Catherine Moton Patterson, 1936
Silver Gelatin
Paul R. Jones Collection, Atlanta, GA

Catherine "Kitty" Moton Patterson, wife and daughter of two of Tuskegee Institute's presidents, has been described as an elegant and refined first lady. Polk's formal composition echoes this description. With the gleaming angularity of the harp contrasting with the graceful curves of her lace dress, Moton Patterson's image is the epitome of dignified reserve and classical beauty.

Elaine Thomas, a former chairperson of Tuskegee's Art Department and Director of the campus's George Washington Carver Museum, remembered Patterson as her childhood piano teacher. Thomas's father, D'Equared Freeman, an instructor of architecture and drafting in the Institute's School of Mechanical Industries, often worked in tandem with P. H. Polk, creating oil paintings of the subjects Polk photographed. Thomas related that Catherine Moton Patterson was one of those subjects.