A wood engraving of an interior view showing Queen Victoria presenting her photograph to Josiah Henson in the middle-ground centre, surrounded by guests. Letters below.

Josiah Henson (1789–1883) was an author, abolitionist and Methodist minister. Henson was enslaved at birth, but later escaped from Maryland to Canada with his wife and children. Henson settled at Dresden in Upper Canada (now Ontario) where he established a 500-person freeman settlement at Dawn Township, which became one of the final stops on the Underground Railroad. Henson's autobiography The Life of Josiah Henson, formerly a slave, now an inhabitant of Canada, narrated by himself, published in 1849, served as inspiration for the lead character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852).

Henson became a Methodist preacher and made several trips to the United States and the United Kingdom, where he was received by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle.