The Ferris Collection of Prints - Introduction
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.
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"The Ferris Collection of Prints - Introduction" showing 2 items.
First Love Letter
- Description
- Camille Piton made this etching to illustrate a catalog for an auction of works from the collection of J. C. Runkle, which was held in New York on March 8, 1883. Samuel P. Avery, art dealer and himself a collector, organized the sale and the catalog. The New York Times judged Piton’s effort as “handsomely etched.” Ludwig Knaus (1829–1910), the original artist of First Love Letter, was a German painter of sentimental genre scenes which were very popular in his day. Originally titled in German, his painting was known by its English title because it had been purchased by an American.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1879
- original artist
- Knaus, Ludwig
- graphic artist
- Piton, Camille
- ID Number
- GA*14885
- catalog number
- 14885
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Street Musicians
- Description
- Jean Léon Gérôme (1824–1904) painted this scene of Pifferari or street musicians serenading an unseen image of the Virgin Mary in 1870. Camille Piton etched it for an auction catalog of works from the collection of J. C. Runkle, which were sold on March 8, 1883. The auction was organized by Samuel P. Avery, art dealer and print collector. Pifferari come from the mountains in Calabria, Italy, and from the Abruzzi to play bagpipes and reed instruments like the piffero, a kind of oboe, before images of the Virgin in Rome during the Christmas season. Jean Léon Gérôme was a favorite painter of Stephen Ferris, who named his son after him.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1879
- 1883
- original artist
- Gerôme, Jean-Léon
- graphic artist
- Piton, Camille
- ID Number
- GA*14886
- catalog number
- 14886
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center