Portrait of Joseph Price Howe Jr.

Date1842

Artist Jervis Hanks

MediumOil on canvas

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2023.100.4,A&B

DescriptionPortrait of a man seated in a red upholstered chair. He is wearing a black waistcoat and coat over a white shirt. The outfit is finished with a black stock and a gold key pin fastened along the buttons.
Label TextThe Howes were living in Maysville, Kentucky along the Ohio River when they were painted by the itinerant artist Jervis Hanks. Maysville was a transportation hub for both river, wagon, and train travel at the time and would have been the ideal location for an itinerant artist to set up shop.

Joseph Price Howe Jr was born in 1809 in Fleming, Kentucky to Joseph Price Howe Sr and his wife, Rebecca. Around 1830, he married Nancy Jane Argo in Bath County, Kentucky. Nancy Jane was born in 1807 to Purnel Argo and his wife, Margaret Hughes. Some time prior to the 1836 birth of their daughter, Levisa Jane, Joseph Jr and Nancy Jane moved to Maysville, Kentucky where Joesph Jr. is listed as a shoemaker in the 1850s census. Together Joseph Jr and Nancy Jane Howe had at least 8 children.

Some time prior to the 1860 census, the Howes and their children moved to Kansas City, Missouri. Joseph Jr.'s obituary refers to him as one of the pioneer settleers of Kansas City and a prominent part of public life in the early days servings as the first city marshal, first marshal of the Kansas City court of common pleas, the first assessor, the first street commissioner, the first wharf register and the first tax collector.
Provenance1842, Joseph Price Howe [1809-1930] and Nancy Jane Argo Howe [1807-1885] (Mason County, Kentucky); dates unknown, descended in the family of Jeffery Newman Howe [1960-2022] (Lexington, Kentucky); 2023, [Clifton Anderson Art and Antiques, Lexington, KY]; 2023-present, purchased by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Virginia)