Series II. Photographs of Lefferts' Illustrations of Scenes of War

Series II contains photographic copies of paintings made by Charles Lefferts from 1916-1921 for Rodman Wanamaker, the president of Wanamaker's department store on Broadway in New York City. Wanamaker commissioned a total of fifty-three watercolor and oil painting illustrations from Lefferts to be used for window display and public exhibition throughout the store. At the time of the closing of Wanamaker's in 1954, twenty-eight of the drawings remained in possession of the store. The paintings were photographed by the New-York Historical Society in 1955. The paintings were later sent to other Wanamaker stores in Westchester County, NY, and Philadelphia. The majority of the drawings depict scenes from the American Revolution although several show scenes from World War I. Each of the images is accompanied by a descriptive caption written by Lefferts. These illustrations are mentioned in the introduction of Uniforms of the Armies in the War of the American Revolution, 1775-1783 .