John Howard Raymond
c. 1845
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Mary Richardson Gauthier
Accession Number
NPG.86.231
Tags
About this artwork
Victor A. and Mary R. Gauthier, Arlington, Va.; gift 1986 to NPG
Art Historical Context
This evocative portrait, painted around 1845 by an unidentified artist, captures John Howard Raymond, a prominent 19th-century college president and educator. Depicted with eyeglasses thoughtfully, Raymond embodies the scholarly demeanor of America's burgeoning academic elite during a time when higher education was expanding rapidly amid national growth and reform movements. Such portraits were common in the era, serving as tributes to intellectual leaders shaping the young republic's institutions. As a mid-19th-century painting, likely oil on canvas—a favored medium for its durability and li...