Charles Franklin Moss

Charles Franklin Moss (b. 1878 Winchester, VA; d. 1961 Winchester VA), painter and professional photographer, was the first African American member of the National Association of Professional Photographers (1914), the winner of a competition to design a new Pennsylvania flag in 1907,and member of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh. Moss spent most of his professional life in Pennsylvania and was featured in a number of art exhibitions during and after his lifetime.

Moss was born to a formerly enslaved mother in Winchester, Virginia. Mary E. Johnson (b.c1839; d.1926) was ‘gifted’ to the Miller family as a Christmas present in Winchester Virginia in 1845. Rebecca Miller’s will freed Mary when she was 21, but she remained employed at the households of Miller family members as a cook. Mary married widower Thomas Winifred Moss (1835-1914) in 1877. Thomas, a mason, had children from his prior marriage; Mary was his second wife.¹

Moss’s early art education Winchester is not documented yet his early work shows that he mastered composition and the techniques of oil painting by the turn of the 20^th century.² In the 1900 census he identified himself as an artist.³ A few years later, he studied photography in Providence and Newport Rhode Island as an apprentice. At some point, he studied at Cooper Union in New York, and some years later, at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.⁴ After a time in Harrisburg Pennsylvania, he established a photography business in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and lived, worked and raised his large family there for two decades.⁵ By 1911-12 he resided and worked at 228 N. Pitt St. according to a local directory listing and remained in that location with his family in 1913-14.⁶ In 1915, real estate transaction records show that he and his wife Sarah purchased a property at 143 N. West St. in Carlisle. Subsequent directory listings show that address for his photography studio as well as the family home.⁷ Census records show Moss in Carlisle in 1930; shortly after that, he moved to Pittsburgh, where he resided until his death in 1961.⁸

Moss’s oil painting technique is celebrated as “identical to that of the old masters.”⁹ Surviving artworks include portraits, including an oil painting from 1902, donated to be part of the permanent collection at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, Virginia: Portrait of Alexander W. Davis (1837-1920), a painting of his sister Etta’s husband. The exhibition African Americans in the Shenandoah Valley, mounted by that museum Feb.4, 2022-Jan. 15 2023 included an oil painting from 1930, Bedouin Encampment with Huts.¹⁰ That Museum also obtained copies of some of his photographs as part of its exhibition.¹¹ Photographs in the digital collection of Handley library in Winchester Virginia include several of Moss posing with different paintings.¹²

Moss supported his family with his photography business during his almost two decades living and working in Carlisle. The photo collection of the Cumberland County Historical Society has more than thirty Moss photographs in its digital collection; not all photographs are dated but those that are show dates throughout the teens to 1920.¹³ Photographic subjects include church interiors and exteriors, local sports teams, harness racing, individual and family portraits, banquets, parties and group photographs. Photographs depict both Black and White people though not in the same shots. There are at least two other print photographs by the Moss studio in a First Evangelical Church collection: a group photograph of church membership dated March 1919, and large group from September, 1911. These subjects all appear White. Other local church and group collections may include more. Interestingly, at the time Moss was active in Carlisle, there were at least two White photography studios there; Moss’s was the only known Black photography studio.

Moss married Sarah Virginia Townson (b. 1880, Virginia; d. 1970, Detroit) in 1898 and had twelve children. Their first child was born in 1900, their twelfth in 1920. The 1920 census lists Charles F.(20) Thomas 17; Mary V.(16) Mattie R. (15) William 11); Joseph R (9) Sarah (7); Naoma (6); Ruth (5 ½); Louisa (3 ½); Theodore (0/12). A twelfth child, Helena, was born in 1920, perhaps Theodore’s twin; she died in infancy. Given these ages, seven of these children would have been born in Carlisle.¹⁴ At least some of the children attended public school in Carlisle; in the 1920 census, all the children above age six were listed as able to read and write. At some point, Sarah may have worked as a housekeeper at the Molly Pitcher Hotel in Carlisle.¹⁵

The marriage between Charles and Sarah seems to have become troubled at some time during the 1920s, and shortly after the 1930 census (which recorded them married and living in a rental home in Carlisle) they separated permanently. Charles relocated to Pittsburgh, setting up his studio at 2525 Center Ave..¹⁶ There he continued his photography business and his painting. He became a member of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh. In 1950, his paintings were exhibited at the Emergency Club of Wesley Center AME Zion Church.¹⁷ However, in 1950, at age 72, the census records him as living alone and ‘unable to work’.

Moss seemed to have stayed close to his family in Winchester, and it was there, at the home of his niece, Hattie Giles, that he died in 1961. He was buried at old Orrick Cemetery in Winchester. Sarah, who had been living with daughter, Sarah, a hairdresser in Detroit, died there in 1970.