Margaret Taylor - Portraits and Photographs

Portraits and Photographs

No portraits or photographs of Margaret Taylor can be fully authenticated and none are known to exist. A "composite drawing" of two of her daughters was used to create a portrait of her for Laura Holloway's book "Ladies of the White House". Historic daguerrotypes purporting to be of Margaret Taylor surface occasionally within the collector's market but have not been confirmed or authenticated by photo historians at the Library of Congress or the Smithsonian.

A brief description of her personal appearance in 1825, when she was about 37, describes her as "a fat, motherly looking woman." The source of this description is "Early Days at Red River Settlement, and Fort Snelling. Reminiscences of Mrs. Ann Adams, 1821–1829." in "Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Vol. 6, St. Paul, Minn., 1894" pages 102–103:

In the summer of 1825, Col. and Mrs. Snelling with their children... made a trip to Detroit to pay a visit to her relatives, the Hunts and Mclntoshes, at that place. I accompanied them on that journey... When we reached Prairie du Chien, we put up at Fort Crawford, and tarried there a day or two, to rest. The Snellings were guests of Col. and Mrs. Zachary Taylor, who were stationed there then. It was a daughter of this couple which Jefferson Davis married, while a lieutenant in the army. I fell sick here, and wanted to return home, i. e., to the Fort. There was really nothing the matter with me but home-sickness. I had never been separated from my parents before. Mrs. Snelling was alarmed, as she did not know what to do unless I accompanied her on the journey, to care for the children. She talked about it with Mrs. Taylor. That lady came to see me. She was a fat, motherly looking woman. She told Mrs. Snelling the best way was to divert me and I would soon forget my ailment. This was done, and the cure succeeded."

Another description of Margaret Taylor's appearance, from November, 1848, when she was 60, can be found in The Massachusetts Ploughman and New England Journal of Agriculture, November 18, 1848, Vol. 8, No. 7, page 2:

"MRS. GENERAL TAYLOR AND DAUGHTER.-—At a late ball, at East Pascagoula, General Taylor, his lady and daughter and Major Bliss, were present. Of them a correspondent of the Mobile Herald writes as follows:--- “Mrs. Gen. T.—Dress plain, and in good taste; manners dignified and easy, countenance rather stern but it may be the consequence of military association. Person tall and commanding, demeanor retiring, with no palpable predilection for high station; and, judging from appearance, one would suppose the White House offers no peculiar attractions to Mrs. Gen. T., and if her ‘liege lord’ would listen to her sage and wel-considered counsel, it is not unlikely he woud be content to remain as Gen. T."