The Ferris Collection of Prints

S. J. Ferris Self-portrait

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

Resource Type: Prints

Portrait of Jean-Léon Gérôme

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

Portrait of William Baker

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

Portrait of Mariano Fortuny

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

Spanish Gypsy's Home

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

Riff Pirate

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

Ferris's Daughter May

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

An Etching Society Outing

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

Portrait of Abraham Lincoln

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

Roman Chariot Race

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

Philadelphia Streetscape

Joseph Pennell’s etching of the Water Street Stairs is one of several prints showing old Philadelphia streets and buildings that he made in 1881.
Description
Joseph Pennell’s etching of the Water Street Stairs is one of several prints showing old Philadelphia streets and buildings that he made in 1881. Some of these appeared in the Century Magazine in 1882 with an article written by Elizabeth Robins, who would become Pennell’s wife.
In his autobiography Pennell noted with pride that as a child of about five he could write text backwards and forwards in a drawing. He demonstrates that skill here. He painstakingly etched the text of the many posters and signs backwards so it would read correctly in the print. But at center left he etched the name of the theater to read backward, perhaps from a quirky sense of humor.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
nineteenth century
graphic artist
Pennell, Joseph
ID Number
GA.14230
accession number
94830
catalog number
14230

Adam and Eve

In 1853 John Sartain engraved his large (44 x 32 cm) print after Marcantonio Raimondi’s Adam Receiving the Forbidden Fruit from Eve, which had been designed by Raphael.
Description
In 1853 John Sartain engraved his large (44 x 32 cm) print after Marcantonio Raimondi’s Adam Receiving the Forbidden Fruit from Eve, which had been designed by Raphael. Sartain made more than 1,000 prints, most of which reproduced a work by another artist.
Goupil & Company, the American branch of a Paris based firm, published this print. The company issued a large number of reproductive prints and later photographs of paintings and sculpture, either purchased or commissioned by the firm. The American branch opened in 1846 and, in addition to selling reproductive prints, also exhibited original works of art.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1853
original artist
Raphael
graphic artist
Sartain, John
original artist
Raimondi, Marcantonio
publisher
Goupil and Company
ID Number
GA.14354
accession number
94830
catalog number
14354

Portrait of Grandma Moran

Gerome Ferris thought enough of this etching, Grandma Moran, of his maternal grandmother, Mary Higson Moran, that he exhibited it in 1880 at the annual show of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he was enrolled as a student.
Description
Gerome Ferris thought enough of this etching, Grandma Moran, of his maternal grandmother, Mary Higson Moran, that he exhibited it in 1880 at the annual show of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he was enrolled as a student. He made the print in 1879 after an 1876 pencil sketch by his father, Stephen Ferris, who had taught him to etch.
Mary Moran was the mother of artists Peter, Edward, John, and Thomas Moran, brothers of Elizabeth Moran Ferris.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1879
graphic artist
Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
ID Number
GA.14435.01
accession number
94830
catalog number
14435.01

Snake Charmer

Given his father’s interest in North African subjects painted by artists like Mariano Fortuny, it is not surprising that the region inspired young Gerome Ferris’s 1877 etching Arab Snake Charmer. Fourteen-year-old Gerome learned to etch from his father.
Description
Given his father’s interest in North African subjects painted by artists like Mariano Fortuny, it is not surprising that the region inspired young Gerome Ferris’s 1877 etching Arab Snake Charmer. Fourteen-year-old Gerome learned to etch from his father. He later entered the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts at the age of sixteen.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1877
graphic artist
Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
ID Number
GA.14438.03
accession number
94830
catalog number
14438.03

Christopher Columbus Dying

Sixteen-year-old Gerome Ferris etched this print in 1879 after his own painting of the dying Christopher Columbus, 1506 Last Days of C. Columbus at Vallodolid.
Description
Sixteen-year-old Gerome Ferris etched this print in 1879 after his own painting of the dying Christopher Columbus, 1506 Last Days of C. Columbus at Vallodolid. The current location of the painting is unknown, but the choice of topic anticipates Gerome’s future as a history painter, focusing on American narrative subjects.
After death, Christopher Columbus’s journeys were not over. His remains traveled from Vallodolid to Seville and in 1542 were taken to the island of Hispaniola, now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, colonized by Columbus after 1492. After a move to Havana, Cuba, they returned to Seville cathedral in 1898 where they are today.
The etching was printed on chine-collé, a very thin sheet of paper that accepts the image in passing through the press with a heavier sheet of backing paper to which is it glued during the printing.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1879
graphic artist
Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
ID Number
GA.14450
accession number
94830
catalog number
14450

Girl Holding Lamb

Gerome Ferris etched this print after French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s (1825–1905) New Born Lamb, painted in 1873. Ferris’s print appeared in the catalog for the 1887 New York auction of the A. T.
Description
Gerome Ferris etched this print after French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s (1825–1905) New Born Lamb, painted in 1873. Ferris’s print appeared in the catalog for the 1887 New York auction of the A. T. Stewart collection, as a reproductive etching advertising the painting for sale.
Gerome Ferris had studied with Bouguereau in Paris in 1884 at the Académie Julian, a co-ed art school with no entrance exams and low fees. An academic-style painter, Bouguereau’s work was highly regarded in his day.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1887
original artist
Bouguereau, William-Adolphe
graphic artist
Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
ID Number
GA.14560
catalog number
14560
accession number
94830

Egyptian Street Scene

James David Smillie etched Frederick Arthur Bridgman’s painting of a Middle Eastern street scene Lady of Cairo Visiting for the American Art Review issue of June 1881.
Description
James David Smillie etched Frederick Arthur Bridgman’s painting of a Middle Eastern street scene Lady of Cairo Visiting for the American Art Review issue of June 1881. Commenting on the issue, the New York Times noted that Smillie had been “particularly happy in his drawing” of the donkey, which appears prominently in the print.
A catalogue raisonné of Smillie’s prints has estimated that about 10,000 impressions of this scene were made, primarily for use as art magazine illustrations. To produce such a large number of prints from a copper plate, a soft metal that deteriorates with use, the publishers would have had to face the copper by electroplating. In this process (known as “steel facing”), a thin layer of iron is deposited on the copper plate.
Frederick Arthur Bridgman (1847–1928) trained with Jean-Léon Gérôme in Paris and later was known as “the American Gérôme.” He made a number of trips from his Paris base to North Africa and Egypt to sketch and collect artifacts for his paintings of Egyptian and Algerian subjects.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1881
original artist
Bridgman, Frederick Arthur
graphic artist
Smillie, James David
ID Number
GA.14802
catalog number
14802
accession number
94830

Maine Coast

James David Smillie etched Old Cedars, Coast of Maine, one of his best known prints, for the American Art Review, which published it in October 1880.
Description
James David Smillie etched Old Cedars, Coast of Maine, one of his best known prints, for the American Art Review, which published it in October 1880. The print reproduced his own watercolor, painted while on holiday in the summer of 1879 in Kennebunkport.
For this print, as detailed in his journal, Smillie made a drawing of the watercolor and transferred it to a prepared plate. Originality was not an issue at this time. Artists sometimes etched replicas after their own work in other media. Most highly valued, however, were the etchings conceived and then drawn directly on the plate.
The popularity of Old Cedars is indicated by the attempt of German painter-etcher Hans Friedrich Emanuel Schennis (1852–1918) to pass off his copy in reverse as the original print. However, Schennis’s fraud was exposed and the fake and the original were shown together in a New York exhibition in 1885.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1880
graphic artist
Smillie, James David
ID Number
GA.14869
catalog number
14869
accession number
94830

Dock Scene, Massachusetts

Robert Swain Gifford’s etching Coal Pockets at New Bedford shows a grimy Massachusetts dock scene with a coal storage facility and a chimney belching smoke. Gifford pictured the southeastern Massachusetts coast, where he had lived as a boy, in many of his prints. As Sylvester R.
Description
Robert Swain Gifford’s etching Coal Pockets at New Bedford shows a grimy Massachusetts dock scene with a coal storage facility and a chimney belching smoke. Gifford pictured the southeastern Massachusetts coast, where he had lived as a boy, in many of his prints. As Sylvester R. Koehler noted in the American Art Review, which published the print in 1880, “The artist lifts the commonplace into the ideal, and teaches us to see beauty where our unguided eyes would have failed to discover it.” The print continued to be popular and was republished several times. In later impressions like this one, the date “-79’’ at bottom right has almost disappeared. Probably the publishers did not want the print to seem out of date.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1879
graphic artist
Gifford, Robert Swain
maker
Gifford, Robert Swain
ID Number
GA.14871.02
catalog number
14871.02
accession number
94830

Farm in Winter

Stephen Parrish etched November in February 1880, not long after his first lesson in the art from painter-etcher Peter Moran in November 1879. It was the first print that Parrish sold. Sylvester R.
Description
Stephen Parrish etched November in February 1880, not long after his first lesson in the art from painter-etcher Peter Moran in November 1879. It was the first print that Parrish sold. Sylvester R. Koehler selected the etching for publication in the American Art Review, where it appeared in the November 1880 issue. (It reappeared in several subsequent publications.) Parrish was prepared to take great pains over many months to rework the print to satisfy Kohler. Parrish felt “my bow to the public through the medium of the Review is, to me, a very important matter.”
The print shows a farm in winter in the Adirondack region of upstate New York. The area was extremely popular with American landscape artists who focused on its scenic beauty. Parrish, however, chose a bleak view of a local farm for his subject.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1880
1880-02
graphic artist
Parrish, Stephen
ID Number
GA.14892
catalog number
14892
accession number
94830

Two Women Seated

Sallie Rayen made this poignant etching, showing a tearful young woman and her sympathetic companion, under the supervision of Stephen Ferris in March 1880. She dedicated it: “To Mr.
Description
Sallie Rayen made this poignant etching, showing a tearful young woman and her sympathetic companion, under the supervision of Stephen Ferris in March 1880. She dedicated it: “To Mr. Ferris with compliments of his pupil Sallie Rayen.” Ferris generously helped artists with their etching technique.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1880-03-25
1880
graphic artist
Rayen, Sallie
ID Number
GA.14931
catalog number
14931
accession number
94830

Arab Mourning

Mariano Fortuny captured the intense grief of an Arab mourning a dead friend in this stark 1866 etching Arabe Veillant le Corps de son Ami.Fortuny had witnessed Moroccan life at first hand during several visits, the first in 1859, when he accompanied the troops of Spanish General
Description
Mariano Fortuny captured the intense grief of an Arab mourning a dead friend in this stark 1866 etching Arabe Veillant le Corps de son Ami.
Fortuny had witnessed Moroccan life at first hand during several visits, the first in 1859, when he accompanied the troops of Spanish General Juan Prim. A nineteenth-century critic praised Fortuny’s scratchy (egratigné) and gritty (grignoté) etching technique as very original and of the greatest interest. Another critic commented on the remarkable effect of color in the print. Even in black and white, Fortuny’s much admired sense of color is evident.
This print is one of twenty-eight Fortuny etchings issued by the Parisian publisher Goupil after the artist’s death in Rome at age thirty-six. Stephen Ferris, a great admirer of Fortuny, owned impressions of many of his prints.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1866
original artist
Fortuny y Carbo, Mariano
publisher
Goupil & Cie.
graphic artist
Delatre
ID Number
GA.16763
catalog number
16763
accession number
119780

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