Fales Library and Special Collections Portrait Collection

The contents of the Portrait/Subject Collection are primarily portraits, most of which are devoted to American and British authors and thespians from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with a much smaller quantity depicting European monarchs and politicians. There are also materials regarding artists such as Claude Monet and Fairfield Porter, as well as images of various composers, the American Church in Rome, New York City, and Paris. Of particular interest are two Plans for the City of New York covering the southern end of Manhattan, which are dated 1797 (an 1853 re-print) and 1807, as well as several original American West Posters announcing rewards for wanted outlaws dating from the early twentieth century.

While many of the documents are photographs, a considerable number are printed images such as engravings and lithographs cut from nineteenth and twentieth-century publications, advertisements, maps, postcards, book plates, and posters. Some of the files dedicated to authors also hold textual material such as reviews, advertisements, news paper clippings, or, in very rare cases, copies of their writing.