Sarah Mapps Douglass

Life & Legacy

Sarah Mapps Douglass (September 9, 1806 – September 8, 1882) was an American educator, abolitionist, writer, and public lecturer. Her painted images on her written letters may be the first or earliest surviving examples of signed paintings by an African American woman. These paintings are contained within the Cassey Dickerson Album, a rare collection of 19th-century friendship letters between a group of women.
Although she never became a doctor, Douglass was the first African American student at the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania.. She was also a founding member of the Female Literary Association and the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society.