Miniature Portrait, Hannah McClure Gaston

Oval picture under glass in a rectangular frame of a young woman, bust-length, identified as Hannah McClure Gaston, against a pale blue background. The subject has brown hair pulled up in a bun and slightly parted bangs, grey eyes, and is wearing a pale, high-waisted dress. The stamped sheet brass frame has an oval reserve framing the image, with decorative flowers or anthemion and leaves at all 4 corners and centers of each side, with beading linking the elements, and a round ring for hanging at top center, and is held into place with small brass pins or brad.

Hannah McClure Gaston, the only surviving child of William McClure and his wife Hannah MacKilwean, was born in October 1785. At the age of 20, she became the second wife of New Bern lawyer and later state supreme court judge William Gaston, whom she married on 6 October, 1805. She was the mother of three children -- Alexander S., Susan Jane, and Hannah Margaret. She died on July 6, 1813, possibly due to complications with her latest pregnancy.

Collection ID: TP.1999.001.002