Lena Taylor Barbour

A portrait photograph of Lena Taylor Barbour taken by Rufus W. Holsinger around 1910. Reproduced from PBS.

A photograph of Lena Taylor Barbour in formal attire was featured in the “Visions of Progress: Portraits of Dignity, Style and Racial Uplift” exhibit of Rufus W. Holsinger's photographs that was on display at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library from 2022-2023.

Biography

Barbour was born on April 3, 1890 in an unknown locale within Virginia.

Around 1910, her portrait photograph was taken by Holsinger. Professor John Edwin Mason of the UVA Corcoran Department of History believes that she herself made the extremely-detailed eyelet lace dress she wore for her portrait.

On October 7, 1915, she married Lewis Barbour in Charlottesville, with both individuals being able to read and write. Barbour worked as a maid, dressmaker, and seamstress at a boarding house, while Lewis worked as an orderly at a hospital.

Tombstone of Barbour in Lincoln Cemetery. Reproduced from The Virginia Center for Digital History (VCDH).

Barbour died on July 22, 1968 in Staunton. She was buried in Lincoln Cemetery.