Thomas Hovenden

Thomas Hovenden came to the United States from Ireland at the age of 23. He trained in New York and Paris, and while in France he married a fellow student, Helen Corson. Corson came from a dedicated abolitionist family in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, where her father established Abolition Hall, a place where abolitionists gathered and where escaped slaves could seek refuge. This building later became the studio where Hovenden painted sympathetic images of African Americans.