The Providence Athenæum

John Russell Bartlett was a critical founding member of the Providence Athenæum as well as an essential figure in Rhode Island’s history. While this portrait has often been attributed to Thomas Sully, it is more likely that Henry Cheever Pratt, a close friend to Bartlett and a local painter, is responsible for the work. Pratt accompanied Bartlett to the Southwest when Bartlett was appointed U.S. Commissioner of the Mexican Boundary Survey in 1850.

The painting was donated by Elisha Capron Mowry, Bartlett's grandson-in-law in 1964.

Lancaster, Jane. Inquire Within: A Social History of the Providence Athenæum Since 1753. Providence Athenæum, 2003, pp. 38-40, 43-44, 61, 65, 86.

Wodehouse, Kate. "John Russell Bartlett: Projector of the Providence Athenæum in 1831." The Universal Penman, Spring 2016, pp. 5-9.

Redmond, Quinn. “John Russell Bartlett as a Young Man.” 2016. ARTH 401: Cataloguing Curiosity, Wheaton College, student paper.

Bartlett, John Russell.  Autobiography of John Russell Bartlett, 1805-1886. Edited by Jerry E. Mueller, Providence, John Carter Brown Library, 2006.