Researchers and Sources
Sarah Harris Fayerweather Cabinet Card Photo Misattributed as Maria W. Stewart
The museum’s only photo of Sarah Harris Fayerweather has been incorrectly identified across the internet as Maria W. Stewart.
Maria W. Miller Stewart was an abolitionist, early civil rights activist, a lecturer who was the first woman—Black or white—to speak to a crowd composed of men and women, and an essayist/writer. Her writings published in “The Liberator” in 1831 likely influenced Prudence Crandall of the need for higher educational opportunities for young Black and Brown women, and to admit Sarah Harris as a student. Maria Miller Stewart’s life’s work deserves scholarly attention and public recognition (and her story is shared at the Prudence Crandall Museum), but at present there are no extant images of Stewart.
The museum has created a one-page provenance to demonstrate how museum staff determined that the image is Sarah Harris Fayerweather: