Portraits at the APS

Just as the history of the founding and growth of the APS is intertwined with that of the United States, so too does the APS portrait collection depict famous early statesmen and contributors to the young republic. The collection includes an impressive array of American presidents, explorers, scientists, and other notable members. The following images feature a selection of some noteworthy portraits. The fine arts collections of the APS are described fully in:

A Catalogue of Portraits and Other Works of Art in the Possession of the American Philosophical Society.
Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 54. Philadelphia: APS, 1961.

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Title: Louis Jean Rodolphe Agassiz Artist: Daniel Huntington Date: 1857 Description: The Swiss-born naturalist, Louis Agassiz, was among the most influential American natural historians during the first half of the nineteenth century. From his position at Harvard, Agassiz was at the center of the American paleontological and zoological communities. ID #: FAP 132

Title: Daniel Garrison Brinton Artist: Thomas Eakins Date: ca.1899 Description: Trained as a physician, Daniel Brinton's influence extended to a variety of academic fields, from literature to linguistics, archaeology, and ethnology. Eakins' portrait of Brinton was presented to the APS in 1900 "to remember," as Provost Harrison the University of Pennsylvania said, "not only how he thought and spoke, but how he appeared to us when full of that vigorous life which took such hold upon his friends." ID #: FAP 126

Title: Peter Stephen Duponceau Artist: Thomas Sully Date: 1830 Description: The brilliant French-born Duponceau was a stalwart of the APS from the 1790s until the time of his death in 1844. An expert in international law, Duponceau was an advocate of close relations with the new erican republics, but may be best remembered for his contributions to linguistics, and particularly to the study of Native American languages, Berber, and Chinese. Painted by Thomas Sully, one-time tenant of Philosophical Hall, the portrait shows the affection that many members of the Society felt for Duponceau. ID #: FAP 63

Title: Benjamin Franklin Artist: Charles Nicholas Cochin Date: 1777-1780 Description: A moody portrait of Franklin in his famed fur cap. ID #: FAP 79

Title: Benjamin Franklin Artist: Charles Van Loo Date: before 1790 Description: A life portrait, and among the warmest and most intimate portraits of the great Franklin. Attributed to Charles Van Loo, the portrait has a clear provenance extending from its purchase by the APS in 1948 back to Mme Helvétius. ID #: FAP 165

Title: Benjamin Franklin Artist: Charles Willson Peale, after David Martin Date: 1772, after portrait of 1767 Description: Charles Willson Peale, who may have been assisted in making this portrait by his brother James, presented this portrait of his friend Franklin to the APS on December 16, 1785, as his contribution to the project to build a new home for the APS. ID #: FAP 122

Title: Friedrich Heinrich Alexander, Baron von Humboldt Artist: James Reid Lambdin Date: ca.1856-1857 Description: A colossus of knowledge, Humboldt was elected to the APS in 1804 after his epic journey through South America and the United States. This portrait was made by James Reid Lambdin from studies made from life and sold to the APS in 1887. ID #: FAP 61

Title: Thomas Paine Artist: Winkler Date: ca.1865 Description: A portrait of the great republican rabble-rouser, Paine, made by a Parisian artist in 1865. The APS houses an enormous collection of books and manuscripts by and about Thomas Paine. ID #: FAP 50

Title: Joseph Priestley Artist: Rembrandt Peale Date: ca.1801 Description: Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen and other gases, was known as much in his time for his religious non-conformity and for his association with republican sympathizers in England. Promoted for membership in the APS by Benjamin Franklin (1785), Priestley emigrated to the United States in 1794 to escape political persecution in Britain. ID #: FAP 65

Title: David Rittenhouse Artist: Charles Willson Peale Date: 1791 Description: An astronomer of international reputation, David Rittenhouse was one of the most important members of the APS during the mid-18th century. Successively Secretary, Curator, Librarian, Vice-President, and Councillor of the Society, Rittenhouse served as President of the revived Society from 1791-1796. ID #: FAP 166

Title: Benjamin Rush Artist: Thomas Sully Date: before 1822? Description: The Philadelphia physician, medical educator, and philanthropist, Benjamin Rush, was also deeply involved in supporting the APS. This picture may have been painted some time between 1812 and 1822, when the artist, Thomas Sully, rented rooms in Philosophical Hall for his studio. ID #: FAP 87

Title: George Washington Artist: Gilbert Stuart Date: ca.1797 Description: Stuart's most famous portrait of the first President of the United States was much copied, by Stuart, as well as by others. After Washington's death in 1799, the members of the Society voted to honor their former fellow member, Washington, and ordered a portrait be procured to hang in Philosophical Hall. Stuart's portrait was acquired in April, 1803. ID #: FAP 168

Title: Edwin Drinker Cope Artist: George W. Pettit Date: ca.1887-1897 Description: One of the great vertebrate paleontologists of the 19th century, Cope is remembered today for discovering and describing an extraordinary number of dinosaurs. Cope began publishing on scientific subjects while still in his teens, and earned election to the Philosophical Society while still in his twenties. Fittingly, his arch nemesis and great rival for dinosaurs, Othniel C. Marsh, was elected two years later in 1868. ID #: FAP 155

Title: John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder Artist: Gustav Anton von Senckendorff, alias Patrick Peale Date: ca.1822-1823 Description: An industrious Moravian missionary, J.G.E. Heckewelder arrived in Pennsylvania in 1754 and spent the remainder of his life studying and ministering to the Indians of Pennsylvania. Heckewelder's Account of the History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Natives, Who Once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighboring States (1819) is considered a pioneering work in linguistics and ethnography. ID #: FAP 162

Title: Joseph Leidy Artist: James L. Wood, after a portrait by Bernard Uhle Date: ca.1900 Description: A paleontologist and naturalist, Joseph Leidy was America's foremost anatomist of the mid-nineteenth century, and long-time professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Unlike his protégé, Edwin Drinker Cope, Leidy was a conciliator in the scientific disputes of his day, and although an early supporter of Darwinian natural selection, he was disinclined to theorize himself. ID #: FAP 130

Title: Isaac Newton Artist: Unidentified, after John Vanderbank of 1725 Date: n.d. Description: In 1943, the Royal Society, London, presented the American Philosophical Society with a miniature portrait of Isaac Newton in honor of the bicentennial of the APS. Painted on ivory during the latter part of the eighteenth century, the portrait is said to have a lock of Newton's hair in the back. ID #: FAP 176

Title: Charles Willson Peale Artist: Charles Willson Peale Date: ca.1777-1778 Description: In 1777 or 1778, the artist Charles Willson Peale painted himself wearing the Revolutionary War uniform of the Philadelphia Militia. A Captain during the New Jersey and Philadelphia Campaigns, Peale is better remembered as founder of Peale's Museum, and early natural history museum in Philadelphia that once was housed in Philosophical Hall. He was elected to the APS in 1786, serving later as Librarian (1794) and Curator (1788-1811). ID #: FAP 81

Title: Joel Roberts Poinsett Artist: Thomas Sully Date: 1840 Description: A diplomat, statesman, and Secretary of War under Martin Van Buren, Poinsett was also an important cog in the natural historical community in Philadelphia. During his diplomatic appointments in South America and Mexico, Poinsett regularly collected plant, animal, and mineral specimens and objects of archaeological interest to Philadelphia institutions and scientists, including the APS. The extensive collection of Mexican antiquities he presented to the APS in 1829 is now on deposit at the University Museum at the University of Pennsylvania. Poinsettia was named in his honor. ID #: FAP 83