A previously lost William H Dorsey painting, representing 19th-century Black wealth and high culture, was found at the New Life Thrift Shop in Glenside, writes Peter Crimmins for the WHYY.
The painting, which is now on view at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, was purchased for $10 by the thrift store’s regular customer, Andy Robbins, who works in human resources for a building materials company.
New Life Thrift on North Easton Road is associated with a Presbyterian church across the street.
The untitled watercolor, an oval-shaped landscape painted in 1864, is most likely the only existing painting by a talented artist from a prominent Black family whose works were once displayed at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Dorsey was primarily a scrapbooker. For most of his life, he collected newspaper clippings and ephemera on the Black community. Penn State holds 400 of his scrapbooks as part of the Cheyney University archives.
However, director of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania David Brigham could never locate any of his paintings – until now.
“It’s the only one that I’ve been able to find in a museum collection,” he said. “I also surveyed auction records, and I couldn’t find a single work by him.”
Read more about the painting found in a thrift shop in the WHYY.
Editor’s Note: This post first appeared on MONTCO Today in January 2025.
