Skip to main content
Menu

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

Mary Seacole, 1869

Albert Charles Challen

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Mary Seacole (1805–1881) came to public prominence through her nursing activities during the Crimean War (1853–56). Rebuffed, probably due to her mixed-race background, when she tried to join Florence Nightingale’s nursing sisters, she travelled independently to Balaklava, establishing the British Hotel which served as an officers’ club, a canteen for troops and a base for her nursing activities. She published her memoir Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands in 1857. While she was certainly the most famous black British woman of the nineteenth century, her historical significance was neglected for decades.

This portrait dates from the last period of Seacole’s life, when she was in her sixties. She wears a traditional Caribbean scarf and three roughly delineated medals commemorating her involvement in the Crimean War. Although she received no official British honour, she no doubt wore her medals to demonstrate pride in her achievements and her strong sense of comradeship with Crimean war veterans.


National Portrait Gallery, London. Purchased with help from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Gallery supporters, 2008
© National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery 2024
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia

Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency