The Greek Family
date: label: date made
content: ca 1850
name: label: distributor
content: Ensign, Thayer and Company
label: lithographer
content: Kellogg, Elijah Chapman
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater world. Romantic scenes picture devoted husbands with their contented, dutiful wives. In these prints, young women educated in reading, music, needlework, the arts, the language of flowers, basic math and science are subjugated to their family’s needs.
label: Description (Brief)
content: These prints became popular as lithography was introduced to 19th Century Americans. As a new art form, it was affordable for the masses and provided a means to share visual information by crossing the barriers of race, class, and language. Sentimental prints encouraged the artistic endeavors of schoolgirls and promoted the ambitions of amateur artists, while serving as both moral instruction and home or business decoration. They are a pictorial record of our romanticized past.
label: Description (Brief)
content: This is a colored print of a family of four dressed in Greek costume of the period. They are seated on a golden sofa in front of a window through which an open, mountainous landscape is visible.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The lithographer, Elijah Chapman Kellogg (1811-1881), was a member of the Connecticut family of lithographers.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Connecticut, Hartford
topic: label: depicted
content: Children
label: Subject
content: Furnishings
label: Subject
content: Costume
label: Subject
content: Marriage
label: depicted
content: Family
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
label: See more items in
content: Art
label: See more items in
content: Peters Prints
label: See more items in
content: Domestic Furnishings
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Peters, Harry T.. America on Stone
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.60.2221
label: catalog number
content: 60.2221
label: accession number
content: 228146
objectType: label: Object Name
content: lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: hand-colored (image production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: image: 12 in x 8 3/4 in; 30.48 cm x 22.225 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 17 in; 43.18 cm