Posted by keith1942 on July 16, 2014. cinepages.
1. No One Knew Who the Black Person was in the Portrait Until the Mid-1990s
If it wasn’t for a tourist who was taking a tour of Scone Palace and questioned that famous portrait of Lady Elizabeth Murray and Belle, people still might not know the black girl in the picture. It was hung at Scone Palace for decades and labeled with one name: Lady Elizabeth Murray. As descendant William Murray explained, “It was only when my grandmother was taking some tourists around in the early ‘90s that one of them who had heard of Dido questioned the portrait.”
Before this, the family had not investigated who the other girl was. However, once the tourist inquired if the other girl in the portrait was, in fact, Dido Elizabeth Belle, the family begin digging further into their history. Through this research, and getting in contact with other people, such as Archeologist Margo Stringfield, the family uncovered that Dido Elizabeth Belle lived was a great-niece to Lord Mansfield and lived with the family at Kenwood, making Belle England’s first black aristocrat.
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“Dido Elizabeth Belle.” Wikipedia.
“Belle, Dido Elizabeth (1761-1804). Ayodale Braiman, Blackpast.
“Dido Belle: Britain’s First Black Aristocrat.” Nisha Lilia Diu, The Telegraph. July 2016.
“Real Story Of ‘Belle’ Has Pensacola Connections.” Sandra Averheart, wuwf. May 2014.