Rev. Samuel Kirkland (1741-1808)

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Rev. Samuel Kirkland (1741-1808)
Rev. Samuel Kirkland (1741-1808)
Artist/Maker (American, 1822 - 1882)
Date1865
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 30 × 25 in. (76.2 × 63.5 cm) Frame: 38 1/2 × 33 1/4 × 4 3/4 in. (97.8 × 84.5 × 12.1 cm)
Credit LineHamilton College Portrait Collection. Commissioned by Rev. Amos Delos Gridley, Class of 1839.
Object number1873.2
Not on view
DescriptionKirkland was the founder of the Hamilton-Oneida Academy, which became Hamilton College. "No portrait was made of the Rev. Samuel Kirkland (1741-1808) during his lifetime. In 1779, however, when the missionary was serving as an army chaplain during the Sullivan campaign in the Indian territories of Pennsylvania and New York, a brother officer made an India ink sketch of him. From this, "at one or two removes," Augustus Rockwell (1822?-1882), a painter of Buffalo, New York, was commissioned by the Rev. Amos Delos Gridley, '39, local historian and a member of the committee in charge of the new Memorial Hall, to prepare a portrait of the Founder, showing him "as he appeared at forty years of age - erect, vigorous, of commanding presence, with a penetrating eye and an animated, buoyant expression..." (SOURCE: Walter Pilkington, "College Portraits" exhibition cat. (Clinton, NY: Edward W. Root Art Center, 1964)
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Additional Details

Exhibition History 1964
Clinton, NY (Edward W. Root Art Center, Hamilton College). "College Portraits," October 11 - November 15, 1964 (cat. no. 1);

1872 - 1914
Clinton, NY (Memorial Hall and Art Gallery, Hamilton College). Permanent installation, 1872 - 1914.
Provenance 1865: Hamilton College (Memorial Hall and Art Gallery); commissioned and donated by Rev. Amos Delos Gridley, Class of 1839.
Published References Maurice Isserman, ON THE HILL: A BICENTENNIAL HISTORY OF HAMILTON COLLEGE 1812-2012 (Clinton, New York: Hamilton College, 2012), illus. 2.

Alan Taylor "THE DIVIDED GROUND: INDIANS, SETTLERS, AND NORTHERN BORDERLAND OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (New York, NY: Alfred K. Knopf, 2006), cover illustration (in reverse).

Joseph Glatthaar and James Kirby Martin, FORGOTTEN ALLIES: THE ONEIDA INDIANS AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 2005), illus. unnumbered plate.

Time-Life Books Editors, THE REVOLUTIONARIES: THE AMERICAN STORY (Time Life Education, 1996).

Walter Pilkington, COLLEGE PORTRAITS (exh.cat. Clinton NY, Edward W. Root Art Center, Hamilton College, 1964), cat. no. 1.
Artwork is in the public domain. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Museum of Art at Hamilton…
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