This portrait depicts Dorothy Boulding Ferebee (1898-1980), a physician and public health activist who taught at Howard University’s Medical School for fifty years. Against a grey background, Dr. Ferebee looks directly at the viewer. She sits at a slight angle in a dark blue dress with a pearl necklace and pearl-studded circular earrings. The portrait began as a black and white photograph, possibly marking her presidency of the National Council of Negro Women (1949-53). In a process first popularized in the late nineteenth century, color has been applied to an enlargement to create a portrait resembling an oil painting. At the bottom of the portrait’s wooden frame, an embossed metal plaque reads, “DOROTHY BOULDING FEREBEE, M.D. / FOUNDER / SOUTHEAST HOUSE.” In 1929, Dr. Ferebee founded Southeast Settlement House to offer services for working class African American families in southeast Washington, DC, including childcare and recreational opportunities for youth. The community center helped to inspire the birth of the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum in 1967.
