The Love Letter
date: label: date made
content: 1833-1842
name: label: maker
content: D.W. Kellogg and Company
notes: label: Description
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
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
content: This colored print is of a young girl standing at the foot of stairs in a garden holding a letter. She is leaning against a masonry post which supports a large urn and is wearing a dress of two layers with a sash.
label: Description
content: This print was produced by the lithographic firm of D.W. Kellogg & Co. Daniel Wright Kellogg (1807-1874) founded the company in 1830 Hartford, Connecticut. Before the opening of its first retail store in 1834, D.W. Kellogg & Co. lithography firm was well established and popular in United States, particularly in the South and the Southwest. As the founding member of the family company, Daniel Wright Kellogg established the initial growth and popularity of the firm. After he left the company it continued to flourish for decades under his younger brothers and other family members.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Connecticut, Hartford
topic: label: Subject
content: Courtship, love
label: Subject
content: Communication, letter writing
label: Subject
content: Flowers
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
label: See more items in
content: Clothing & Accessories
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.60.2314
label: catalog number
content: 60.2314
label: accession number
content: 228146
objectType: label: Object Name
content: lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: hand-colored (overall production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: image: 9 1/4 in x 7 in; 23.495 cm x 17.78 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 13 in x 11 in; 33.02 cm x 27.94 cm