Standing in an illuminated doorway, wearing lingerie and draped in her mother’s fur coat, is Detroit entrepreneur and nail artist, Cyndia Robinson. Robinson represents Black women via a celebratory expression of sensuality, inserting herself into a history that often negates the presence of women on the Detroit Frontier–specifically Black and Native women who were denied control of their own bodies by slave owners in Detroit and Canada during the fur trade. Here, Robinson’s fur coat acts as an emblematic embrace of selfhood.

Two paintings—recreated from 19th century engravings—flank her on either side. On the left, is a late-17th century scene that depicts John Jacob Astor’s first fur-buying expedition on the Hudson River. Astor was the founder of the American Fur Company and real estate mogul. He began trading furs in the Great Lakes region and Canada around 1794 before eventually expanding into western territories. His business dealings resulted in his becoming one of the wealthiest men ever to live. In the painting, he stands beside an enslaved Black man carrying a large fur pelt on his back, to be placed in a boat manned by two Indigenous men. The painting on the right is another 17th century scene that depicts Indigenous men and a woman bringing pelts to Dutch fur-traders. Along with the French and English, the Dutch were some of the earliest fur traders in North America, working with Indigenous peoples since the early 1600s.