Shortly after the dedication of the Society's 58^th street building in 1929 plans were made for the artistic enhancement of the building with the use of suitable portraits. Clarence Winthrop Bowen, president of the Society (1907-1931), after whom the third floor gallery was named, and Samuel P. Avery, Jr., art connoisseur, Trustee and Benefactor, raised gifts for a small endowment for this purpose. In 1931 Mr. Bowen announced the successful completion of a campaign to establish a Portrait Endowment Fund in the amount of $32,000, the income of which was to be used for the acquisition of paintings and portraits for the Society's collection. Some 62 persons were original contributors to the Fund.

Some of the portraits were gifts, while a number were commissioned by the Society or purchased. Fifteen of the works were painted by Frank O. Salisbury (1874-1962), one of the great English portrait painters of the Twentieth Century. Photographs of a number of the paintings have been reproduced in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (hereafter the Record), and citations are given in the catalogue as appropriate. The Avery Art and Publication Fund enabled the Society to acquire portraits and publish high quality illustrations in the Record for over fifty years.

In 1992 eight portraits given by the Delafield Family Association were added to the collection, bringing representation of a family important in the financial and social leadership of the country.

Some of the sitters were prominent in the history of the country; others in the history of the Society. The portraits were hung in the galleries and described here on an equal basis. The Society is proud of all whose portraits have been acquired.

Great effort has been made to locate biographical information on some rather obscure artists represented in the collection, but regrettably in several cases there has not been sufficient information to identify the artist. Biographical information on the subjects is available in many sources in the Society's Library and has therefore not been detailed here.

With our move to smaller quarters we will be unable to exhibit the entire collection. As a result, those portraits we are unable to exhibit will either be maintained in storage or given, on loan, to other groups or societies who are able to provide a forum for some of these excellent portraits.

Carolyn G. Stifel, Curator

Portrait Group 1 (A-M)
Portrait Group 2 (N-Z)
Artists' Biographical Notes

Abbreviations used:
F.A.R.L. Frick Art Reference Library
F.G.B.S. Fellow of the [New York] Genealogical and Biographical Society
F.R.P.S.L. Fellow, Royal Philatelic Society, London

Bibliography

• Anderson, A. A. Experiences and Impressions, the Autobiography of Col. A. A. Anderson. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1933.
• The Art Index.
• Art News, 43:28 (Feb. 15, 1944).
• Barber, B. Aquila. The Art of Frank Salisbury. Leigh-on-Sea, 1936.
• Benezit, E. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculptures, Dessinateurs et Graveurs. Librairie Günd, 1966.
• Brooklyn Museum. "A Collection of Paintings by the Late Alfred Quinton Collins." Art News Annual, Feb. 1925.
• Burke's General Armory 1844, 1850.
• Burke's Peerage 1853, 1860
• Burke's Peerage, Ltd., Burke's Presidential Families of the United States (2d ed. 1981).
• Chiriboga, Gerardo, "In the Studio of the Great Spanish American Artist Carlos Baca-Flor". Rotogravure Section of La Prensa, undated, probably 1926.
• Cortelyou, Irwin F. and Bolton, Theodore. Ezra Ames of Albany. New York: New-York Historical Society, 1955.
• Cowdrey, Mary Bartlett. National Academy of Design Exhibition Record (1869-1890) Notes.
• Delafield, General John Ross. Delafield Family History, 1945, Vols. I and II. Privately printed.
• Dowdy, Doris O. Artists of the American West, Vol. III. Athens, Ohio: The Swallow Press, c. 1985.
• Dunlap, William. History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States, 1834.3 vols. Newly edited by Alexander Wycoff, Benjamin Bloom, 1965.
• Falk, Peter Hastings, ed. Who Was Who in American Art. Soundview Press, 1985.
• Fielding, Mantle. Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers. Ed. by Glenn B. Opitz. Poughkeepsie, N. Y., 1983.
• Frazier, Kenneth, article in The Arts, April 1925.
• Groce, George C. and Wallace, David H. New-York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America, 1564-1860. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957.
• Havlice, Patricia Pate. Index to Artistic Biography. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1973.
• Meschutt, David. "The Portraits of Franklin D. Roosevelt." The American Art Journal, Autumn, 1986.
• The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Second Series (c. 1937). James T. White & Co.
• The Newcomb Macklin Art Gallery. Catalog of Exhibition of Paintings by Quistgaard, October 1-31, 1949, with commentary by Edward W. Johns, Manager.
• The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (pub. 1870 to date). Notes, obituaries and illustrations.
• The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. The Year Book, 1991 (Vol. I, Annals of the Society), article on the Portrait Collection. Illustration, portrait of General James Grant Wilson.
• The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. Miscellaneous papers in the portrait archives and manuscript collection of the Society.
• The New York Public Library. Artists File Name List, microfiche, Art and Architecture Division.
• The New York Times, Aug. 11, 1935; Oct. 13, 1937; April 28, 1940, 37:1; Feb. 13, 1944 II 7:8; April 1, 1944 II 8:6; Oct. 21, 1958, 33:4.
• Salisbury, Frank O. Portrait and Pageant. London, 1944.
• Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art. Washington, D. C.
• Thieme, Ulrick. Algemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Kunstlerei. Leipzig: Verlag von E. A. Seeman, 1915.
• Tuckerman, Henry T. Book of the Artists. New York, 1867.
• Who's Who, London 1950, 1959.
• Who Was Who (1961-1970), London, 1972.
• Who Was Who in America, 1897-1942. Chicago: The A. N. Marquis Co., 1943.

Copyright © by The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society All Rights Reserved.

Published on: 2003-07-30    Printer Friendly Page