American Art Collaborative

Catharine Dickson (1802-1870) was the daughter of William E. Dickson, Greeneville, Tennessee’s first postmaster. Her miniature may have been painted to celebrate her impending marriage to Dr. Alexander Williams (1793-1852) of Surrey, North Carolina, an ancestor of the playwright Tennessee Williams. The inscription within this miniature states that the likeness was “taken when 16 years old by Rembrandt Peele [sic].” That attribution has changed, awarding this miniature to Rembrandt’s brother Raphaelle