The Library Company’s ongoing Portraits of American Women project identifies portraits that appeared in books and periodicals before 1861 and makes them accessible online. The project initially emerged as part of the “Picturing Women” exhibition, a multi-institution exhibition that was the culmination of many years work by art historian Dr. Susan Shifrin. Curator of Women’s History Cornelia S. King developed the original checklist of portraits. The gallery presents of portraits of antebellum American women writers, women religious figures, and women of the republican court plus short sketches of their lives, to encourage use by students of literature, as well as by cultural and art historians. In antebellum America, before the development of photomechanical image reproduction, such portraits represented a significant investment of time and money.
Curated by Cornelia King, Emily Kline, Colin Yarbrough, Annie Turner, Emily Toner, Cheryl Klimaszewski, and Janet Hallahan, 2006-2008.
![Max Rosenthal, Philadelphia Skating Park, South Second and Mifflin Sts. Philadelphia. ([Philadelphia: L.N. Rosenthal], ca. 1865). Chromolithograph.](https://librarycompany.org/wp-content/uploads/P-2123philaskating-80x80.jpg)
