Anne Catharine Hoof Green

This 1769 portrait of Anne Catherine Hoof Green by Charles Willson Peale hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

"In addition to mothering fourteen children, Anne Green helped her husband, Jonas, run the Maryland Gazette. When he died in 1767, she took over as manager of his printing shop and as the newspaper's editor. Under her supervision, the enterprise thrived, and she gained a favorable reputation for recording opinions and events leading up to the American Revolution. During this period, she was also appointed the official printer of documents for the colony of Maryland. One of a small number of women printers during the colonial period, she ran the newspaper for eight years.

In this portrait, among the first that Charles Willson Peale painted after returning from London in 1769, Peale represents Green not as her obituary recorded, a mother and wife of 'a mild and benevolent Disposition ... an Example 0f her Sex.' Instead, he portrayed her as a professional printer with a copy of the Maryland Gazette, which announced Peale's return and included a notice about his portrait of William Pitt." -- National Portrait Gallery

These clippings from the Maryland Gazette, April 16, 1767 can be found in the Maryland Archives.  They include Jonas Green's obituary and a note signed "A.C. Green, promising that "I shall venture to supply my late husband's customers with News-Papers,on the same terms he did."

 Annapolis, April 16 {1767}

On Saturday Evening last died, at his late Dwelling-House, Mr. JONAS GREEN, for Twenty-eight Years Printer and Publisher of the Maryland Gazette: He was one of the Aldermen of this city. It would be the highest indiscretion in us, to attempt giving the Character he justly deserved, only we have Reason to regret the loss of him, in various Stations of Husband, Parent, Master, and Companion.

 To The PUBLIC

I Presume to address You for your Countenance to Myself and numerous Family, left, without your Favour, almost destitute of Support, by the Decease of my Husband, who long, and, I have the Satisfaction to say, faithfully served You in Business of Provincial Printer; and, I flatter myself, that, with your kind Indulgence and Encouragement, Myself, and Son, will be enabled to continue it on the same Footing. On this Expectation, I shall venture to supply my late Husband's Customers with News-Papers, on the same Terms he did, until I receive Orders to the contrary, and shall be ready to publish form Time to Time, the Advertisements that shall be sent to the Printing-Office.

I am willing to hope, that the Pains taken by my late Husband, to oblige his very extensive Acquaintance, and the Character he deservedly bore, to an honest, benevolent Man, will recommend to your Regard

Your grateful and faithful
humble Servant

A.C. GREEN