Theodosia Burr Alston
1794
Gilbert Stuart captured the daughter of infamous Vice President Aaron Burr here, looking every bit the intellectual prodigy she was known to be. Notice the stack of books behind her? That’s no accident—Theodosia was famous for her education in a time when women were often overlooked. Painted in 1794, this portrait shows a young woman on the cusp of a fascinating, albeit tragic, life; she would later vanish mysteriously into the ocean during a winter storm, leaving behind one of early America's greatest unsolved mysteries.
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