The Gallery of Illustrious Americans, Containing the Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Twenty-four of the Most Eminent Citizens of the American Republic Since the Death of Washington

The Gallery of Illustrious Americans, Containing the Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Twenty-four of the Most Eminent Citizens of the American Republic Since the Death of Washington

Brady, D'Avignon and Company

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Illustrated book bound in blue cloth with gold stamping. Front cover stamped: "The Gift Book of the Republic, The Gallery of Illustrious Americans, The Union and the Republic for Ever" (with emblem below). The title page reads: "The Gallery of Illustrious Americans, containing the Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Twenty-four of the Most Eminent Citizens of the American Republic, since the Death of Washington, C. Edwards Lester, editor, New York: M. B. Brady, F. D'Avignon, C. Edwards Lester, MDCCCL." Portraits of: General Zachary Taylor, John Caldwell Calhoun, Daniel Webster, Silas Wright, Henry Clay, John Charles Freemont, John James Audubon, William Hickling Prescott, General Winfield Scott, President Millard Fillmore, William Ellery Channing, and Lewis Cass each followed by a biography.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Gallery of Illustrious Americans, Containing the Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Twenty-four of the Most Eminent Citizens of the American Republic Since the Death of WashingtonThe Gallery of Illustrious Americans, Containing the Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Twenty-four of the Most Eminent Citizens of the American Republic Since the Death of WashingtonThe Gallery of Illustrious Americans, Containing the Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Twenty-four of the Most Eminent Citizens of the American Republic Since the Death of WashingtonThe Gallery of Illustrious Americans, Containing the Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Twenty-four of the Most Eminent Citizens of the American Republic Since the Death of WashingtonThe Gallery of Illustrious Americans, Containing the Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Twenty-four of the Most Eminent Citizens of the American Republic Since the Death of Washington

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.