Helena E. Wright - The First Smithsonian Collection: The European Engravings of George Perkins Marsh and the Role of Prints in the U.S. National Museum

FIGURE 1.
LEducation dAchille. Engraving by Charles Clment Bervic after Jean Baptiste Regnault, 1798. SI negative 2005-35102.

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2015 by Smithsonian Institution

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Cover image: Detail from , Belisarius, an engraving by Robert Strange after Salvator Rosa, 18th century. SI negative RWS2014.02312.

Back cover image: , The Forge of the Heart, an engraving by the Master I. B., 1529. SI negative ET2011-44041.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Smithsonian Institution.

The first Smithsonian collection : the European engravings of George Perkins Marsh and the role of prints in the U.S. National Museum / Helena E. Wright.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-935623-62-5 (hardback) ISBN 978-1-935623-63-2 (ebook) 1. PrintsWashington (D.C.) 2. Engraving, European. 3. Marsh, George P. (George Perkins), 18011882Art collections. 4. Smithsonian InstitutionHistory. 5. PrintsCollectors and collectingUnited States. I. Wright, Helena, 1946 author. II. Title.

NE53.W3S644 2015

769.94074753dc23

2014032870

ISBN-13 (cloth): 978-1-935623-62-5

ISBN-13 (ebook): 978-1-935623-63-2

A subject index is included in the print edition.

v3.1_r1

FOR

PAMELA M. HENSON

WITH WARMEST THANKS

for sharing her extraordinary knowledge of Smithsonian history and for her unfailing encouragement and support

All illustrations are from the Marsh Collection, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, unless otherwise credited in the individual captions. Full descriptions of the prints held by the Smithsonian, including dimensions, can be found on the website: http://marshcollection.si.edu.

LEducation dAchille. Engraving by Charles Clment Bervic after Jean Baptiste Regnault.

The Doctors of the Church. Engraving by William Sharp after Guido Reni.

Silenus. Engraving by Schelte Adamsz. Bolswert after Sir Anthony van Dyck.

George Perkins Marsh, Caroline Crane Marsh, and Lucy Crane.

President Zachary Taylor and Colonel William W. S. Bliss.

A Fruit Piece. Mezzotint engraving by Richard Earlom after Jan van Huysum.

Robert Gilmor, Jr. Mezzotint engraving by John Sartain after Sir Thomas Lawrence.

King Lear in the Storm. Engraving by William Sharp after Benjamin West.

[Belisarius]. Etching by C. W. F. Dietrich.

Page from Marshs Early German Masters album.

The Forge of the Heart. Engraving by the Master I. B.

Adoration of the Magi. Engraving by Hendrik Goltzius in the style of Lucas van Leyden.

Joseph Henry. Daguerreotype by J. H. Whitehurst Galleries.

Spencer Fullerton Baird.

Smithsonian Library Room. Wood engraving from The Illustrated News.

Christ Healing the Sick. Etching, Rembrandt van Rijn.

La Madonna di San Sisto. Engraving by Friedrich Mller after Raphael.

Instruction Paternelle. Engraving by Johann Georg Wille after Gerard ter Borch.

Philippe de Champaigne. Engraving by Grard Edelinck.

Senator Sumners Study (2nd Floor). Photographed by D. R. Holmes.

Claghorn print room. Photograph by R. Newell and Son.

Sibyl with a Book and Winged Putto to the Left. Chiaroscuro woodcut by Bartolomeo Coriolano after Guido Reni.

Print exhibition at the Library of Congress.

The Visitation. Woodcut by Albrecht Drer.

The Visitation. Engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi after Albrecht Drer.

Art Room in the Smithsonian Institution Building.

Belisarius. Engraving by Robert Strange after Salvator Rosa.

Graphic arts and ceramics exhibitions in the U.S. National Museum.

Engraving, unsigned, from emblem book by Jacob Cats.

Ceres and Phytalus. Etching (reversed) by Johann Jakob von Sandrart after Salvator Rosa.

Shortly after I arrived at the Smithsonian in 1983, Marjorie Cohn from Harvards Fogg Museum made some inquiries about the Marsh Collection. She wanted to see Marshs impressions to establish comparisons for her book about one of his contemporaries, the Boston collector Francis Calley Gray, but it proved difficult to identify prints from the Marsh purchase beyond a few examples. My curiosity was piqued, however, and when my colleague Elizabeth Harris proposed an exhibition marking the centenary of our Division of Graphic Arts in 1986, I prepared an essay for the catalog that addressed what we knew about Marsh as part of the divisions early history. Over the years I have investigated Marshs interest in prints on several occasions, digging a little deeper each time. This book is the culmination of those efforts, bringing together Marshs passion as a collector, his role in the formation of the Smithsonian, and the somewhat checkered history of the collection. The Smithsonian demonstrated remarkable prescience in acquiring the collection but subsequently displayed a good deal of uncertainty about what to do with it.

When I began this project, as a print curator I was focused on the European engravings, etchings, and woodcuts that Marsh sold to the Smithsonian in 1849. In particular, I wanted to dispel the myth that the collection had been destroyed in the 1865 fire that gutted portions of the Castle (Smithsonian Institution Building) and to recover Marshs Marshs books always outnumbered his prints, but he acquired a considerable number of important engravings, etchings, and illustrated volumes at a time when such collections were uncommon, and their presence in two national institutionsthe Smithsonian and the Library of Congressmerits this exposition of their acquisition, dispersal, and continuing influence.