A TOUR OF THE PORTRAIT COLLECTION IN THE RICHARD W. WOOLWORTH LIBRARY (PART III)

West Wall Portraits

This wall, populated primarily by portraits by Phineas Stanton/Staunton (1816-1867). The Society owns eleven portraits by this artist; the only other institution with a significant collection is the Leroy Historical Society, in Stanton's home town of Leroy, New York. Phineas Stanton was born in western New York State, and took an early interest in portraiture. He took courses at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts 1838-1839, and in 1840 he established himself in Buffalo as a portrait painter. In the years following he travelled to New Orleans, Savannah and Charleston, where he painted portraits, and to Stonington, where he still had family connections. The Stonington portraits were painted between 1846 and 1854. In 1861 he took part in the Civil War in a regiment from LeRoy, and was wounded in 1862 at the Battle of Fair Oaks. By 1864, he was renting a studio and painting portraits in New York City. In 1867, he joined an expedition to South America, organized by Williams College and the Smithsonian Institute, as recording artist. He was stricken with yellow fever and died at Quito on 5 September 1867 and was buried there.