Colonial America______________________________

The New World and New Spain

• Theodore de Bry Collection (a visual narrative of exploration)
• Theodore de Bry: "Indians of North America" (copper plate engravings)
• J. van der Straet: "Printmaker's Workshop"
• J. van der Straet: "The Discovery of America" (with commentary and Columbus text)
• J. van der Straet: "Distillatio"
• Sebastiano del Piombo: "Portrait of Columbus"
• 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
• Bacon's Castle
• Bunyan Meeting House
• Abington Friends Meetinghouse
• Old Ship Meeting House (Anonymous, 1681-1755)
• The Parson Capen House
• The John Ward House
• Plimoth house

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)
• 18th-century Churches
• 18th-century public buildings
• 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)
• Christ_Church
• 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.)
• Woodburn Plantation House

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: "The Baptism of Our Saviour, or Christ Receiving the Holy Ghost When Baptized by John at the River Jordan," c. 1794
• 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 Elizabeth Smith Hunter (of Bloomingburg, Sullivan County, New York)," c. 1820
• 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)
• "A Map of New England" (1677)
• Representations of Washington in the Capitol (works by Greenough, Brumidi, Trumbull, Vanderlyn . . .)
• The Capitol Project (includes paintings, sculpture, architectural designs, etc.)

This site created and maintained by Kim Oldenburg