Mary Darnall Carroll (1749 – 1782) had been married to Charles Carroll of Carrollton for three years when she sat to Charles Willson Peale in 1771. Not long afterward, her husband’s efforts on behalf of the American Revolution would label him as a patriot, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. Looking elegant yet benevolent, she holds a book marked “Locke on Education,” signaling her knowledge of British philosopher John Locke’s influential text Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1692). Some of Locke’s tenets still have a modern ring — he believed that learning should be enjoyable. Mary eventually bore seven children, three of whom lived to adulthood.