
02/03/2025
In honor of Black History Month, HF is sharing a series of posts highlighting Frederick's Black Heritage. (1/4)
Frederick’s first known Black artist moved to the city from Baltimore in 1914. William Grinage operated a photography and painting studio from the home he shared with his second wife Esther Wise Grinage on West All Saints Street. Grinage painted religious subjects, including two works that are preserved at Asbury United Methodist Church. He also painted portraits, some of which he entered in the Great Frederick Fair where he shared first place in the Professional Painters and Drawers competition with Helen Smith in 1924. That year, Grinage received a commission from the Kiwanis Club of Frederick to paint a portrait of Francis Scott Key to be displayed in the lobby of the city’s new downtown hotel. The striking portrait was Grinage’s last completed work, unveiled in the Francis Scott Key Hotel lobby just weeks after his death in 1925. Today, the painting is displayed in the “Etchison Connections” exhibition at Heritage Frederick’s Museum of Frederick County History.