Fascinating, delightful, entertaining–not words one would ordinarily choose to describe a work of reference but words which can be applied here without a whisper of overstatement. In these volumes Charles Knowles Bolton, the celebrated New England genealogist and historian, has reproduced a gallery of 17th-century portraiture and secured for us a permanent gift of the past. The combined collection is a pantheon of American Fathers and Mothers, a gallery of the authenticated portraits of the Founders of the American colonies who immigrated before the year 1701. It contains several hundred portraits–some by Rembrandt, Van Dyke, Sir Peter Lely, and Sir Godfrey Kneller, as well as portraits by lesser known or obscure hands.
The compiler offers a scholarly account of the origin and authenticity of each portrait along with extensive biographical and genealogical notes which, in themselves, constitute a formidable body of useful data. On the whole, the work is intelligently indexed and usefully documented and will adorn the shelves of genealogist and historian alike.
The following is a representative selection of the featured portraits:
Alsop, George
Armory, Thomas
Adros, Sir Edmund
Bacot, Pierre< br>
Bailey, Rev. John
Ball, Elias
Banta, Epke
Baudouin, Pierre
Bellingham, Richard, Lord
Bjorck, Rev. Eric
Blair, Rev. James
Bleecker, Jan
Bolling, Robert
Bowdoin, James
Bradstreet, Simon
Bray, Rev. Thomas
Broughton, Thomas
Brown, Jane Lucas
Byfield, Nathaniel
Byrd, William, I
Carpenter, Samuel
Carroll, Charles
Carter, Elizabeth Landon
Chambers, Charles
Claiborne, William
Clark, Dr. John
Colepeper, Thomas, Lord
Colman, John
Coram, Thomas
Corbin, Gawin
Cotton, Rev. John
Curwin, George
Darnell, Henry
Davenport, Rev. John
Davie, Mary
De Lancey, Stephen
De Peyster, Margareta Katrijn
Desborough, Samuel
De Vries, David
Downing, Sir George
Du Bois, Rev. Gaulterus
Endecott, John
Eskridge, George
Fitzhugh, William
Freeman, Rev. Bernardus
Freke, John
Gale, Christopher
Goffe, William
Gray, Edward
Hamilton, Andrew
Haynes, Mabel
Heathcote, Caleb
Herrman, Augustine
Herrman, Jannetje
Jaffrey, George
Jaquelin, Edward
Jay, Augustus
Johnson, Sir Nathaniel
Keith, Rev. George
Kelpius, Johannes
Knollys, Rev. Hanserd
Koster, Henrich
Larkham, Thomas
Le Noble, Catherine
Le Serurier, Elizabeth
Le Serurier, James
Leverett, John
Livingston, Robert
Logan, James
Lunsford, Sir Thomas
Mather, Rev. Richard
Mazyck, Isaac
Mazyck, Marianne
Montague, Richard
Moseley, Arthur
Moseley, Susanna
Moseley, William
Moseley, William, Jr.
Nelson, John
Norris, Mary
Page, John
Pepperrell, William
Percy, George
Peter, Hugh
Philipse, Frederick
Plaisted, Roger
Pollard, Anne
Printz, Johan
Provoost, Johannes
Pryce, Rosamund
Pynchon, William
Randolph, William
Rawson, Edward
Rhett, William
Saltonstall, Sir Richard
Sandys, George
Savage, Thomas
Sewall, Samuel
Sewall, Stephen
Steendam, Jacob
Steenwyck, Cornelius
Stoddard, Elizabeth Roberts
Stoughton, William
Strijcker, Jacob
Strijcker, Jan
Thacher, Rev. Thomas
Van Cortlandt, Oloff
van der Donck, Adriaess
Varleth, Anna
Vetch, Samuel
Wheelwright, Rev. John
Winslow, Edward
Winslow, Penelope
Winthrop, John
Wintrop, John, Jr.
Winthrop, Mary
Winthrop, Stephen
Woodbridge, Rev. John
