Editing Henry Ossawa Tanner (section)

== Philadelphia Childhood ==

Henry Ossawa Tanner was born on June 21, 1859, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Benjamin Tucker Tanner and Sarah Elizabeth Miller Tanner. His father, a minister who became a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, moved the family to Philadelphia in 1868 when he assumed editorship of the Christian Recorder. Young Henry grew up in a cultured household where education and achievement were valued, his father's position providing access to African American intellectual society. A childhood encounter with a landscape painter at work in Fairmount Park sparked his determination to become an artist.<ref name="mosby">{{cite book |last=Mosby |first=Dewey |title=Henry Ossawa Tanner |year=1991 |publisher=Rizzoli |location=New York}}</ref>

Tanner's artistic ambitions faced immediate obstacles in a society that offered few opportunities for Black artists. His father initially discouraged the pursuit, understanding the barriers his son would face. Despite these concerns, Tanner enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1880, where he studied under Thomas Eakins. Eakins' encouragement provided crucial support, though Tanner later recalled the humiliation of being the only Black student in a hostile environment where classmates subjected him to racist harassment.<ref name="mathews"/>