Saml. Adams

What it is

This is a monochrome reproduction of a full-length portrait by Alonzo Chappel, dated 1858. It shows a standing older man with white hair, wearing a dark coat, waistcoat and breeches, leaning on a cane beside a chair and a small table. The caption below reads "Saml. Adams." The record describes the original as one drawing in oil. Chappel was born in 1828, so he could not have known Adams, who died in 1803.

Why it matters

Images like this show how later generations imagined the Founding Fathers. The artist worked from later ideas about Adams rather than from direct observation, so the picture tells us more about the 1850s than about Adams himself. Historians use such portraits to study how the American Revolution was remembered.

Look closer

• What details, such as the cane, chair and clothing, does the artist include to suggest Adams's character?
• Why might an artist in 1858 choose to show an elderly Adams instead of a younger revolutionary?
• What does this image leave out about Adams's political work and his views?