenderness, an Example of her Sex."

Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827)
Oil on canvas, 1769
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Gallery purchase with funding from the Smithsonian Collections Acquisitions Program and gift from the Governor's Mansion Foundation of Maryland
NPG.91.152

Enlarged image

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