Images(2)

Portrait of Unity Adeline Delk Stephenson (1820-1888)

Dateca. 1865

Subject Unity A. Delk (1820-1888)

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Southampton County (probably)

MediumGelatin silver print with black chalk on paper board

DimensionsOverall: 51.1 x 40.6cm (20 1/8 x 16in.)

Credit LineGift of Martha Wren Briggs

Object number2014.510.1

DescriptionThis is a large photographic print on paper board of a bust-length portrait. The subject is Unity Adeline Delk Stephenson (Mrs. Alfred Turner Stephenson). Mrs. Stephenson wears a striped long-sleeved dress with a button front opening and white lace collar. Her only adornment is a brooch pinned to the top of her dress where the collar meets. Her hair is pulled back and parted in the middle.
Label TextBorn April 25, 1820, the year that her father died, Unity Adeline Delk was the last of eleven children born to Wiley Jones Delk (1779-1820) and Martha Wren Delk (1784-1853) of Southampton County, Virginia. She was the seventh generation of Delks in the Virginia counties of Isle of Wight, Surry, and Southampton, and was probably named for her paternal grandmother Unity Holleman Delk (1755-1835). Four years after her father's death in 1824, her mother, Martha (Patsy) Wren Delk, married Joseph Cofer (1775-1839), a Baptist minister in Surry, uniting the Delk and Cofer children. Unity, her older sister Martha, and her stepsister, Elizabeth Cofer, created almost identical samplers honoring their respective deceased parents. The samplers are now in the CWF collection.
ProvenanceThe portrait descended from the sitter to her daughter Leah Wren Stephenson Williams (1859-1912), to her daughter Mattie Stephenson Williams Briggs (Mrs. Garland Briggs) (1897-1989), to her daughter Martha Wren Briggs (1933-2018), who donated the image to the museum in 2014.

History of Subject:
Born April 25, 1820, the year that her father died, Unity Adeline Delk was the last of eleven children born to Wiley Jones Delk (1779-1820) and Martha Wren Delk (1784-1853) of Southampton County, Virginia. She was the seventh generation of Delks in the Virginia counties of Isle of Wight, Surry, and Southampton, and was probably named for her paternal grandmother Unity Holleman Delk (1755-1835). Four years after her father's death in 1824, her mother, Martha (Patsy) Wren Delk, married Joseph Cofer (1775-1839), a Baptist minister in Surry, uniting the Delk and Cofer children. Unity, her older sister Martha, and her stepsister, Elizabeth Cofer, created almost identical samplers honoring their respective deceased parents. Unity fist married James Clayton, and in 1857, she married Alfred Turner Stephenson (1817-1895). Their children were: Leah Wren Stephenson Williams (1859-1912); Martha Rebecca Stephenson (1862-1896); Cadmus Turner Stephenson (1865-1947), and Virginia Adeline Stephenson (1865-1943). Unity Adeline Delk Clayton Stephenson died on June 22, 1888, and is buried in the Stephenson Cemetery at Barrett Corner in Southampton County, Virginia.