19th-Century American Families With Pets

May 28, 2013, 5:50 pm

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More children & pets! You may have to search a bit for the family pets, but they are here. These crowded depictions are a little difficult to see in this medium, but I am going to post them anyway.

Sheldon Peck (1897-1858)...Dog


H. Knight......Detail Dogs & Cat


Unknown Artist......Detail Dog & Birds


Unknown Artist......Dog

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1800s America Landscapes & Seascapes

May 28, 2013, 1:00 am

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Mauritz Frederick Hendrik de Haas (Dutch-born American artist, 1832-1895) Seascape with ships.

1800s America Landscapes & Seascapes

May 30, 2013, 1:00 am

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Cassilly Adams (American artist, 1843-1921) Indiana Scout

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May 8, 2013, 1:00 am

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George Cochran Lambdin (American artist, 1830-1896) The Pruner 1868

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May 10, 2013, 1:00 am

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James Goodwyn Clonney (English-born American artist, 1812-1867) The Happy Moment 1847

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May 12, 2013, 1:00 am

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Charles Deas (1818-1867) Turkey Shooting 1838

Women & a few children by Chester Harding 1792-1866

May 13, 2013, 1:00 am

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Chester Harding, (American artist, 1792–1866) Rebecca Warren (Mrs John Ball Brown) 1826

Chester Harding was born in Conway, Massachusetts, the 4th of 12 children whose father, an unsuccessful inventor, experienced some difficulty in providing for his large family. Chester Harding spent several years in the household of an aunt; and at age 12, he was hired out to help support of his family. When he was 14, his parents decided to move to the relatively unsettled area of Monroe County, New York. There he dabbled in a variety of trades--including drum-making, cabinetry, & tavern-keeping --without much success. Shortly after his marriage to Caroline Woodruff in 1815, he left New York State because of mounting debts. His young family joined him in Pittsburgh, where he began painting houses.

Chester Harding (American artist, 1792–1866) Elizabeth Tuckerman Salisbury

Around 1818, he was introduced to portraiture by an itinerant artist named Nelson. Largely self-taught, Harding achieved some success before moving to Kentucky, where a brother was already engaged in the portrait trade. There he felt the influence of Matthew Jouett, a slightly older artist working in the manner of Gilbert Stuart. Over the next few years, Harding painted in Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, & Washington, D.C. He traveled to Philadelphia for 2 months of study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts during the winter of 1819-1820. Business was good, & he received praise for a likeness of the 90-year-old Daniel Boone, which was engraved by several printmakers.

Chester Harding, (American artist, 1792–1866) Mrs Thomas Brewster Coolidge

In 1823, Harding spent 6 months in Boston, where he received an astounding reception & more commissions, than he could carry out. He later admitted that his success was due largely to his reputation as an untaught "primitive" from the frontier, a mythic status upon which he would capitalize for several years to come. Despite his good fortune, he moved his family that year to Northampton, Massachusetts, in preparation for an anticipated trip to Europe.

Chester Harding (American artist, 1792–1866) Hannah Davis Dudley

Harding soon left for London, where he met artists Charles Robert Leslie & Sir Thomas Lawrence & temporarily adapted his tight, finished style to the looser brushwork then in fashion in Britain. He met with extremely good fortune in England, Scotland, and Ireland. Taken by his plain mannerisms and humble origins, aristocrats with a democratic bent--and even members of the royal family--commissioned their likenesses from him.

Chester Harding, (American artist, 1792–1866) Henrietta Clark

Pleased with his popularity, Harding made the decision to settle in Glasgow & sent for his family to join him there. Soon after they arrived, however, he was forced to abandon his plans & return to Boston in 1826, after a British financial panic destroyed his business.

Chester Harding (American artist, 1792–1866) Julia Webster (Mrs Samuel Appleton)

For the rest of his life, Harding's career was centered in Boston, although he made his home in Springfield, Massachusetts, beginning in 1830. He became an important & visible force in the Boston art world, largely through his ownership of a studio building that was the site of many important exhibitions. Much of each year was also spent on the road, executing portraits in New York, Louisiana, Kentucky, & points in between.

Chester Harding, (American artist, 1792–1866) Katherine Bigelow (Mrs Abbott Lawrence) 1855

In all, he is thought to have painted over 1000 portraits. After the death of his wife in 1845, he made a second, 9-month visit to Europe. Thereafter he painted less, though never giving up his brushes entirely. His interests late in life gravitated toward landscape architecture & fishing. He died in Boston in 1866.

Chester Harding, (American artist, 1792–1866) Hannah Perkins and Grandaughter

Chester Harding (American artist, 1792–1866) Mary Fulford (Mrs William Lorman)

Chester Harding, (American artist, 1792–1866) Grace (Mrs Daniel Webster) 1781-1828

Chester Harding (American artist, 1792–1866) Mrs David Stoddard Greeough III Roxbury MA

Chester Harding (American artist, 1792–1866) Mrs Kennedy

Chester Harding (American artist, 1792–1866) Mrs Quincy

Chester Harding, (American artist, 1792–1866) Elizabeth Buchanan Woodbridge 1821

Chester Harding (American artist, 1792–1866) Sarah Stanton (Mrs Joshua Blake)

Chester Harding, (American artist, 1792–1866) Chester Harding's Children

Chester Harding, (American artist, 1792–1866) Chester Harding's Children
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Everday Folks - Reading & calculating

May 14, 2013, 1:00 am

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Thomas Hicks (American artist, 1823-1890) Calculating 1844

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Everyday folks - Women at Market in 1879 Texas

May 16, 2013, 1:00 am

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Thomas Allen (1849-1924) The Market Plaza, San Antonio 1879

Everyday folks - Picnic with music

May 20, 2013, 1:00 am

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Jerome B. Thompson (1814 – 1886) Recreation

Japonisme - Late 1800s American Artists Look at Goldfish

May 21, 2013, 1:00 am

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John White Alexander (1856-1915) An Idle Moment


Seymour Joseph Guy (1824-1910) Guilty


Robert Lewis Reid (1862-1939), Girl in Blue Kimonoo


George Cochran Lambdin (1830-1896) Goldfish


Childe Hassam (1859-1935) The Goldfish Window


Richard (Edward or Emil) Miller (1875–1943). The Gold Fish Bowl


Charles Courtney Curran (1861-1942) Goldfish


Charles Courtney Curran (1861-1942) The Goldfish


Gertrude Fiske (1879-1961) Goldfish


Childe Hassam (1859-1935) Bowl of Goldfish

Lydia Field Emmet (1866 – 1952) Goldfish, a Portrait of Roland and Peter Hazard


Henry Salem Hubbell (1870 – 1949) Rosemary and the Goldfish

Everyday folks - Gathering the pumpkins

May 22, 2013, 1:00 am

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John Whetten Ehninger (1827 – 1889) October

Chickens, chickens, chickens - Mary Russell Smith 1842-1878

May 23, 2013, 1:00 am

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Mary Russell Smith (1842-1878) Spring Chickens and Butterfly

For several years, our nearby grandchildren raised beautiful rabbits to exhibit at the state fair. Now they are much too sophisticated to raise rabbits, so their mother decided to substitute chickens instead.  Lots of fresh eggs up here in our part of the woods now.

Mary Russell Smith (1842-1878) Six Chickens and Insect

I wanted to show you their chickens, but they don't stand still long enough for flattering portraits. And then I remembered Mary Russell Smith (1842-1878).

Mary Russell Smith (1842-1878) Young Guineas 1861

Mary Russell Smith (1842-1878) was born in Pennsylvania. Her father Russell Smith (1812-1896) was a well-known landscape & theater scenery painter, and her mother Mary Patricia Wilson Smith (1819-1874) was a painter of flowers. Her brother Xanthus was a marine painter, especially active during the American Civil War.

Mary Russell Smith (1842-1878) Hen and Her Chicks

Daughter Mary, also a painter, remained unwed throughout her lifetime, while she obsessively painted farm-life, especially chickens. Mary did not show her chickens at the state fair, but she did exhibit at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1859-69, and again from 1876-78. These are a few of her chickens & rabbits.

Mary Russell Smith (1842-1878) Rabbits

In her short career, Mary Russell Smith executed over 300 paintings, that she meticulously detailed in her "Account of Work Done by Mary Smith, Artist" which is now in the Collection of the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.

Everyday folks - Alone in the woods

May 24, 2013, 1:00 am

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Edwin Austin Abbey (1852-1911) Young Woman in the Woods 1879

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May 26, 2013, 1:00 am

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Jerome B. Thompson (1814 – 1886) Apple Gathering

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Women & a few children by Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828)

May 31, 2013, 4:29 am

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1800-02 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) The Poet Sarah Wentwort Morton


Gilbert Stuart was born in Rhode Island in 1755, and died in Boston, Massachusettes in 1828. He fled the colonies in fear of the American Revolution, and he fled the British Isles in fear of creditors. After nearly 20 years in England and Ireland, he returned to the United States to become the leading portraitist of the Federal period.


1800 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Arabella Maria Smith (Mrs. Alexander James Dallas)


Stuart's parents, Jacobite Scot snuff grinders Gilbert Stuart and his wife Elizabeth Anthony, ran a shop in Newport, Rhode Island. When he was reportedly only 10, Stuart painted a very successful depiction of a local Scot Jacobite physician's hounds.


1800 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Abigail Smith (Mrs. John Adams).

The doctor introduced the young boy to fellow Scot portrait painter Cosmo Alexander (1724-1772) in 1769. Stuart traveled with the artist to Philadelphia, Delaware, Virginia, and Edinburgh, learning the art of the portrait along the way, until his tutor died in 1772.


1800 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Henrietta Marchant (Mrs. Robert Liston).


Stuart made his way back to Rhode Island, where he painted several portraits of women; before his loyalist father moved the family to Nova Scotia in 1775, and Stuart headed for London. In 1777, he went to work there for Pennsylvania ex-patriot Benjamin West. As Stuart told artist Matthew Jouett (1787–1827), he was "allowd half a guinea a week for paint(ing) draperies & finishing up Wests portraits."


1800s Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Portrait of a Lady.

In 1777, Stuart exhibited a portrait at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Stuart helped West with his history paintings until 1782, while he personally continued to paint portraits of prominent English gentry, married, had 12 children, and ran up massive debts. His daughter Jane later explained, "the manner in which he lived should not be called extravagant, as his employment warranted the outlay; his distinction as an artist entitled him to it; the class of persons he painted for required it."


1800s Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Marcia Burnes Van Ness.

To persistant escape creditors, Stuart fled London in 1787, heading for Ireland, where his debts piled up again. Leaving unfinished portraits and ever mounting debts behind in Ireland, Stuart moved his family to New York in 1793. Once established in Philadelphia the following year, he wrote to his uncle Joseph Anthony (1738–1798)in Newport, "The object of my journey is only to secure a picture of the President & finish yours." He mentioned nothing of his debts across the Atlantic. He was successful in securing a sitting with the president in Philadelphia in 1795, completing a portrait which he would recopy and sell at least 12 twelve times.

1800s Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Mrs Barney Smith.

Martha Washington commissioned of 2 new portraits of herself & her husband, so the president allowed Stuart another sitting in 1796. However, Martha Washington would never receive her portrait or her husband's, now known as the "Athenaeum" portraits; because Stuart until his death, made more copies of the new sitting for sale. Martha fretted to her husband about never receiving her portraits.


1800s Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Sarah Homes Tappan.


Stuart was notorious for not completing his portraits. Mary Tyler Peabody (1804-94) wrote in 1825, "At Stewart's room I saw a portrait of Webster, Mr. Quincy, President Adams and lady, Bishop Griswold, Mr. Taylor, &c. They were all unfinished."


1802 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) Mrs Edward Stow

Twenty years after sitting for Stuart, Thomas Jefferson was still attempting to obtain his portrait from the artist. In response to an inquiry about Stuart from artist Mather Brown (1761–1831), Catherine Byles wrote, "We are told he is one of the best painters in the world & excels in his likeness; he has taken a number of portraits, his price is a hundred dollars; he is indeed very excentrick, he loves a cheerful bottle and does no work in the afternoon; he is very dilatory in finishing his pictures."

1804 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Elizabeth-Beltzhoove (Mrs John Thomson Mason).

But the people who sat for Stuart and did receive their portraits held him in high regard. Female poet Sarah Wentworth Morton was painted by Stuart and wrote in the Philadelphia journal The Port Folio on June 18, 1803,To Mr. Stuart, On His Portrait of Mrs. M
STUART, thy portraits speak, with skill divine;
Round the bright Graces flows the waving line.
Expression in its finest utterance lives,
And a new language to creation gives.
Each varying trait the gifted artist shews,
Wisdom majestic in the bending brows;
The warrior's open front, his eyes of fire,
Or when the charms of bashful youth retire;
Or patient plodding, and with wealth content,
The man of commerce counts his cent per cent.

1804 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Anna Payne Cutts. White House Collection.

Gilbert Stuart died in debt in Boston in 1828. Less than 2 months after his death, the Boston Athenaeum presented memorial exhibition of his portraits for the benefit of his widow and 4 daughters. Almost 250 Stuart portraits, many of Bostonians, were loaned for the highly successful benefit exhibition. His wife would move to Newport, where she would live until 1845.

1775 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Sarah Rivera (Mrs Aaron Lopez) and son Joshua.

1780 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Christian Stelle Banister & Son John.

1794 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Matilda Stoughton de Jaudenes y Nebot.

1796 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Elizabeth Parke Custis Law

1796 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Mrs. Robert Morris.

1796 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Mrs. Thomas Lea.

1796 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Martha Washington.

1797 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Mary Willing Clymer

1797 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Anne Willing Bingham.

1798 Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Elizabeth Corbin Griffin Gatliff & Daughter Elizabeth.

1804 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Sarah McKean, Marquesa de Casa Yrujo.

1804 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Anna Powell Mason.

1804 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Dolley Payne Todd Madison.

1804 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte

1805 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Ann Penington.

 

1806 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Hepzibah Clarke Swan.

1808 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) Lydia Smith

1809 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis.

 

1810 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Elizabeth Tuckerman

1811 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Mrs Polly Hooper.

1815 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Mrs. Nathan Bond.

1817 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Mrs. James Smith Colburn.

1819 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Mrs. Joseph Story.

 

1820 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Mrs. Andrew Sigourney.

1823 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Elizabeth Porter Wheeler.

 

1824 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) Ann Woodward Haven.

1824 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Miss Clementina Beach.

1824 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Lydia Pickering Williams.

Everyday folks - Talking at the woodshed

June 1, 2013, 1:00 am

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James Goodwyn Clonney (English-born American artist, 1812-1867) At the Woodshed 1838

Dolley Madison, War of 1812, & Slaves

June 2, 2013, 1:00 am

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Engraving of Dolley Payne Madison. 1812. Attributed to William Chappell. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Dolley Madison (1768-1849), a North Carolina Quaker born in Guilford County, was the wife of President James Madison. She rejected the somber traditional garb of her religion in favor of high fashion & according to this article from The New York Times, apparently she rejected Quaker ideas about slavery as well.

Dolly Madison, painted by Gilbert Stuart. White House Collection.

The New York Times
Madison and the White House, Through the Memoir of a Slave
By Rachel L. Swarns Published: August 15, 2009

Washington — In 1809, a young boy from a wealthy Virginia estate stepped into President James Madison’s White House and caught the first glimpse of his new home. The East Room was unfinished, he recalled years later in a memoir. Pennsylvania Avenue was unpaved and “always in an awful condition from either mud or dust,” he recounted.

Mr. Jennings was a slave in the White House and became the first person to put his recollections of it into a memoir. “The city was a dreary place,” he continued.

His name was Paul Jennings, and he was an unlikely chronicler of the Madison presidency. When he first walked into the Executive Mansion, he was a 10-year-old slave.

But over the course of his long life, Mr. Jennings witnessed, and perhaps participated in, the rescue of George Washington’s portrait from the White House during the War of 1812 and stood by the former president’s side at his deathbed. He bought his freedom, helped to organize a daring (and unsuccessful) slave escape and became the first person to put his White House recollections into a memoir.

Next week, Mr. Jennings’s story will take center stage when dozens of his descendants gather for a reunion in the White House. Historians say it will be a remarkable moment in the history of the mansion, which was built with slave labor and now houses President Obama, the first black person to hold the office, and his family.

Historians say the visit will highlight the intimate, day-to-day role that enslaved men and women played in the White House, a community that is little known and whose members have long languished in obscurity.

“It really is a story that isn’t well told yet,” said Lonnie G. Bunch, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. “It lets people realize just how big a shadow slavery cast on America.”

The White House curator, William G. Allman, said few historical records existed about the black people who lived and worked in the building during its earliest years. Slaves were barred from learning to read and write, and their owners often considered their stories inconsequential.

So the relatively detailed accounting of Mr. Jennings’s life is notable, particularly because he was so closely linked to President Madison and to the portrait of George Washington, which is considered the White House’s most valuable historical object. The portrait, painted by Gilbert Stuart, is the only item currently on display that was also present when the White House opened in 1800. The Jennings family will view the painting during their White House reunion on Aug. 24. The Obamas are expected to be away on vacation that day.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had a family group like this visit before,” Mr. Allman said. “It’s just one of those stories that’s never going to be front and center because the records are very scanty.”

New details about Mr. Jennings’s life and his family have emerged through the research of Beth Taylor, a research associate at Montpelier, the Madison plantation in Virginia. Over the past two years, Ms. Taylor has pored over court records and tracked down and interviewed his descendants, discovering historical documents and the only known photograph of Mr. Jennings.

She also found a rare edition of Mr. Jennings’s recollections, which were released in 1865 under the title “A Colored Man’s Reminiscences of James Madison.” (A white acquaintance of Mr. Jennings collected his reminiscences and got them published.)

In the 19-page memoir, Mr. Jennings, who served as a footman and later a valet to President Madison, recalled the chaotic escape from the White House hours before the British burned the building in 1814.

He described President Madison as a frugal and temperate man who owned only one suit, socialized with Thomas Jefferson and was so careful with his liquor that he probably never “drank a quart of brandy in his whole life.”

Mr. Jennings said he often served and shaved the president and recalled that his master was kind to his slaves. He was 48 when he finally bought his freedom, years after Madison’s death in 1836.

As a free man, Mr. Jennings worked in the government’s pension office, bought property and even helped support the former first lady Dolley Madison with “small sums from my own pocket” when she fell on hard times.

Mr. Jennings, who died in 1874 at age 75, did not discuss his personal difficulties in his memoir, but Ms. Taylor and others say he encountered many hardships. As a slave, he was forced to live apart from his wife and children, who lived on another plantation. And he seems to have chafed under Mrs. Madison’s ownership after her husband died.

Articles in abolitionist newspapers uncovered by researchers at the University of Virginia’s Dolley Madison Digital Edition, an online collection of Mrs. Madison’s correspondence, reported that she treated her slaves poorly. In March 1848, the Liberator newspaper published a letter charging that Mrs. Madison had hired out Mr. Jennings to others and then kept “the last red cent” of his pay, “leaving him to get his clothes by presents, night work, or as he might.”

The letter also said Mrs. Madison had refused to free Mr. Jennings, as her husband had wished. Instead, she sold him to an insurance agent, who in turn sold him to Senator Daniel Webster for $120. (He promptly set Mr. Jennings free and let him work off the debt as a servant in his household.)

Julie Doxsey found the articles under the supervision of Holly Shulman, the editor of the Dolley Madison Digital Edition. They said they believed this might be the reason Mr. Jennings dared to challenge publicly Mrs. Madison’s claim that she saved Washington’s portrait during the War of 1812, a charge that threatened to tarnish her image...

The New York Times' article relies on the first-hand account of Paul Jennings. I think reviewing his direct statements about Dolley Madison, might be helpful in understanding just what his real opinion of the president's wife was, at least in 1865, when he dictated his memoir.

Dolley Madison c 1817, painted by Rembrandt Peale.

A COLORED MAN'S REMINISCENCES OF JAMES MADISON. By Paul Jennings. Published in Brooklyn by George C. Beadle. 1865.

The preface of the book relates, Among the laborers at the Department of the Interior is an intelligent colored man, Paul Jennings, who was born a slave on President Madison's estate, in Montpelier, Va., in 1799. His reputed father was Benj. Jennings, an English trader there; his mother, a slave of Mr. Madison, and the grand-daughter of an Indian. Paul was a "body servant" of Mr. Madison, till his death, and afterwards of Daniel Webster, having purchased his freedom of Mrs. Madison. His character for sobriety, truth, and fidelity, is unquestioned; and as he was a daily witness of interesting events, I have thought some of his recollections were worth writing down in almost his own language.

The memoir begins, When Mr. Madison was chosen President, we came on and moved into the White House; the east room was not finished, and Pennsylvania Avenue was not paved, but was always in an awful condition from either mud or dust. The city was a dreary place...
Before the war of 1812 was declared, there were frequent consultations at the White House as to the expediency of doing it...

After the war had been going on for a couple of years, the people of Washington began to be alarmed for the safety of the city, as the British held Chesapeake Bay with a powerful fleet and army. Every thing seemed to be left to General Armstrong, then Secretary of war, who ridiculed the idea that there was any danger. But, in August, 1814, the enemy had got so near, there could be no doubt of their intentions. Great alarm existed, and some feeble preparations for defence were made...

Well, on the 24th of August, sure enough, the British reached Bladensburg, and the fight began between 11 and 12. Even that very morning General Armstrong assured Mrs. Madison there was no danger. The President, with General Armstrong, General Winder, Colonel Monroe, Richard Rush, Mr. Graham, Tench Ringgold, and Mr. Duvall, rode out on horseback to Bladensburg to see how things looked

Mrs. Madison ordered dinner to be ready at 3, as usual; I set the table myself, and brought up the ale, cider, and wine, and placed them in the coolers, as all the Cabinet and several military gentlemen and strangers were expected
 While waiting, at just about 3, as Sukey, the house-servant, was lolling out of a chamber window, James Smith, a free colored man who had accompanied Mr. Madison to Bladensburg, gallopped up to the house, waving his hat, and cried out, "Clear out, clear out! General Armstrong has ordered a retreat!"

All then was confusion. Mrs. Madison ordered her carriage, and passing through the dining-room, caught up what silver she could crowd into her old-fashioned reticule, and then jumped into the chariot with her servant girl Sukey, and Daniel Carroll, who took charge of them; Jo. Bolin drove them over to Georgetown Heights; the British were expected in a few minutes.

Mr. Cutts, her brother-in-law, sent me to a stable on 14th street, for his carriage. People were running in every direction. John Freeman (the colored butler) drove off in the coachee with his wife, child, and servant; also a feather bed lashed on behind the coachee, which was all the furniture saved, except part of the silver and the portrait of Washington (of which I will tell you by-and-by).

I will here mention that although the British were expected every minute, they did not arrive for some hours; in the mean time, a rabble, taking advantage of the confusion, ran all over the White House, and stole lots of silver and whatever they could lay their hands on.

About sundown I walked over to the Georgetown ferry, and found the President and all hands (the gentlemen named before, who acted as a sort of body-guard for him) waiting for the boat. It soon returned, and we all crossed over, and passed up the road about a mile...I walked on to a Methodist minister's, and in the evening, while he was at prayer, I heard a tremendous explosion, and, rushing out, saw that the public buildings, navy yard, ropewalks, &c., were on fire.

1814 White House on Fire. William Strickland, engraver. Library of Congress.Mrs. Madison slept that night at Mrs. Love's, two or three miles over the river. After leaving that place she called in at a house, and went up stairs. The lady of the house learning who she was, became furious, and went to the stairs and screamed out, "Miss Madison! if that's you, come down and go out! Your husband has got mine out fighting, and d--you, you shan't stay in my house; so get out!"

Mrs. Madison complied, and went to Mrs. Minor's, a few miles further, where she stayed a day or two, and then returned to Washington, where she found Mr. Madison at her brother-in-law's, Richard Cutts, on F street. All the facts about Mrs. M. I learned from her servant Sukey. We moved into the house of Colonel John B. Taylor, corner of 18th street and New York Avenue, where we lived till the news of peace arrived...

It has often been stated in print, that when Mrs. Madison escaped from the White House, she cut out from the frame the large portrait of Washington (now in one of the parlors there), and carried it off. This is totally false. She had no time for doing it. It would have required a ladder to get it down. All she carried off was the silver in her reticule, as the British were thought to be but a few squares off, and were expected every moment.

John Susé (a Frenchman, then door-keeper, and still living) and Magraw, the President's gardener, took it down and sent it off on a wagon, with some large silver urns and such other valuables as could be hastily got hold of. When the British did arrive, they ate up the very dinner, and drank the wines, &c., that I had prepared for the President's party.

When the news of peace arrived, we were crazy with joy. Miss Sally Coles, a cousin of Mrs. Madison, and afterwards wife of Andrew Stevenson, since minister to England, came to the head of the stairs, crying out, "Peace! peace!"
 1814 A view of the president's house in the city of Washington after the conflagration of the 24th of August 1814. Library of Congress.

Mrs. Madison was a remarkably fine woman. She was beloved by every body in Washington, white and colored. Whenever soldiers marched by, during the war, she always sent out and invited them in to take wine and refreshments, giving them liberally of the best in the house. Madeira wine was better in those days than now, and more freely drank.

Montpelier, Virginia home of James and Dolley Madison, painted by Baroness Hyde Neuville (1750-1849). Musse De Blerancourt, France.

In the last days of her life, before Congress purchased her husband's papers, she was in a state of absolute poverty, and I think sometimes suffered for the necessaries of life. While I was a servant to Mr. Webster, he often sent me to her with a market-basket full of provisions, and told me whenever I saw anything in the house that I thought she was in need of, to take it to her. I often did this, and occasionally gave her small sums from my own pocket, though I had years before bought my freedom of her.

1840s Daguerreotype of Dolley Madison

Paul Jennings actually purchased his freedom from Daniel Webster by paying off his purchase cost in monthly payments of $8. Webster acquired Jennings from Pollard Webb who in turn bought him from Dolley Madison in 1846, ten years after James Madison's death.

On the 10th of January, 1865, books, coins and autographs belonging to Edward M. Thomas, an African American, for many years Messenger to the House of Representatives, were sold at auction. Among other lots, an autograph of Daniel Webster, containing these words: "I have paid $120 for the freedom of Paul Jennings; he agrees to work out the same at $8 per month, to be furnished with board, clothes, washing.

Photograph of Paul Jennings owned by the Montpelier Foundation.

After paying off his contract with Webster, Jennings became a free man and began working at the Department of the Interior. In 1865, Jennings published, Colored Man’s Reminiscences of James Madison, the first memoir about the White House by one who had lived there. The publication remained obscure for many years, but today it is generally acknowledged as extremely important. It provides details about the city of Washington during the War of 1812 and gives an intimate look at the president's wife at that time and in her later life.

Portrait of Dolley Madison by John Frances Eugene Prud'homme (1800-1892). Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library.

Dolly Madison's Account of the British Burning of the White House from an Unfinished & Unsent Letter (which Dolley said she wrote to her sister on the day of the attack.)

Tuesday Augt. 23d. 1814.Dear Sister

My husband left me yesterday morng. to join Gen. Winder. He enquired anxiously whether I had courage, or firmness to remain in the President's house until his return, on the morrow, or succeeding day, and on my assurance that I had no fear but for him and the success of our army, he left me, beseeching me to take care of myself, and of the cabinet papers, public and private. I have since recd. two despatches from him, written with a pencil; the last is alarming, because he desires I should be ready at a moment's warning to enter my carriage and leave the city; that the enemy seemed stronger than had been reported, and that it might happen that they would reach the city, with intention to destroy it. . . . . I am accordingly ready; I have pressed as many cabinet papers into trunks as to fill one carriage; our private property must be sacrificed, as it is impossible to procure wagons for its transportation. I am determined not to go myself until I see Mr Madison safe, and he can accompany me, as I hear of much hostility towards him, . . . . disaffection stalks around us. . . . My friends and acquaintances are all gone; Even Col. C with his hundred men, who were stationed as a guard in the enclosure . . . . French John (a faithful domestic,) with his usual activity and resolution, offers to spike the cannon at the gate, and to lay a train of powder which would blow up the British, should they enter the house. To the last proposition I positively object, without being able, however, to make him understand why all advantages in war may not be taken.

Wednesday morng., twelve o'clock. Since sunrise I have been turning my spyglass in every direction and watching with unwearied anxiety, hoping to discern the approach of my dear husband and his friends, but, alas, I can descry only groups of military wandering in all directions, as if there was a lack of arms, or of spirit to fight for their own firesides!

Three O'clock. Will you believe it, my Sister? We have had a battle or skirmish near Bladensburg, and I am still here within sound of the cannon! Mr. Madison comes not; may God protect him! Two messengers covered with dust, come to bid me fly; but I wait for him. . . . At this late hour a wagon has been procured, I have had it filled with the plate and most valuable portable articles belonging to the house; whether it will reach its destination; the Bank of Maryland, or fall into the hands of British soldiery, events must determine.

Our kind friend, Mr. Carroll, has come to hasten my departure, and is in a very bad humor with me because I insist on waiting until the large picture of Gen. Washington is secured, and it requires to be unscrewed from the wall. This process was found too tedious for these perilous moments; I have ordered the frame to be broken, and the canvass taken out it is done, and the precious portrait placed in the hands of two gentlemen of New York, for safe keeping. And now, dear sister, I must leave this house, or the retreating army will make me a prisoner in it, by filling up the road I am directed to take. When I shall again write you, or where I shall be tomorrow, I cannot tell!!

William Elwell painted Dolley Madison's portrait in February 1848. National Portrait Gallery.

Because Dolley Madison was a product of the 18th century, who lived nearly half of the 19th century, I am posting this entry in both blogs. And I will leave the reader to search further for Mrs. Madison's attitudes toward her slaves, especially Paul Jennings, and to solve the puzzle of just who saved George Washington's White House portrait.

1848 Photograph of Dolley Madison & Her Niece Anna Payne.

Much more information is available at the Dolley Madison Project of the University of Virginia . See here.

Dolley Madison's correspondence is now available at The Dolley Madison Digital Edition also sponsored by the University of Virginia. See here.

Women by Reuben Moulthorp 1763-1814

June 2, 2013, 1:00 am

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Reuben Moulthorp (1763-1814) Sally Sanford Perit 1790


Born in East Haven, Connecticut, Reuben Moulthrop (1763-1814) became a prominent portrait painter & sculptor in New England in the late 18th & early 19th centuries. He preferred to do modeling in wax, & among his sculpted subjects were George Washington, and John Adams. He also did portraits of many residents of the greater New Haven area as well as Massachusetts, New York, & Pennsylvania.


Reuben Moulthorp (1763-1814) Mrs Daniel Truman and Child of Connecticut 1804


Reuben Moulthorp (1763-1814) Eunecia Street Stebbins of East Haven Connecticut c 1806


Reuben Moulthorp (1763-1814) Mary Fish Silliman 1795

1800 City of Philadelphia by English artist William Russell Birch 1755 - 1834

June 2, 2013, 1:00 am

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William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) The City and Port of Philadelphia on the River Delaware. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) Arch Street Ferry, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) Arch Street and the Second Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) New Lutheran Church on Fourth Street, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) Old Lutheran Church in Fifth Street, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) South East Corner of Third and Market Streets, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) High Street, with the First Presbyterian Church. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) High Street Market, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) High Street Market form the Country Marketplace, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) High Street from the Country Marketplace, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) High Street from North Street, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) The House intended for the President of the United States. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) An Unfinished House in Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) Second Street North from Market Street and Christ Church, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) New Market in South Second Street, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) Bank of the United States with a View of Third Street, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) Bank of the United States on Third Street, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) Third Street from Spruce Street, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

 William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) Congress Hall and New Theater on Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) Library and Surgeons Hall from Fifth Street, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) State House with a View of Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) Back of the State House, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) State-House Garden, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) Goal in Walnut Street, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) Alms House in Spruce Street, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) Pennsylvania Hospital, in Pine Street, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) Bank of Pennsylvania, South Second Street, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) The Water Works in Centre Square, Philadelphia. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800

 William Russell Birch (English artist, 1755-1834) Preparation for WAR to defend Commerce. City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania, North America, as it appeared in the Year 1800