People, Locations, Episodes

Mon, 03.16.1750

Scipio Moorhead, Artist, and Engraver born

*The birth of Scipio Moorhead around 1750 is celebrated on this date. He was a Black portrait engraver.

Moorhead was a slave of the Reverend John Moorhead of Boston, Massachusetts. Sarah Moorhead, the wife of the Reverend, a teacher of art and drawing, tutored his drawing talents.  Scipio's work was recognized through the documented inscription of the Black poet Phyllis Wheatley.  She left behind a penciled note, "To S.M., a young African painter, on seeing his works," in a copy of her 1773 edition of Poems On Various Subjects, Religious And Moral. Wheatley wrote, "Scipio Moorhead, Negro servant to the Rev. Moorhead of Boston, whose genius inclined him that way."

Moorhead later engraved a portrait of Phyllis Wheatley, which appeared on the cover page of her books of poetry.  That famous scene shows her with a quill pen writing at her desk in an American colonial dress. Very little else is known about Scipio Moorhead. His praise and distinction come from his spirit to create as an early Black visual artist in America without an opportunity for recognition.

To be an Artist