Saint-Mémin Print Collection
Call Number
Date
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
Collection of engravings by the French engraver Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de Saint-Saint-Mémin. Most are profile portrait engravings, but several early views of New York City are also included.
Biographical Note
Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de Saint-Mémin was born in France in 1770. He served as an officer in the French Army, and was exiled after the French Revolution. When he arrived in the United States in 1793, he began to teach himself the arts of engraving and painting, producing some views of New York City as early as 1794. His first work was published in 1796, the year he began a portrait business with Thomas Bluget de Valdenuit, a fellow Frenchman. The two utilized the physiognotrace, a device whereby a sitter's profile was traced by a bar, and a pantograph, with a piece of chalk attached to its end, drew the same profile in a smaller dimension onto a piece of paper. Details were then added to the outline drawing. Another pantograph was used to trace the drawing and produce a continuous line engraving on a copper plate. Saint-Mémin then utilized a roulette, a tool of his own invention, to produce shading on the engravings. The sitter usually received the drawing, the copper plate and a dozen engravings for a set fee.
While in business with Valdenuit, Saint-Mémin produced the engravings from his partner's drawings. The partnership dissolved after about a year, and Saint-Mémin went on to create both the portrait drawings and engravings himself. He left New York in 1798, and traveled down the east coast of the United States, with stays in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, and Charleston. In 1810, Saint-Mémin returned to France, effectively ending his portrait business. He returned briefly to America, but moved to France in 1814, where he lived until his death in 1852. During his stay in America, Saint-Mémin drew a total of more than 900 portraits and engraved more than 800 of these.
Sources:Miles, Ellen G. Saint-Mémin and the Neoclassical Profile Portrait in the America. Washington: National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian Institue Press, 1994.Morgan, John Hill. "The Work of M. Fevret de Saint-Mémin," in the Brooklyn Museum Quarterly, January 1918, Vol. V, No. 1.
Arrangement
The collection is divided into two series:
Missing Title
- Series I. Portraits
- Series II. Views
Scope and Content Note
The Saint-Mémin Print Collection spans the period from 1794-1808 and contains engravings made by Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de Saint-Mémin. The collection is divided into two series: Portraits; and Views.
Subjects
Access Restrictions
Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.
Use Restrictions
Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff.
Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.
Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions
Preferred Citation
This collection should be cited as Saint-Mémin Print Collection, PR 226, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, The New-York Historical Society.
Location of Materials
Provenance
The collection is comprised of gifts from various donors. The album of portrait engravings was a gift from the Estate of Hall Park McCullough in 1973.
About this Guide
Edition of this Guide
Repository
Series I: Portraits
Scope and Contents note
Series I. Portraits date from 1796 to 1808 and contains profile portrait engravings, made after drawings by Saint-Mémin and his early partner Valdenuit, assisted by a physiognotrace mechanism. Profile portraits in this collection were made in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Richmond, Baltimore, and Burlington, NJ, often of government notables and upper-class urban dwellers. The series is arranged into three subseries: Portrait album; Framed portraits, and Loose portraits.
In 1862, Elias Dexter published a book of Saint-Mémin's American portraits, each of which was photographed by Gurney & Son. While some sitters were misidentified in Dexter's volume, it has been used as a standard means for identification of the Saint-Mémin portraits. Dexter's number (which does not correspond to a chronological or alphabetical listing) follows the sitter's name in the Container List.
Subseries I. Portrait Album
Scope and Contents note
The Portrait album holds twenty-eight portraits, bound together in a small, leather-covered album. In general, these engravings were trimmed to their plate borders and pasted on to the album pages. There does not seem to be an order to the portraits; they have been listed in the container list in the order they appear in the album.
The portraits in the album are listed as they appear. Inscriptions are noted.
Saint-Mémin, Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de (D. 5), 1804
General note
Philadelphia
Somerville, William Clarke (D. 624), 1808
General note
Richmond
Bayard, James Asheton (D. 421), 1801
General note
Inscr. "Drawn & engrd. by St. Memin Philadela."
Griffin, Thomas (D. 479), 1805
General note
Washington
Clarke, William (D. 477), 1807
General note
Washington
Gilmor, Mary Ann Smith (D.284), 1803
General note
Inscr. "St. M. delt. & sct." Baltimore
Dana, Samuel Whittelsey (D. 430), 1806
General note
Washington
Dallas, Alexander James (D. 138), 1801
General note
Philadelphia
Campbell, Levin Hicks (D. 376), 1804
General note
Baltimore
Ormsby, Sarah Mahon (D. 38), [1801]
General note
Philadelphia
Darieu (D. 256), 1800
General note
Inscr. "Drawn & engrd. by St. Memin Philada."
Henry, Isaac (D. 421), 1802
General note
Inscr. "Drawn & engrd. by St. Memin Philada."
Thieubert (D. 249), 1803
General note
Philadelphia
Bryan, Joseph (D. 486), 1805
General note
Washington
Coale, Edward Johnson (D. 338), 1804
General note
Baltimore
Gilmor, William (D. 353), 1803
General note
Baltimore
Bartlett, Bailey (D. 472), 1800
General note
Inscr. "Drawn & engrd. by St. Memin Philadela."
Purviance, Samuel Dinsmore (D.431), 1805
General note
Washington
Tucker, Thomas Tudor (D. 412), 1805
General note
Washington
Lewden, Joseph (D. 294), 1802
General note
Inscr. "Drawn & engrd. by St. Memin Philada."
Guenet (D. 324), 1803
General note
Philadelphia
Newton, Thomas Jr. (D.497), 1806
General note
Washington
Huger, Benjamin (D. 488), 1805
General note
Washington
Burrall, Jonathan (D. 41), 1798-1803
General note
Philadelphia
Powell, Leven (D. 462), 1800
General note
Inscr. "Drawn & engrd. by St. Memin Philadelphia"
Morton, Cornelia Schuyler (D. 37), 1797
General note
Inscr. "St. Memin & Valdenuit No. 27 Pine St. N. York"
Boyd, John Parker (D. 222), 1802
General note
Inscr. "Drawn & engrd. by St. Memin Philada."
Rush, Benjamin (D. 153), 1802
General note
Inscr. "Benjamin Rush" Philadelphia
Subseries II. Framed Portraits
Scope and Contents note
Framed portraits include three small individual engravings and two larger frames holding composite portraits. The frames may or may not have been contemporary with the engravings, but all seem to be nineteenth century in origin. The largest frame, with a total of twenty engravings, includes eighteen Saint-Mémin portraits of United States Congressmen, as well as two profiles, not by Saint-Mémin, of George Washington and John Adams. Another frame holds four portraits, all New Yorkers.
Lincklaen, Helen Ledyard (D. 735), 1798
General note
Philadelphia
Lincklaen, John (D. 111), 1796-1797
General note
New York
Thurman, John [Dr. Hill] (D. 56), 1797-1798
General note
Inscr. "St. Memin No. 27 Pine St. N.York"
Van Rensselaer, Stephen (D. 55), 1797
General note
Inscr. "St. Memin No. 27 Pine St. N.York"
Composite of Four Portraits
Barclay, Andrew B.? (D. 60), 1796
General note
Inscr. "St. Memin No. 27 Pine St. N.York"
Cuyler, James (D. 78), 1796-1797
General note
Inscr. "Valdenuit & St. Memin No. 27 Pine St. N.York"
De Peyster, Nicholas Jr. (D. 86), 1797
General note
Inscr. "St. Memin No. 27 Pine St. N.York"
Thompson, Thomas (D. 91), 1797
General note
Inscr. "St. Memin No. 27 Pine St. N.York"
Composite of Twenty Portraits (Eighteen by Saint-Mémin). All members of Congress, taken in Washington
Baldwin, Simeon (D.448), 1807
Betton, Silas (D. 500), 1805
Campbell, John (D. 427), 1806
Dana, Samuel Whittelsey (D. 430), 1806
Davenport, John (D. 426), 1806
Dwight, Thomas (D. 436), 1806
Griffin, Thomas (D. 479), 1805
Hastings, Seth (D. 435), 1806
Hunt, Samuel Jr. [Thompson] (D. 498), [1805]
Lewis, Joseph (D. 474), 1805
Livingston, Henry Walter (D. 433), 1804
Lowndes, Thomas (D. 496), 1805
Nicholson, Joseph Hopper [Stephenson, James] (D 475), [1806]
Pickering, Timothy (D. 434), 1806
Plumer, William (D. 481), 1806
Purviance, Samuel Dinsmore (D.431), 1805
Stedman, William (D. 437), 1805
Van Rensselaer, Kiliaen Kiliaen (D. 438), 1805
Subseries III. Loose Portraits
Scope and Contents note
Seventeen loose portraits are filed alphabetically.
Armstrong, William (D. 8), 1797
General note
Inscr. "Valdenuit & St. Memin No. 27 Pine St. N.York 97"
Bloomfield, Joseph (D. 186), 1798
General note
New York
Bruce, Archibald (D. 51 ), 1796-1797
General note
Inscr: "St. Memin & Valdenuit No. 27 Pine St. N.York"
Bullus, John (D. 511), 1807
General note
Washington
Clinton, Cornelia Tappen (no Dexter #), 1797
General note
Inscr. "St. Memin No. 27 Pine St. N.York"; Four copies
Clinton, George (no Dexter #), 1797
General note
Inscr. "St. Memin No. 27 Pine St. N.York"; Four copies
Clinton, James (D. 57), 1797
General note
Inscr. "St. Memin No. 27 Pine St. N.York"
Clinton, Mary Little Gray (D. 742), 1798
General note
Inscr: "St. Memin No. 27 Pine St. N.York"
Izard, Ralph II (D. 395), 1805
General note
Washington
Lawrence, James (D. 35), 1810
General note
possibly Burlington, N.J.
Livingston, Eliza Barclay (D. 302), 1797
General note
Inscr. "Valdenuit & St. Memin No. 27 Pine St. N.York 97"
McIlvaine, Joseph (D. 22), 1798
General note
Inscr. "Drawn & engrd by St. Memin Burlington"
Robertson, Thomas Bolling (D. 614), 1807-1808
General note
Richmond
Simmons, James (D. 216), 1806
General note
Washington
Tayloe, John, III (D. 408), 1806
General note
Washington
Washington, William Augustine III (D. 924), 1804
General note
Washington
White, John Moore (D. 168), 1798-1803
General note
Inscr. "Drawn & engrd by St. Memin Philada."
Series II: Views
Scope and Contents note
Series II. Views contains two views of New York City made in 1794-1796, while Saint-Mémin was developing his engraving skills. Shortly after arriving in New York with his father, Saint-Mémin was offered a place to stay by John R. Livingston. Both views are from the Brooklyn shoreline, one from Livingston's home at Mount Pitt (near the present day intersection of Henry and Montgomery Streets.)
These prints are housed in a flat file drawer.