The Ferris Collection of Prints

The Museum’s Graphic Arts Collection, the oldest print-collecting unit in the Smithsonian, focuses on the technical and social history of printmaking to document how prints are made and used. Smithsonian art museums collect works on paper selected for aesthetic reasons, but the National Museum of American History (formerly the Museum of History and Technology) takes a broad view of visual culture.

Our prints illustrate technical developments and cultural changes. They represent all kinds of graphic works that have influenced American society. The collection has always included examples from many periods and countries, fine-art prints as well as popular and commercial graphic art, together with the plates, blocks, and tools used to produce prints. In 1996 the Museum presented an exhibition on 150 years of Smithsonian print collecting, Building a National Collection.

One of the largest print collections ever received by the Smithsonian was donated by the Ferris family between 1927 and 1932. Stephen James Ferris (1835–1915), a Philadelphia painter and etcher, collected over 2,000 European and American prints, both reproductive and original, representing old master and contemporary printmakers. The collection incorporated a variety of artistic subjects, compositions, and styles. Ferris may well have mined it for inspiration for his own work, but he was also deeply interested in art for its own sake. He and his family and friends would have simply enjoyed studying the images.

More about the collection
More about the artists

Stephen James Ferris etched this self-portrait in October of 1880, probably as one of the prints exchanged by members of the Philadelphia Society of Etchers.
Description
Stephen James Ferris etched this self-portrait in October of 1880, probably as one of the prints exchanged by members of the Philadelphia Society of Etchers. Ferris was a founding member of the society, which formed earlier that year, three years after the establishment of the New York Etching Club, the first in the United States. Ferris had seen the etching process demonstrated in 1860 by John Sartain, an engraver. In 1875 Ferris produced one of his earliest etchings to be commercially published in the United States, a portrait of Mariano Fortuny (1838–1874).
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1880
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14388.02
accession number
94830
catalog number
14388
Stephen James Ferris etched this group portrait The Barbizon School: Seven French Artists as a frontispiece for the auction catalog of works from the J. C. Runkle collection, sold in New York in March 1883.
Description
Stephen James Ferris etched this group portrait The Barbizon School: Seven French Artists as a frontispiece for the auction catalog of works from the J. C. Runkle collection, sold in New York in March 1883. Artists of the Barbizon School, named after a rural village in France near which many of them worked outdoors, specialized in realistic landscapes and animal paintings. Samuel P. Avery had arranged the sale and the catalog, which was illustrated with fifteen etchings by four American etchers. This print marks the first time that an auction catalog contained an original etching, as opposed to the usual reproductive etchings. The New York Times gave a favorable review of Ferris’s print.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1883
publisher
Avery, Samuel Putnam
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14508
accession number
94830
catalog number
14508
The 1876 Centennial Exposition brought people and exhibits from around the world to Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. Stephen Ferris, a resident of the city, visited the site on August 7 and recorded in pencil the face of this man, whom he called Maure [Moor].
Description
The 1876 Centennial Exposition brought people and exhibits from around the world to Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. Stephen Ferris, a resident of the city, visited the site on August 7 and recorded in pencil the face of this man, whom he called Maure [Moor]. The man may have been one of the workers associated with an exhibit from Tunisia or Morocco. Ferris was very interested in North African subject matter at this time, due to his fondness for the works of Mariano Fortuny.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1876
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16664
catalog number
GA*16664
accession number
119,780
Stephen Ferris etched a dapper J. L. Gérôme (1824–1904) in 1899, near the end of Gérôme’s very successful career as painter and sculptor. Ferris had admired the French artist’s work for many years, at least since 1863 when he named his son after him.
Description
Stephen Ferris etched a dapper J. L. Gérôme (1824–1904) in 1899, near the end of Gérôme’s very successful career as painter and sculptor. Ferris had admired the French artist’s work for many years, at least since 1863 when he named his son after him. Although Ferris never actually met Gérôme, the two artists had corresponded. For this print Ferris used a photograph he had received from Gérôme. He then sent Gérôme trial proofs for comments and requested a signature to include in the final impressions, which appears here at lower left.
Gérôme congratulated Ferris on the portrait as “work done with great care and great talent—the effect is very good and very firm. If I had any criticism to make, I would reserve it for the background, which is a little too even, and for the clothing, which has a little softness in the execution.” Gérôme also suggested that the highlight on the order which appears on his left breast and is not particularly noticeable in the photograph, be less bright. The order remains brightly lit, possibly Ferris’s tribute to Gérôme.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1879
date made
1899
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14396.01
accession number
94830
catalog number
14396.01
Stephen Ferris etched the portrait of distinguished Philadelphian William Spohn Baker in 1882. Baker (1824–1897), a critic and author, wrote several books, including American Engravers and Their Works and The Origin and Antiquity of Engraving.
Description
Stephen Ferris etched the portrait of distinguished Philadelphian William Spohn Baker in 1882. Baker (1824–1897), a critic and author, wrote several books, including American Engravers and Their Works and The Origin and Antiquity of Engraving. An antiquarian who specialized in George Washington, he collected medals, biographies, and engraved portraits of the first president, and wrote about these subjects. Baker was an active member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, serving as a vice president from 1892 and also as a director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1882
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14536.16
catalog number
14536.16
accession number
94830
This profile portrait of Spanish painter and graphic artist Mariano Fortuny is one of two in the NMAH collection that Stephen Ferris made in 1875, soon after Fortuny’s untimely death at age thirty-six in Rome, Italy, on November 21, 1874.Gerome Ferris, in a note on the mount, ref
Description
This profile portrait of Spanish painter and graphic artist Mariano Fortuny is one of two in the NMAH collection that Stephen Ferris made in 1875, soon after Fortuny’s untimely death at age thirty-six in Rome, Italy, on November 21, 1874.
Gerome Ferris, in a note on the mount, refers to the print as an etching on glass. According to a contemporary, Stephen Ferris “was one of the first artists to practice etching on glass as it was miscalled at the time.” The cliché-verre process, as it known today, originated in France in the nineteenth century. The artist coats a glass plate with an opaque substance and then draws an image on it with a pointed instrument such as an etching needle. He then lays the plate image-side down on a sheet of photosensitized paper and exposes it to light.
This print and a second portrait of Fortuny by Ferris were the only two American etched portraits shown in the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. The revival of interest in etching that began in Europe during the 1860s did not really take off in the United States until about 1880, but visitors to the exhibition saw a modest number of American etchings at the beginning of the movement.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1873
1875
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14552
catalog number
14552
accession number
94830
Stephen Ferris etched Home of Mariano, Gypsy King in Granada, Spain, during his 1881 visit to sites associated with Mariano Fortuny, a Spanish artist he deeply admired. In a letter from Granada to art editor Sylvester R.
Description
Stephen Ferris etched Home of Mariano, Gypsy King in Granada, Spain, during his 1881 visit to sites associated with Mariano Fortuny, a Spanish artist he deeply admired. In a letter from Granada to art editor Sylvester R. Koehler, Ferris told of his fascination with gypsy cave dwellings. He described them as “most picturesque and weird, overgrown with vines, cactus, and aloes . . . . I have made several drawings of Gitanos [gypsy] caves and of one especially a favorite model of Fortunys [sic] a Gitano prince in splendid costume. We bought his dress and I intend to paint and etch my picture when I get time.” Ferris etched the gypsy’s portrait in costume separately and included it, slightly altered, on the right in this print showing the family and animals assembled in front of their cave. Ferris noted in pencil on the print that it was etched directly from life.
Gypsies or gitanos still live in caves in the Sacromonte(Holy Mountain) area of Granada. Today the number of cave dwellers has dwindled, but the area remains famous for flamenco singing and dancing.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1881
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14404.03
accession number
94830
catalog number
14404.03
Deeply impressed by the art of Mariano Fortuny, Stephen Ferris etched reproductions of Fortuny’s paintings and a few of his prints. Ferris made this etching, Riff Pirate, after a painting dated 1871. These pirates preyed on shipping off the North African coast.
Description
Deeply impressed by the art of Mariano Fortuny, Stephen Ferris etched reproductions of Fortuny’s paintings and a few of his prints. Ferris made this etching, Riff Pirate, after a painting dated 1871. These pirates preyed on shipping off the North African coast. The Philadelphia Museum of Art owns a related painting, which may be seen on its website.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1871
original artist
Fortuny y Carbo, Mariano
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14379.01
accession number
94830
catalog number
14379.01
Stephen James Ferris etched an undated portrait of his daughter, May, in the costume of a bull fighter, and dedicated this impression to her. May Electa Ferris was born in 1871, eight years after her brother, Jean Leon Gerome Ferris.
Description
Stephen James Ferris etched an undated portrait of his daughter, May, in the costume of a bull fighter, and dedicated this impression to her. May Electa Ferris was born in 1871, eight years after her brother, Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. Like her father and brother, she was an artist. She learned to etch from her father and became known as an etcher and landscape painter, exhibiting in the 1880s and 1890s. Her paintings were reproduced as calendar artwork into the 1920s under her married name, May Ferris Smith.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c. 1890
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14405.01
accession number
94830
catalog number
14405.01
This light-hearted etching by Stephen Ferris, the Philadelphia Society of Etchers Outing in 1900, recalls the sixth such event held by the Society on the Neshaminy River near Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
Description
This light-hearted etching by Stephen Ferris, the Philadelphia Society of Etchers Outing in 1900, recalls the sixth such event held by the Society on the Neshaminy River near Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Etching, eating, and games were the outing’s major activities.
Ferris was a founding member of the Society, organized in 1880, and its first treasurer. Initially, it was an important source for information in the Philadelphia area about the newly revived technique of etching. The group met monthly during the summer for more than twenty years, offering occasions for its members to exchange prints.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1900
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14476
accession number
94830
catalog number
14476
Stephen J. Ferris, a Philadelphia painter and etcher, specialized in portraiture. He etched this portrait of Abraham Lincoln in 1881, noting in pencil at the lower right that this print was the earliest proof he took from the plate.
Description
Stephen J. Ferris, a Philadelphia painter and etcher, specialized in portraiture. He etched this portrait of Abraham Lincoln in 1881, noting in pencil at the lower right that this print was the earliest proof he took from the plate. Ferris etched many subjects for a variety of publications, including art periodicals and special editions of etchings. He made both original prints and reproductive etchings after works by other artists in other media.
This image, like several other portrait prints of Lincoln, is based on the popular photograph made by the Mathew Brady studio in 1864. Ferris collected prints and photographs to aid him in his work, and his print collection came to the Smithsonian as a gift from the Ferris family.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1881
depicted
Lincoln, Abraham
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14531
catalog number
14531
accession number
94830
Stephen Ferris collaborated with his brother-in-law Peter Moran in 1875 to make this large reproductive etching of Alexander von Wagner’s stirring painting Chariot Race in the Circus Maximus, Rome in the Presence of the Emperor Domitian.
Description
Stephen Ferris collaborated with his brother-in-law Peter Moran in 1875 to make this large reproductive etching of Alexander von Wagner’s stirring painting Chariot Race in the Circus Maximus, Rome in the Presence of the Emperor Domitian. The scale of the work required an oversized copper plate, which was difficult to find. The young artists, who were new to the etching medium, fabricated their plate from the bottom of a copper boiler, according to H. R.Wray's 1893 Review of Etching in the United States. Moran, who would specialize in animal subjects, etched the horses, the archway in the background, and the roadway. Ferris, known for his portraits, etched the figures and the rest of the architecture. This etching was one of the largest made in the US at the time. The print was well received; the New York Times noted: “Of the style of execution we can speak only in the highest terms.”
Alexander von Wagner (1838–1919), a Hungarian artist active in Germany, also enjoyed considerable success when he exhibited the painting Chariot Race in Europe in 1872. Wagner painted other versions; one was shown to critical acclaim at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. The Manchester Art Gallery in England owns a version, which may be seen on its website. It was not unusual at that time for an artist to paint several versions of a popular subject in different sizes.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1882
1875
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
original artist
Wagner
graphic artist
Moran, Peter
publisher
J. C. McCurdy & Co.
ID Number
GA.14534
catalog number
14534
accession number
94830
Stephen Ferris sketched and painted this pencil and watercolor view of buildings in the Alhambra complex of Granada, Spain, in 1881. This is not a finished view but a work in progress.
Description
Stephen Ferris sketched and painted this pencil and watercolor view of buildings in the Alhambra complex of Granada, Spain, in 1881. This is not a finished view but a work in progress. The people rendered in pencil outline have not been colored, and there are many second thoughts like the tree at left, which has been enlarged. While in Granada, Ferris wrote a friend that he and his son were busy making sketches “much in memorandum for future use in pictures.” So captivated were they by the city that they spent more than half their Spanish visit there.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1881
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14545
catalog number
14545
accession number
94830
Stephen Ferris’s watercolor view Justicia, Granada shows the Alhambra’s Gate of Justice (Puerta de la Justicia) painted during the artist’s 1881 visit to Spain. In a letter to Sylvester R.
Description
Stephen Ferris’s watercolor view Justicia, Granada shows the Alhambra’s Gate of Justice (Puerta de la Justicia) painted during the artist’s 1881 visit to Spain. In a letter to Sylvester R. Koehler, later Curator of Graphic Arts at the Smithsonian, Ferris, deeply moved by his experiences, observed: “‘See the Alhambra and die’ seems a very appropriate expression. I feel it and have more reverence for the Arabs [sic] art than any other school.”
Today the Gate of Justice is the main entrance to the Alhambra complex, which was completed by the Moors in the fourteenth century. The Spanish, who defeated the Moors in 1492, made later additions.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1881
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14548
catalog number
14548
accession number
94830
Stephen Ferris made this pencil portrait of his mother from memory in 1890. She had died in 1848 near Yorkville, Illinois, after the birth of her fourteenth child, when Ferris was a boy of thirteen.
Description
Stephen Ferris made this pencil portrait of his mother from memory in 1890. She had died in 1848 near Yorkville, Illinois, after the birth of her fourteenth child, when Ferris was a boy of thirteen. Contrary to a contemporary biography’s claim that he was orphaned at ten, Ferris belonged to a large family which became even larger with his father’s remarriage. As a boy Ferris lived with a maternal uncle who offered him a chance to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia from the age of seventeen.
date made
1898
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16646
catalog number
16646
accession number
119780
Stephen Ferris drew this pencil portrait of his wife, Elizabeth Anastasia Moran Ferris, in 1878. Ferris probably met Elizabeth through his friendship with her brothers, artists Thomas and Peter Moran. The couple married in 1862.
Description
Stephen Ferris drew this pencil portrait of his wife, Elizabeth Anastasia Moran Ferris, in 1878. Ferris probably met Elizabeth through his friendship with her brothers, artists Thomas and Peter Moran. The couple married in 1862. Their son, Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, a history painter and etcher, was born in 1863 and their daughter, May Electa Ferris, a landscape painter and etcher, in 1871.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1878
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16649
catalog number
GA*16649
accession number
119,780
Stephen Ferris made this pencil portrait of his son Gerome’s new wife, Annette Ryder Ferris, in 1894. They were married in May of that year. Mrs.
Description
Stephen Ferris made this pencil portrait of his son Gerome’s new wife, Annette Ryder Ferris, in 1894. They were married in May of that year. Mrs. Ferris later donated prints, drawings, and photographs that had belonged to her father-in-law and her husband to the Smithsonian in 1932. Gerome Ferris had made an initial donation in 1927.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1894
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16651
catalog number
GA*16651
accession number
119,780
Stephen Ferris sketched his sleeping four-year-old son Gerome in October 1867. He used this pencil drawing as a model for the sleeping child in his painting Grandma’s Spinning Wheel, also completed in 1867.
Description
Stephen Ferris sketched his sleeping four-year-old son Gerome in October 1867. He used this pencil drawing as a model for the sleeping child in his painting Grandma’s Spinning Wheel, also completed in 1867. At a later date, Gerome Ferris came across this sketch and noted in pencil: “I have seen no drawing better than this past or present JLGF," but, of course, he was the subject and possibly prejudiced
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1867
1867-10-24
depicted (sitter)
Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16653
catalog number
GA*16653
accession number
119780
Stephen Ferris drew this pencil portrait of his son Gerome as a Christmas present for his new daughter-in-law, Annette Ryder Ferris, in 1894.
Description
Stephen Ferris drew this pencil portrait of his son Gerome as a Christmas present for his new daughter-in-law, Annette Ryder Ferris, in 1894. Gerome and Annette were married in May of that year.
In 1927 Gerome Ferris made the first donation to the Smithsonian of prints, drawings, and photographs that he and his father had collected, and his widow made a second donation in 1932.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
Christmas, 1894
1894
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16656
catalog number
GA*16656
accession number
119780
In 1876 Stephen Ferris made several pencil studies, showing his brother-in-law, artist Thomas Moran. The two men had known each other before Ferris’s marriage to Moran’s sister, Elizabeth Anastasia Moran, in 1862.
Description
In 1876 Stephen Ferris made several pencil studies, showing his brother-in-law, artist Thomas Moran. The two men had known each other before Ferris’s marriage to Moran’s sister, Elizabeth Anastasia Moran, in 1862. Ferris had arrived in Philadelphia in 1856 and was recorded in 1861 as sharing a studio with Thomas Moran and Samuel Sartain, whose father, John Sartain, demonstrated the technique of etching for Moran and Ferris.
Thomas Moran’s etched work and that of his wife, Mary Nimmo Moran, is well represented in the NMAH Graphic Arts collection. A number of their prints came as gifts from the Ferris family.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1876
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16662
catalog number
GA*16662
accession number
119,780
Stephen Ferris made this pencil sketch of a distinguished, pensive older man he called the “Curator of the Alhambra” during his two-month stay in Granada, Spain, in 1881.
Description
Stephen Ferris made this pencil sketch of a distinguished, pensive older man he called the “Curator of the Alhambra” during his two-month stay in Granada, Spain, in 1881. A watercolor in the NMAH Ferris Collection of an almost identical gentleman is identified as the “Keeper of the Tore de la Vela,” the watchtower of the fortified citadel in the Alhambra complex. While Ferris, a portrait artist, was exploring the wonders of the Alhambra, he was also busy sketching people he met.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1881
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16683
accession number
119780
catalog number
GA*16683
In 1875 on a visit to Rock Island, Illinois, Stephen Ferris sketched his niece Abigail (or Abbie) in pencil. Abbie was one of five siblings in the family of Ferris’s sister, Althea Ferris Dean. Abbie continued to live in Rock Island, remained single, and taught school.
Description
In 1875 on a visit to Rock Island, Illinois, Stephen Ferris sketched his niece Abigail (or Abbie) in pencil. Abbie was one of five siblings in the family of Ferris’s sister, Althea Ferris Dean. Abbie continued to live in Rock Island, remained single, and taught school. In one census, she was listed as a drawing teacher. Ferris himself taught for many years at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now Moore College of Art and Design).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1875-08-05
1875
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16684
catalog number
GA*16684
accession number
119,780
In 1881 Stephen Ferris and his son, Gerome, sailed to Spain aboard the S. S.Washington to visit places associated with Spanish painter Mariano Fortuny. During the journey, Stephen Ferris, a portrait artist by profession, claimed he had sketched everyone on board.
Description
In 1881 Stephen Ferris and his son, Gerome, sailed to Spain aboard the S. S.Washington to visit places associated with Spanish painter Mariano Fortuny. During the journey, Stephen Ferris, a portrait artist by profession, claimed he had sketched everyone on board. Although many of these drawings had been pronounced “excellent,” he discarded all but this one in pencil of Srta. Delores Arrojo de Mexico, “a Mexican Indian girl, a real picturesque subject which I intend to paint sometime with fruit and flowers and a good size in oil then etch it.” We do not know whether Ferris ever etched or painted her.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1881-05-16
1881
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16685
catalog number
GA*16685
accession number
119,780

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