Frederick Douglass' mastiff Frank

John Hartwell

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This picture was printed in a booklet "My Mother as I Recall Her," the text of a paper by Rosetta Douglass Sprague, read before the WCTU in May, 1900. It shows Mrs. Sprague's father in his library, alongside is his faithful mastiff Frank.
f.douglas.frankdog.jpg
Not a very good picture, I'm afraid (taken from the 1923 reprint), but I've been unable to find a better one.

I have also been able to find nothing else about Frank online.

The website answers.com in response to the question "Did Frederick Douglass have any pets as a child?", says only," yes he had 2 pets 1 dog and one cat" but gives no references. His own "Narrative of the Life ..." makes no mention of pets.
 
A difference in the photos, also.
Interesting comparison. The chair to the left of the desk is also different, but the hat hanging from it is the same. The first has a picture hung below the portrait on the wall, the second doesn't. Yet Douglass' chair seems to be set at exactly the same angle, and his posture in it is almost identical.
 
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