A catalog of the portraits in the Independence Nat. Historic Park collection. These portraits consist of 255 works, 109 of them by Charles Willson Peale. Many are likenesses of heroes of the Amer. Revolution and founders of Amer. gov't., statesmen, jurists, men of science, art and letters. The collection was enhanced by the addition of the works of notable 18th and 19th cent. Anglo-Amer. artists. There are two sections: a history of the collection dividing it in chapters covering works pre-1950, 1850-1900 and 1900-1951, and a catalog. Each catalog entry is enhanced with either a black and white or four-color reproduction and contains a physical description of the portrait, a biography of the subject, the circumstance of the portrait's commission and its provenance.
