[Portrait Collection, 1630-1996.] [graphic].

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[Portrait Collection, 1630-1996.] [graphic].

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/401150903

The American Antiquarian Society's painted portrait, miniature and sculpture collection includes portraits of Society members, benefactors, and directors as well as portraits related to the manuscript and book collections. Some are by Worcester and Boston area artists; others by nationally recognized painters. The collection reflects the changing tastes in portraiture from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries and includes both academic and non-academic styles.The collection was begun by Isaiah Thomas as a supplemental collection to the library holdings, and in many respects, it retains that supporting role. There are portraits of book and alamanc publishers, poets and newpaper editors, as well as likenesses of artists and authors. Taken together, these pictures tell a part of the Society's story since its founding in 1812. The collection includes portraits of men, women and children. There are several portraits of Isaiah Thomas and his family, all of which are documented in the Thomas Family papers. There is an important group of five likenesses of the Mather family, including Cotton Mather, which were given to the society by decendants in 1815 after Isaiah Thomas purchased the Mather library. Portraits of Massachusetts politicians include a likeness of Massachusetts Bay Governor John Winthrop and Senators Edward Everett and Charles Sumner. Seventy-three artists are represented in the collection, including Salem painter Michele Felice Corné, Boston's Ethan Allen Greenwood and the miniature painter Eliza Goodridge. Regional artists like Zedekiah Belknap and William Willard are also included in the collection. The Society commissioned portraits of its librarians, directors and members from prominent New York and Boston painters such as Daniel Huntington and Edwin T. Billings. The collection also includes several self portraits, including a canvas by Mather Brown and another by the lithographer and painter Bass Otis.

164 items (112 paintings, 40 miniatures, 12 scupltures) : oil on canvas, watercolor, pastel, marble ; between 4 x 2.5 cm. and 219 x 95 cm.

Gadsden Public Library

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SNAC Resource ID: 7419087

Gadsden Public Library

Related Entities

There are 13 Entities related to this resource.

Everett, Edward, 1794-1865

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6g844rz (person)

Edward Everett was an American statesman, clergyman, and orator, as well as professor of Greek at Harvard University and president of Harvard University, 1846-1849. Everett was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard with highest honors in 1811, completing an M.A. in Divinity in 1814. After a brief stint as a minister, Harvard offered him the newly created position of Professor of Greek; brilliant but untrained, Everett went to Göttingen to prepare for...

Gullager, Christian, 1759-1826

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65437xw (person)

Thomas, Isaiah, 1749-1831

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64b2zq8 (person)

Thomas was a New England printer and bookseller who strongly supported the American Revolution. He was also a founder of the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. From the description of ALS: Worcester [Massachusetts], to Mr. Bress, 1795 Aug. 20. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 86160118 Caleb Alexander was born in 1755 in Northfield, Massachusetts, a town founded by his grandfather. He attended Dartmouth, Yale, and Brown Universities, receiving degrees fro...

Winthrop, John, 1588-1649

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cn721q (person)

Governor of Massachusetts. From the description of Description of John Winthrop, 1631 March 7. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 71067142 John Winthrop (1588-1649), a Puritan lawyer, one of the founders and the governor of the colony of Massachusetts. In March 1630, Winthrop began his journal that he kept until January 1649. By the early 1640s, the entries became more irregular and retrospective, and the narrative was more of a history than a personal journal. There were three ...

Corné, Michele Felice 1752-1845

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tf1g8h (person)

Billings, Edwin T. (American painter, 1824-1893)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bc5hfn (person)

Otis, Bass, 1784-1861

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fn1sc7 (person)

Portrait painter and lithographer. From the description of Bass Otis receipt, 1831. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122370511 Bass Otis, a Philadelphia artist, lithographer, and portrait-painter, was born in Bridgewater, Mass. He was apprenticed first to a scythemaker, then to a coach painter in New York about 1808. He later opened a studio in Philadelphia, copied portraits for "Delaplaine's Repository," and sent his work to exhibitions. Otis is credited with making the first...

Brown, Mather, 1761-1831

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62j7d3x (person)

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x34xv4 (person)

Massachusetts lawyer and U.S. Senator, 1851-1874. He was an ardent abolitionist who attacked the south in his "crime against Kansas" speech in 1856. Two days later he was assaulted in the Senate, receiving injuries that took him years to recover from. From the description of Letters, 1858-1869. (Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library). WorldCat record id: 55768315 Born in Boston, Mass., the U.S. statesman Charles Sumner studied law at Harvard and practiced law in his native ci...

Goodridge, Eliza, 1798-1882

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hx2x5z (person)

This drawing was a preparatory drawing for a lithograph entitled "Round Hill, Northampton, Mass." printed by the Boston lithographic firm of Pendleton's. The imprint on the lithograph reads, in part, "Miss E. Goodridge, pinxt. et del." Eliza Goodridge created at least seven drawings and lithographs of Round Hill from 1824 to 1829. From the description of [View of Round Hill, Northampton, Mass.] [graphic]. [ca. 1827] (Boston Athenaeum). WorldCat record id: 70843820 ...

Huntington, Daniel, 1816-1906

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k075nb (person)

Daniel Huntington was a portrait, historical, and landscape painter. Born Oct. 14, 1816 in New York City, Huntington was a student at Hamilton College from 1832 to 1836. He studied under S.F.B. Morse and Henry Inman and then went to Europe in 1839 and again from 1842 to 1845, spending most of his time in Rome. Elected a National Academician in 1840, Huntington served twice as President of the National Academy, from 1862 to 1870 and from 1877 to 1890. He died in New York City on April 18, 1906. ...

Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z0372f (person)

Mather was an American Puritan clergyman and writer. Mather attended Harvard (A.B. 1678, M.A. 1681) and served as minister at the Second Church in Boston from 1685 until his death. His advice was sought during the Salem witch trials. During his lifetime Mather wrote more than 450 books. ...

Greenwood, Ethan Allen, 1779-1856

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6001jxx (person)

Ethan Allen Greenwood (1779-1856) of Hubbardston, Mass., was a teacher, lawyer, and artist. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1806, studied briefly at West Point, and was a student of Edward Savage (1761-1817) in New York City. In Westminster, Mass., Greenwood studied law at the office of Strong and Dodd and kept store with his brother, Aaron, each of them half owner of the establishment. Between his studying, Greenwood taught school, primarily in Westminster. In 1812 he opened a portrait s...