Theodosia Burr Alston and The Nags Head Portrait

Home › North Carolina Legends › Theodosia Burr Alston and the Nags Head Portrait

Theodosia Burr Alston and the Nags Head Portrait is a story told about Nags Head and the Outer Banks coast, Dare County. Vote believe it or no way, then see what 2 named sources say is documented.

LegendKind of story
2Named sources
CoastRegion
Oct 27Checked, 2026

The Story
Its Home
Looked For
FAQ

Collected 0 of 16Next legend

Local legend. Not confirmed. Just for fun.

No. 13 of 16

Theodosia Burr Alston and The Nags Head Portrait

People say Theodosia Burr Alston, daughter of Aaron Burr, sailed north from South Carolina on a ship called the Patriot and was never seen again. Tales say the ship was lured ashore by wreckers off the Outer Banks, and that a portrait of a young woman found years later in a Nags Head home was hers.

What The Sources Document

East Carolina University's Joyner Library (January 30, 2024) says Theodosia, wife of South Carolina governor Joseph Alston, sailed from South Carolina to visit her father in New York in December 1812 and was never heard from again; it calls her fate unresolved. It describes stories of ship scavengers called 'bankers' capturing the ship, and notes that Aaron Burr never accepted them and believed the ship was lost in a storm. An 1875 newspaper report revived another tale that she died in Galveston, Texas. The State Archives of North Carolina finding aid for the Pool Family Papers (PC.5328) records that Dr. William Gaskins Pool, a physician from Elizabeth City, bought Nags Head oceanfront land in 1866, saw the portrait at Mrs. Mann's home in 1869, and that his daughter Anna Louise Pool sold it before 1933 to a New York gallery; it later went to Yale's Lewis Walpole Library. The finding aid calls the portrait one believed to be by John Vanderlyn; ECU says the artist and the sitter's identity are not authenticated. The portrait's link to the Patriot is not documented in the sources we read.

Sources: East Carolina University Joyner Library Special Collections, Unsolved North Carolina Mysteries: The Case of Theodosia Burr Alston (January 30, 2024); State Archives of North Carolina, Pool Family Papers, PC.5328 (finding aid).

A Note

The painting is held at a library in Connecticut and is not on public display in North Carolina. The shipwreck tales are unproven stories and no one should be blamed for the loss of the ship without evidence.

Its home: Museum of the Albemarle, Elizabeth City (state museum; exhibited the portrait in 2017 per ECU). Official page.

On this site: Outer Banks.

Looked for and Not Found

A public Outer Banks place that a source ties to the portrait
Any record of the Patriot's capture or wreck

More Legends

Plan The Trip

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my vote count anywhere?

Votes and your collected set stay in your own browser. We do not store or share them.

Where do these facts come from?

From the named sources listed on this page: East Carolina University Joyner Library Special Collections, Unsolved North Carolina Mysteries: The Case of Theodosia Burr Alston (January 30, 2024); State Archives of North Carolina, Pool Family Papers, PC.5328 (finding aid).

Sources

Read on October 27, 2026. Stories are for fun; the facts come from these sources. How we check: editorial standards; spot a mistake? tell us.

Cite this page: It's North Carolina, “Theodosia Burr Alston and The Nags Head Portrait”, itsnorthcarolina.com/legends/theodosia-burr-alston-nags-head-portrait/ (updated 2026-10-27). By the It's North Carolina editorial team. Free to quote with attribution and a link to this page; data and tables are licensed CC BY 4.0.