Jack White has long been intrigued by this Detroit photo. Can you ID the mystery woman?

Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press
Updated ·2 min read
22
Jack White performs the anthem before the Detroit Tigers opener against the Chicago White Sox Friday, April 08, 2022, at Comerica Park.
Jack White performs the anthem before the Detroit Tigers opener against the Chicago White Sox Friday, April 08, 2022, at Comerica Park.
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Before his global success with the White Stripes, musician Jack White was working as an upholsterer in the mid-1990s when he made a fascinating find.

In a dumpster on the 2100 block of Scotten Street in southwest Detroit was a 6-foot-tall, oval portrait of an unidentified Black woman, clearly from decades past.

This portrait, printed on a 6-foot canvas, was found by Jack White in southwest Detroit in the 1990s. He's hoping to learn the identity of the woman pictured.
This portrait, printed on a 6-foot canvas, was found by Jack White in southwest Detroit in the 1990s. He's hoping to learn the identity of the woman pictured.

White, who stumbled onto the giant image while cleaning a house for renovation, became enchanted by the mystery woman. The oval photo accompanied him for years afterward — first on display at his upholstery shop on East Grand Boulevard and then “everywhere Jack has lived since,” as a recent Third Man Records post put it.

Now White and his Third Man colleagues are hoping to solve the long-running mystery: Who is the woman in the picture?

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White himself chimed in this week.

“I have always thought that it had been created for either a funeral memorial service or possibly that it was a political sign for someone running for city council or some public office in Detroit,” the musician wrote on Instagram. “Though the original photo is more likely from the 1940s or before, this printed sign portrait may have been made in the ‘60s or ‘70s by the look of the fiberboard material it was printed on.”

The portrait is among the items up for sale in Third Man’s latest online auction, which features artifacts from White’s life and career, including vintage guitars, furniture and other items.

This portrait, printed on a 6-foot canvas, was found by Jack White in southwest Detroit in the 1990s. He's hoping to learn the identity of the woman pictured.
This portrait, printed on a 6-foot canvas, was found by Jack White in southwest Detroit in the 1990s. He's hoping to learn the identity of the woman pictured.

Bidding runs through Sunday — but Third Man’s Ben Blackwell says the photo piece will be happily taken off auction and returned to the family if the woman is successfully identified.

“I tend to think she’s IMPORTANT in one way or another,” Blackwell wrote in the Third Man post. “I just don’t see the attention, effort and pure money sunk into the creation of such an object as that being offered up to an average, everyday person. But even if it WAS, doesn’t that make the whole mystery all the more interesting?"

Anyone with info about the portrait can email detroitstore@thirdmanrecords.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jack White seeks help identifying woman in mysterious Detroit photo