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Case 1, Old and New
The age of the portraits within this collection range from pre-17th century to the late 20th century. Displayed here are examples of some of the newest portraits in the collection as well as the oldest known portraits, by which we mean the oldest pieces that have associated dates. Prior to the 1600's it was not the convention for artists to sign and date their works, therefore, although there may be older pieces in the collection, these are some of the oldest that we know of.
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Case 2, Notable International Subjects
The pieces featured in this case represent just a few of the many international subjects in the portrait collecion. Clockwise from the upper left corner are Kai-shek Chiang, Sir Matthew Hale, Jeremy Bentham, John Scott (Earl of Eldon), Henry Dundas (Viscount Melville), Francis Bacon, and Queen Caroline Amelia Elizabeth.
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Case 3, Notable American Subjects
Featured in this case are prominent legal and political figures from the United States. Clockwise from the upper left corner are Thurgood Marshall, Abraham Lincoln, Joseph Story, Daniel Webster, Earl Warren, John Marshall, and Rufus Choate.
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Case 4, Small and Large
This case contains the smallest portraits in the collection as well as the largest. The absolute smallest is that of Hamilton Gamble (third from the left), measuring a mere 3.5 x 3.4 centimeters. The largest (by image alone) is the Henry Addington displayed here at 26 1/8 x 18 2/8 inches. The longest (including mounting board) is the William Page framed to the right, at 31 7/8 x 19 15/16 inches. Measurements for most of the pieces are taken from just the image itself.
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Case 5, Other Media
The bulk of the portrait collection is comprised of engravings of various sorts (mezzotints, photo-engravings, etc.), etchings, and photographs. However, we have some wonderful pieces produced using other media, including pen and ink, pencil, charcoal, and watercolor. Of particular interest in this case is the lantern slide of William Jennings Bryan (upper left corner). Lantern slides were projected onto a screen or light-colored background through a "magic lantern", a predecessor to today's slide projector.
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Case 6, Notable Artists I
Of the many notable artists represented in our collection, several are presented here, including: photographer Mathew Brady (lower left corner), well known for his portraits of Supreme Court justices (and of Civil War figures); father and son Max and Albert Rosenthal (upper row center), who on occasion produced etchings of the same sitters; and engraver John Kay (second from the right on the lower row), whose charming portraits (usually in profile) frequently straddled the line between portraiture and caricature.
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Case 7, Notable Artists II
Many of the engravings held by the library are copies of large oil paintings, a standard convention which allowed mass publication of particular images. Copies of some of the more renowned artists of their day are displayed here, including Sir Thomas Lawrence, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Thomas Gainsborough.
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Case 8, Miscellaneous Pieces
There are many pieces in the collection that don't necessarily fall into a particular category but that nevertheless are of certain interest. Examples displayed here include: a satirical print of Lord Copley and Baron Brougham with the flip-back nose (lower left corner); John Nichols Tom (who adopted the alias of Sir Percy William Honeywood Courtenay and was later known as "Mad Tom") leader of the Bossenden Wood riots on May 31, 1838 (upper right corner); and Francois Ravaillac (second from right on the upper row), who was convicted for killing Henry IV (who is pictured in the upper-right corner of the piece along with his Queen, Marie de Medicis and his son and successor, Louis XIII). Included in this image are scenes of Ravaillac's torture as well as his death from drawn and quartering.
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