Sarah Reeve Ladson

Sarah Reeve Ladson was an American socialite, arts patron, and style icon. Born into a prominent Charleston family, she was an influential member of the South Carolinian planter class. She was regarded as one of the most fashionable American women of her time and was the subject of various portraits and sculptures.

Sarah Reeve Ladson
1823 portrait of Ladson, titled Mrs. Robert Gilmor, Jr. by Thomas Sully
Born
Charleston, South Carolina
United States
Other namesSarah Gilmor (married name)
Spouse(s)Robert Gilmor Jr.
Parent(s)James Ladson
Judith Smith
RelativesLadson family

Biography

Ladson was born in Charleston, South Carolina to James Ladson, a wealthy planter and slave owner, and Judith Smith.[1][2] A member of the prominent Ladson family, her father was a military officer in the American Revolutionary War and served as the Lieutenant-Governor of South Carolina. Her mother, Judith, was a daughter of Benjamin Smith, a South Carolina slave trader, planter, banker and speaker in the colony's Royal Assembly. Through her mother, Ladson was a descendant of Thomas Smith, a colonial governor of South Carolina, and Joseph Wragg, a slave trader and politician.[3][4][5] Ladson was a sister of James H. Ladson.[6][7]

On April 9, 1807, she married Robert Gilmor Jr., a merchant from Baltimore.[5][8] She was his second wife.[9] They had no biological children, but raised their niece, Isabel Ann Baron.[10] They later supported the business endeavors of Isabel's husband, John McPherson Brien.[11][10]

Eyre Crowe, A Slave Sale in Charleston, South Carolina, 1854

Ladson was prominent in both Charleston and Baltimore society, and was regarded as one of the most fashionable American women of her time.[2] A patron of the arts, she was the subject of various portraits and sculptures, including a portrait by Thomas Sully and a sculpture by Horatio Greenough that are on display at the Gibbes Museum of Art.[12][2][13][14][1] A portrait by Edward Greene Malbone is in the collection of the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College.[15]

Maurie D. McInnis, an art historian, noted that Ladson "visually made reference to the taste of the slave women around whom she had been raised" with the turban and bright colours portrayed in Sully's portrait of her.[5] Sully's portrait of Ladson has been exhibited in Grandeur Preserved: Masterworks Presented by Historic Charleston Foundation in New York, and Art in America: Three Hundred Years of Innovation in Shanghai and Beijing.[2]

The schooner Sarah Ladson was named after her.[16]

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References
  1. "Mrs. Robert Gilmor, Jr. (Sarah Reeve Ladson)". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
  2. "Cover Girl Revealed". CHARLESTON SC. January 20, 2011.
  3. Alan D. Watson, General Benjamin Smith: A Biography of the North Carolina Governor, p. 5, McFarland, 2014, ISBN 9780786485284
  4. Biographical directory of the South Carolina Senate, 1776–1985, vol. 2, p. 881, University of South Carolina Press, 1986; ISBN 9780872494800
  5. Maurie D. McInnis, The Politics of Taste in Antebellum Charleston, p. 14, UNC Press Books, 2015; ISBN 9781469625997
  6. The history of Georgetown County, South Carolina, pp. 297, 525, University of South Carolina Press, 1970.
  7. Suzanne Cameron Linder and Marta Leslie Thacker, Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River (Columbia, SC: South Carolina Department of Archives and History), 2001.
  8. O'Brien, Michael (February 5, 1997). "An Evening When Alone: Four Journals of Single Women in the South, 1827-67". University of Virginia Press – via Google Books.
  9. Calvert, Rosalie Stier (February 5, 1992). "Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, 1795-1821". JHU Press – via Google Books.
  10. Yurimoto, Janine. "To Draw Pleasure and Instruction". scholarworks.wm.edu. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  11. Humphries, Lance Lee, Robert Gilmor Jr. (1774–1848): Baltimore Collector and American Art Patron, pp. 86–89, University of Virginia, 1998.
  12. "Mrs. Robert Gilmor, Jr. (Sarah Reeve Ladson) - Greenough, Horatio". The Gibbes Museum. 2016. Retrieved 2020-07-07.
  13. Sarah Reeve Ladson Gilmor. National Portrait Gallery
  14. "Mrs. Robert Gilmor, Jr., 1823, by Thomas Sully".
  15. "Collections Database". museums.fivecolleges.edu. Retrieved 2020-07-07.
  16. Williams, Greg H. (October 21, 2009). "The French Assault on American Shipping, 1793-1813: A History and Comprehensive Record of Merchant Marine Losses". McFarland – via Google Books.
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