View of New York from Brooklyn Heights, where Anna Whistler lived from the age of ten
John William Hill (1812–1879), and Lewis Peter Clover (b. 1770). New York from Brooklyn Heights. 1837. Mezzotint. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York (MNY15659).
Image 43
Kirk Boott, who was responsible for bringing Major Whistler to Lowell, Massachusetts, to be superintendent of the locks and canals that brought power to the city’s cotton-spinning mills
Chester Harding (1792–1866). Kirk Boott (detail). c. 1835. Oil on canvas. 97 x 60 in. (247 x 152.4 cm). City of Lowell, MA. [full resolution image]
Image 44
Henry Washington Lee, the Whistler family’s pastor when they lived in Springfield, Massachusetts, from 1838 to 1842
J. Gurney & Son, photographers. Henry Washington Lee, Bishop of Iowa. 1863. (The House of Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States; Photographed from Life during the Triennial Convention by J. Gurney & Son [New York: T. Porter Shaw, 1863], no pagination) [full resolution image]
Image 45
Lydia Mason (Morton) Lee, wife of Rev. Henry Washington Lee and close friend of Anna Whistler
Lydia Mason (Morton) Lee in about 1880; courtesy of Susan Alland, great-great-granddaughter of Henry Washington and Lydia (Morton) Lee. [full resolution image]
Image 46
The destruction of the Lexington in 1840
Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888). Awful Conflagration of the Steam Boat Lexington in Long Island Sound on Monday Eve, Jany 13th, 1840, by which melancholy occurrence, over 100 Persons Perished. 1840. Hand-colored lithograph after a drawing by William Keesey Hewitt (1817–1893). Published in The New York Sun. 8 × 12 in. (21.4 × 30.5 cm). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC (LC-DIG-pga-06100).
Image 47
Oroondates Mauran, father of Josephine Mauran, Deborah Whistler’s classmate in New York in 1843
Trinity Church in New York, which held its reopening in 1846
John Forsyth and E.W. Mimee. Trinity Church. 1846. Lithograph. 15½ x 22 in. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York (MNY12751).
Image 50
James K. Polk, president of the United States from 4 March 1845 to 4 March 1849
George Peter Alexander Healy (1813–1894). James Knox Polk. 1846. Oil on canvas. 30½ x 25½ in. (77.5 × 64.8 cm). National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (NPG.2019.14); gift of the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
Image 51
General Zachary Taylor, commanding general of the U.S. Army in the War with Mexico
James Reid Lambdin (1807–1889). Zachary Taylor. 1848. Oil on canvas. 30¼ × 25 in. (76.8 × 63.8 cm). National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (NPG.76.7); gift of Barry Bingham, Sr.
Image 52
General-in-chief of the Army, Winfield Scott, whom Nicholas I reminded Major Whistler of in appearance
Robert Walter Weir (1803–1889). General Winfield Scott. c. 1855. Oil on canvas. 33¾ x 26 in. (85.7 x 68.3 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc. no. 10.54); gift of the heirs of William B. Isham, 1910.
Image 53
Anna Margaretta (Kunze) Lorillard’s death in New York in November 1846 was reported to Anna Whistler.
Anna Margaretta Kunze. Photograph (1910) of a portrait in the possession of Hermann H. Cammann. (Henrietta Meier Oakley and J.C. Schwab, Muhlenberg Album [New Haven, CT: Tuttle Press, 1910], no pagination) [full resolution image]
Image 54
Agnes (Stevenson) Maxwell, mother of John Stevenson Maxwell
Solomon Nunes Carvalho (1815–1897). Mrs. Hugh Maxwell (c 1790–1866). 1867. Oil on canvas. 30 3/4 x 24 in. (76.8 x 63.2 cm). New-York Historical Society (ID 1969.53); bequest of Virginia Livingston Hunt.
Image 55
Hugh Maxwell, father of John Stevenson Maxwell
Anton H. Wenzler. Hugh Maxwell (1787 –1873). 1844. Oil on canvas. 30 ½ x 25 in. (77.5 x 63.5 cm).New-York Historical Society (ID 1964.35); gift of Wellwood Hugh Maxwell.
Image 55a
A possible sketch of John S. Maxwell
James Abbott Whistler (1834–1903). Two Male Portraits. Pencil and watercolor. (MacDonald, Catalogue Raisonné, p. 9) [full resolution image]Note1 I strongly believe that the image on page 56 of James Whistler’s St. Petersburg Sketchbook is John Stevenson Maxwell. After Maxwell left Russia permanently in November 1844, he traveled extensively, spending Christmas Day 1844 in Athens, Greece, at the home of Rev. John Henry Hill. Reverend Hill asked him whether he was related to his friend of college days, Hugh Maxwell, because his resemblance to the latter was so great (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, Trieste, Monday, December 16. 1844; entry for Thursday, Dcember 26, N YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 49). Comparing the drawing in the Catalogue Raisonné to Catalogue Raisonné to Image 55 above, a portrait of Hugh Maxwell painted in 1844, I think that he and the man wearing a hat (as well as the profile image beside it), greatly resemble one another.James had actually also drawn a pencil portrait of Maxwell, who reminded Major Whistler that he, Maxwell, had it in his possession, and that James would have to make an oil portrait of him some day (John S. Maxwell to George W. Whistler New York. Monday. December 13. 1846 – N YHS: Maxwell Papers). The whereabouts of this pencil drawing or of an oil portrait of Maxwell are unknown to me.
Image 55b
John Stevenson Maxwell’s letter of commission to his St. Petersburg post as secretary of the American Legation
Danl Webster to John S. Maxwell, Legatn U.S at St. Petersburg, Department of State, Washington, 11th April, 1842, Vol. 14: Russia: 2 Jan. 1833 – 27 Dec. 1864, Diplomatic Instructions 1785–1906, General Records of the Department of State, NAUS.
Image 55c
Caroline Ross Maxwell, daughter of John Stevenson Maxwell and Caroline Ely Mulligan
“Victorian wedding gown by Worth was the choice of Mrs. William Conselyea Traphagen shown here in her bridal photograph in 1874” (“Inside Story of the Bride with the Bustle,” Fashion Digest [Fall–Winter 1959–1960]: p. 29).
Image 56
James Bicheno Francis, a friend and work associate of Major Whistler from Lowell, Massachusetts, who did not appreciate James Whistler as an artist
Richard B. Staigg (1817–1881). Portrait of James Bicheno Francis. 1878. Whistler House Museum of Art, Lowell, MA. [full resolution image]
Image 57
Parthenia Pardoe (Babcock) Babcock, Anna Whistler’s friend in Stonington, Connecticut, whose baby daughter died in 1846
