Sarah De Hart: early American silhouettist.

Sarah De Hart may have been the first person born in the United States to make silhouettes that still survive today (Fig. 1). She was born on February 13, 1759, into a wealthy and prominent family of Huguenot descent in Elizabethtown, now Elizabeth, New Jersey. Little is known about her life except that she never married and lived in the family house until her death on August 17, 1832, at the age of seventy-three. (1) She began to cut silhouettes as early as the age of twelve, as indicated by one she made of a soldier that is dated 1771, which was exhibited at the American Folk Art Museum in New York in 1984 (Fig. 7). At least 130 of her works, including the collage in ...