Mary Selena (McNairy) Harding - Unknown

National Society of Colonial Dames of
America in Tennessee

Belle Meade Plantation
		Portrait #1175
Subject/Title:	Harding, Mary Selena (McNairy)
Artist:	Unknown
Date Created:	19th Century
Owner/Location:	Belle Meade Plantation 5025 Harding Road Nashville, TN 37205 website
Frame Dimensions:	38” X 33.25”
Image Dimensions:	30” X 25”
Date Documented:	7 December 2007
Materials/Media:	Oil on canvas on panel
Condition:	Fair

Description:	Half-length portrait of Mary Selena (McNairy) Harding as a young woman. Her head is turned to the right, and her dark coiffed hair has a curl over her right ear. She is wearing a low-cut off-the-shoulder black dress.
History of Work:
Notes:	Mary Selena McNairy was born November 9th 1812 to Nathaniel and Kitty Hobson McNairy who lived at the corner of Cherry and Spring Street in Nashville. She attended Nashville Presbytarian Church. At the age of 17, on November 19th 1829, Selena married William Giles Harding. The marriage would be short as in six years Selena would give birth to five children, only one would survive into adulthood, a son John Harding II. Complications from childbirth in her last pregnancy would take Selena’s life March 29th 1837, at the young age of 24. Location: Front Parlor