David Bustill Bowser (January 16, 1820, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – June 30, 1900, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was a 19th-century African-American ornamental artist and portraitist.
As the designer of battle flags for eleven African-American regiments during the American Civil War and painter of portraits of prominent Americans, including U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist John Brown, Bowser was an artist whose "works were the first widely viewed, positive images of African Americans painted by an African American," according to historians at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
Politically active throughout much of his adult life, he also helped to secure the post-war passage of key civil rights legislation in Pennsylvania.
Formative years
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on January 16, 1820, David Bustill Bowser was a grandson of Cyrus Bustill (1732–1806), a formerly enslaved man who purchased his freedom and went on to become a founding member of Philadelphia's Free African Society, and a son of oyster house proprietor Jeremiah Bowser (1766–1856), whose freedom had been purchased by a group of Philadelphia Quakers after he had been arrested for being a fugitive slave.
A member of the prominent Bustill family, he was a cousin and student of artist Robert Douglass Jr., who trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and was a pupil of Thomas Sully. David Bustill Bowser also attended the private school operated by Douglass's sister, Sarah Mapps Douglass.
Married to seamstress Elizabeth Harriet Stevens Gray (June 13, 1831 – November 29, 1908), David Bustill Bowser and his wife were the parents of artist Raphael Bowser and Ida Elizabeth (Bowser) Asbury (1870–1955), a violinist and music teacher. Respected for their civic engagement and philanthropy, David B. and Elizabeth Bowser supported their family by designing and painting banners, signs, uniform hats and other regalia for fraternal associations, political groups, and volunteer fire companies in and beyond Philadelphia.
Mid-1800s and the American Civil War
During the 1840s, Bowser painted banners for a diverse range of clients, including the Know Nothing Party, and received a commission to paint the portrait of prominent abolitionist and real estate developer Jacob C. White. Active in that decade's efforts to repeal the clause in Pennsylvania's Constitution which prohibited blacks from voting, Bowser and his family also became so involved with the abolition movement that their home became a stop on the Underground Railroad. In 1858, politics and advocacy merged with art when Bower painted the portrait of abolitionist John Brown while Brown was visiting the Bowser home. During this same period, Bowser also completed work on his painting, The Firebell in the Night.
In addition, he was also active, during this phase of his life, with the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows. As Grand Master of the Order in Philadelphia, he delivered the keynote address at the Annual Moveable Committee of the G.U.O. of O.F. in Toronto, Canada on October 17, 1859, as its members celebrated the organization's thirteenth anniversary. According to news reports, he was "listened to throughout with much attention, and was frequently rapturously applauded" as he "defined in eloquent terms the nature of the work of Odd Fellows — especially that great and leading principle, Charity," and "remarked upon the practical good effected by Odd Fellowship, in alleviating distress and bestowing many of the comforts of life upon the aged and infirm of the Order, as well as conferring benefactions upon the widow and orphan."
During the American Civil War, Bowser joined with several other prominent members of Philadelphia's African-American community to begin recruiting soldiers in 1862 in the event that the federal government would permit large numbers of black soldiers to enlist following the 1863 announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln. Bowser was then commissioned in early 1863 to design banners and battle flags for eleven of those African-American regiments in preparation for their respective mustering at Camp William Penn, which was located just outside of Philadelphia.
Bowser's work on the first banner was paid for through a commission awarded by the Contraband Relief Association (CRA), an organization headed by Elizabeth Keckley, the formerly enslaved woman who became Mary Todd Lincoln's dressmaker. It was then presented by the CRA to the leaders of 1st United States Colored Infantry. With respect to the other Bowser-designed battle flags, historians at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission note that: