This black and white print contains twenty-nine small oval portraits of leaders of American Methodists and five vignettes. The vignettes are of John Wesley rescued from a burning building; Wesley preaching on the tombstone of his father; Old John Street Church, New York; Tremont Street Methodist Church, Boston; and Pioneer Preacher (the central vignette).
John Wesley (1703-1791) was the founding founder of the Methodist faith. One of England's greatest spiritual leaders, he played a major role in the revival of religion in 18th Century English and Scottish life. He graduated from Christ Church College, Oxford University, in 1720 and later became a fellow. While at Oxford, he became active in a religious club nicknamed the “methodists” by its critics because of their methodical study and devotion. Finding the Anglican bishops unsympathetic and unwilling to open their churches to him, Wesley began an itinerant ministry that lasted more than 50 years. Methodism had a significant impact on society. It brought religion to masses of people who, through the shifts of population brought about by the industrial revolution, were not being reached by the Anglican Church.
John Wesley, along with his brother Charles, first brought an evangelical brand of Anglicanism to colonial Georgia from 1735 to 1737. Years later, in February 1784, he chartered the first Methodist Church in the United States. Despite the fact that he was an Anglican, Wesley saw the need to provide church structure for his followers after the Anglican Church abandoned its American believers during the American Revolution. The Methodist church expanded rapidly across the American continent. The traditions of open-air services and circuit-riding preachers fit perfectly with the American frontier. By 1830, Methodists formed the largest denomination in the U.S.
This print was produced by the artist L. Hollis and lithographer John Chester Buttre. John Chester Buttre (1821-1893) was an American steel-plate engraver, lithographer and publisher. He was first studied drawing in his hometown of Auburn, New York, and moved to New York City in 1841. He produced thousands of engraved portraits of American political and military figures, which he published in a three-volume work entitled The American Portrait Gallery.
Nothing is known about artist L. Hollis.
Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.
If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.