Existing comment:
E. Haines
Alexander von Humboldt
1858
albumen silver print
John G. Methua, a prominent theatrical producer and abolitionist, inscribed this portrait of Humboldt to William Cullen Bryant on the occasion of his seventieth birthday in 1864. Bryant, who was a leading transcendentalist poet and editor of the New York Evening Post, had been an advocate for abolition and used his newspaper to disseminate Humboldt's views. Methua's gift was part of a larger celebration of Bryant for his political views as well as his influence on the visual and literary arts in the United States.
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, S/NPG.77.28 |