Margaret Strachan (Mrs. Thomas Harwood)

Charles Willson Peale

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Margaret Strachan (1747–1821) was the daughter of William Strachan of London Town in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. In 1772, she married Thomas Harwood, who served as treasurer of the Western Shore of Maryland from 1776 until his death in 1804. Although undated, this work was probably executed prior to the Strachans’ marriage. It appears on a “payment due” list compiled by Peale for the period 1770 to 1775. A companion portrait of Thomas Harwood was painted around 1775 and is now in the collection of the Winterthur Museum in Delaware.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art