The Prodigal Son in Misery by D.W. Kellogg and Company
date: label: Date made
content: ca 1838
name: label: maker
content: D.W. Kellogg and Company
notes: label: Description
content: This hand colored print depicts a man dressed in ragged clothes seated in a farmyard tending four pigs that are eating. As the subtitle explains, “He would have filled his belly with the Husks that the swine did not eat.”
label: Description
content: The parable of the Prodigal Son or the Lost Son is among the best-known Christian morality tales and is found in Luke 15:11-32. The youngest of the two sons demands his share of his father’s estate which the father gives him. Shortly after, he runs off and squanders the wealth “in wild living.” Finding himself destitute, he returns to his father, repents his ways, and begs to be allowed to serve as a hired servant. The father rejoices at the return of his son “who was lost and is found.” Meanwhile, the obedient, older son is angry and refuses to join the celebration. His father pleads with him to forgive and to understand his joy.
label: Description
content: This print was originally produced as an engraving by Amos Doolittle and later printed by the lithographic firm of D. W. Kellogg and Company. Amos Doolittle (1754-1832) was an American engraver who was trained as a jeweler and silversmith. He lived in Connecticut and was especially well known for his four engravings of the battles of Lexington and Concord. He also engraved Biblical scenes, bookplates and portraits.
label: Description
content: Daniel Wright Kellogg (1807-1874) founded D. W. Kellogg and Company in Hartford, Connecticut in 1830. Even before its first retail store opened in 1834, the 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 was responsible for 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: Description
content: A nearly identical print (60.2946) was made by the Kellogg family about a decade later. Print (60.2940 depicts the same theme with a different image by a different publisher
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Connecticut, Hartford
topic: label: Subject
content: Costume
label: Subject
content: Eating
label: Subject
content: Livestock
label: Subject
content: Architecture, Domestic Buildings
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
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content: Art
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content: Peters Prints
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content: Domestic Furnishings
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content: Morality & Religious Prints
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.60.2923
label: catalog number
content: 60.2923
label: accession number
content: 228146
objectType: label: Object Name
content: lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: image: 12 1/2 in x 9 1/2 in; 31.75 cm x 24.13 cm