Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley
Portrait of Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley - the dressmaker to Mrs. Abraham Lincoln. Born into slavery in 1818, in November 1855 she purchased her and her son's freedom in St. Louis Missouri.
She later moved to Washington D.C. where she began a dressmaking business employing 20 seamstresses who provided fashion to the wives of elite politicians including Varina Davis (wife of Jefferson Davis), Mary Anna Custis Lee (wife of Robert E. Lee) and of course the First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln.
She later moved to Washington D.C. where she began a dressmaking business employing 20 seamstresses who provided fashion to the wives of elite politicians including Varina Davis (wife of Jefferson Davis), Mary Anna Custis Lee (wife of Robert E. Lee) and of course the First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln.
Date & Place:
Not specified or unknown.