American Studies
Colonial American Art and Material Culture
Colonial America
The New World and New Spain
J. van der Straet: "The Discovery of America" (with commentary and Columbus text)
The Columbus Doors: Mythmaking in the U.S. Capitol
Cristoforo Colombo: "De insulis in mari Indico nuper inventis" (woodcut; map-like depiction of the islands Columbus named)
Huejotzingo Codex document (fragment; Cortés used this as documentation in a legal action he brought against the Spanish high court in Mexico; illustrates the testimony of Indians called as witnesses in the case)
Architecture and Decorative Arts (17th century)
Summary of Georgian Colonial style architecture
Painting and Sculpture (17th century)
Woodcut Portrait of Rev. Richard Mather (by John Foster)
Doorstone, c. 1636-1640, Byfield, MA (simple stone carving)
Engraving from Hieroglyphikes of the Life of Man by Francis Quarles
The Thomas Kendel stone, c. 1678, Wakefield, MA (skull icon flanked by tools of labor, angels, etc.)
The John Foster stone, c. 1678, Wakefield, MA (depicts a scene similar to the one taken from Hieroglyphikes of the Life of Man, above)
Lt. William Hescy stone, c. 1689 (the tomb of a soldier, age unknown; skull icon, crossed bones, etc.)
"The Mason Children: David, Joanna, and Abigail" (attributed to the Freake-Gibbs Painter: painted in 1670, only fifty years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock)
T.H. Matteson: "Examination of a Witch" (the painting was actually executed in 1853, but accompanying documents serve as an excellent overview of 17th-century "witchcraft hysteria").
Architecture and Decorative Arts (1700-1750)
Peabody Essex Museum (Early American architecture; some 17th century sources as well)
Royall House: East facade, West facade, and slave quarters
Queen Anne Style, Gilded, 18th-century Mirror
Queen Anne Style Furniture ("The Finnish Early Rococo")
18th-century American Furniture (Queen Anne style, Chippendale, etc.; relatively large collection)
Independence Hall, Philadelphia
The Betsy Ross House (extensive virtual tour of the building)
The Cupola House, c. 1725 (interior photograph; furniture, silver, etc.)
Painting and Sculpture (1700-1750)
Peter Pelham: "Cotton Mather" (engraving)
John Smibert: "Portrait of Major General Paul Mascarene, 1729"
Robert Feke: "Portrait of William Bowdoin"
Gustavus Hesselius: "Tishcohan" (commissioned by John Penn; accompanied with text relating Penn's dealings with Native Americans)
Henrietta Johnston: "Henriette Charlotte Chastaigner (1700-1754)"
Gallery of Early American Portraits (portraits of early American statesmen, military men, etc.)
Gravestones (early eighteenth-century) (particularly idiosyncratic)
Thaddeus Maccarty stone, 1705, Boston, MA (simple floral pattern)
The Joanna Buckley stone, 1716/17, Copp's Hill, Boston, MA (resembles 17th-century gravestones; skull icon, hourglass, etc.)
The Captain Nathaniel Waldron stone, 1769, Newport, RI (detailed rendering of human face)
Small Child Gravestone, 1771, RI
Mary Hinckley stone, 1798, Brookfield, MA (indistinct image of human being with gravevines)
Painting (after 1750)
John Singleton Copley: "Watson and the Shark"
John Singleton Copley: "Portrait of a Lady"
John Singleton Copley: "Mary Turner Sargent"
John Singleton Copley: "Thomas Aston Coffin"
Johne Singleton Copley: "Mrs. Thomas Gage"
Henry Benbridge: "Allegorical Portrait of Sarah Flagg, 1773-74
Charles Willson Peale: "The Artist in his Museum"
Charles Willson Peale: "Gunning Bedford, Jr."
Charles Willson Peale: "Washington After the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777"
Charles Willson Peale: "Washington, Lafayette, and Tilghman at Yorktown"
The Federal Period
Architecture (1785-1830)
Summary of Federal architecture
Architecture of New England (general information on Georgian and Federal styles)
Samuel McIntire: Pierce Nichols House, c. 1782 (also Hunter House, c. 1748; Lyman House, c. 1798; Gore Place, c. 1805; background information on the Federal period and Adam brothers)
The Capitol and President's House
"Temple of Liberty: Building the Capitol for a New Nation" (thorough collection of building plans, historical background, etc.)
Decorative Arts (1785-1830)
Mid-18th-century Queen Anne Silver Cream Pot, c. 1755
Paul Revere: "The Boston Massacre"
A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Paul Revere's Most Famous Engraving
Rare General George Washington Memorial Silhouette Portrait Cameo 1810-1825
Chinese Porcelain Soup Plate, c. 1795 (monogrammed for Elias Hasket Derby of Salem, MA)
Sepia Fitzhurgh Covered Vegetable Dish, c. 1820-1825 (monogrammed "H", probably for the Henley Family of Philadelphia)
Painting (The Tradition of the Grand Manner, 1785-1830)
Benjamin West: "Thomas Middleton, 1753-1797"
Benjamin West: "A Domestic Affliction"
Benjamin West: "Fidelia and Speranza," 1776
Benjamin West: "Romeo and Juliet," 1778
Gilbert Stuart: "Portrait of George Washington," c. 1805
Thomas Sully: "Mrs. Robert Gilmor (Sarah Reeves Ladson)"
Thomas Sully: "Mother and Child"
Thomas Sully: "The Passage of the Delaware"
Ammi Philips: "Portrait of David Hunter," c. 1820
John Trumbull: "Surrender of General Burgoyne"
John Trumbull: "The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia . . ."
John Vanderlyn: "The Landing of Columbus . . ."
John Vanderlyn: "Ariadne on the Island of Nazos"
John Vanderlyn: "James Monroe (1758-1831)"
John Vanderlyn: Selections from the Senate Collection
Washington Allston: "Portrait of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1814"
Painting (Still Life, Genre, Landscape, and Natural History, 1785-1830)
The Peale Family Online Tour (works by Charles, James, and Rembrandt Peale: feature article, etc.)
Rembrandt Peale: "John C. Calhoun, 1782-1850"
John James Audobon: Wildlife Gallery
John James Audobon: Selections from The Birds of America (National Gallery of Art virtual tour)
John James Audobon: "Fox and Goose"
Thomas Cole: "The Subsiding of the Waters and the Deluge," 1829
Charles Bird King: Two portraits of Native Americans
Charles Bird King: "Young Omahaw, War Eagle, Little Missourri, and Pawnees," 1821
George Catlin (1796-1872): 25 colored lithographs; Native American scenes
Of Interest
Resources for Art Historians (an overwhelming list of art museums, image-finders, and organizations pertaining to all periods of art history)
Pre-Civil War America (links regarding general Pre-Columbian America, the Age of Exploration, and other information about Colonial America through the 18th-century)
Electronic/Learning Projects in Culture and History (photographs, research links, and virtual tours relating to particular areas of interest in American Studies)
Furniture from the Index of American Design (photographs of reproductions from all periods of American history, expecially the 17th and 18th centuries)
Rare Map Collection: Colonial America (comprehensive list from University of Georgia; mostly seventeenth-century)
"St Augustine" (London, 1589) (hand-colored engraving; depicts St. Augustine, Florida, under seige from Sir Francis Drake in 1586; earliest view of any city in what is now the United States)
Representations of Washington in the Capitol (works by Greenough, Brumidi, Trumbull, Vanderlyn . . .)
The Capitol Project (includes paintings, sculpture, architectural designs, etc.)
