| Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Joseph Wright |
| Year | 1790 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 47 1/16 x 37 in (119.54 x 94 cm) |
| Location | National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. |
| Accession | NPG.74.1 |
Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg is a portrait of 1790 by Joseph Wright, now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. [1] It depicts Muhlenberg in his position as the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Frederick Muhlenberg (1750, Trappe, Pennsylvania – 1801, Lancaster, Pennsylvania) was a Pennsylvania minister and politician. He was educated in Germany, and graduated from the University of Halle (Universität Halle). [2] He was ordained a Lutheran minister in Pennsylvania in 1770, and served as pastor for churches in southeastern Pennsylvania and New York City. [2]
He served as a representative from Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress in 1779 and 1780, [2] and as Speaker of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly from 1780 to 1783. [2] He was elected Chairman of the Pennsylvania State Constitutional Convention, which ratified the U.S. Constitution on December 11, 1787. [2] Eleven of the thirteen states had ratified the document by summer 1788—more than a three-quarters majority—and Congress Under the Articles of Confederation certified the U.S. Constitution on September 3, 1788. Pennsylvania held a U.S. Congressional election on November 26, 1788, and Muhlenberg was elected to the Pennsylvania delegation. The newly-created First U.S. Congress convened in New York City on March 4, 1789. [2] On April 1, 1789, its members elected Muhlenberg the first Speaker of the House, a position he held until the Second U.S. Congress was sworn in on March 4, 1791. [2]
Muhlenberg served four consecutive terms in Congress, and also was elected the third Speaker of the House, a position he held from December 2, 1793 to March 4, 1795. [2] He chose not to run for a fifth term, and retired from Congress on March 4, 1797. [2]
Joseph Wright (1756, Bordentown, New Jersey – 1793, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was a portrait painter who worked in Philadelphia and New York City. He studied under Benjamin West and John Hoppner in London, [3] and was the first American to graduate from the Royal Academy of Arts. [4] He painted several life portraits of Benjamin Franklin in Paris, and returned to America in 1782 with a glowing recommendation from Franklin. [3] He painted five life portraits of General George Washington in uniform, [5] was commissioned by Congress to model a bust of Washington, [6] and designed early U.S. coinage. [4]
Muhlenberg commissioned Wright to paint his portrait. It depicts him seated in the Speaker's chair at Federal Hall in New York City, holding a quill pen and in the process of signing House Bill 65, "An Act to regulate Trade and Intercourse with the Indian Tribes," which Muhlenberg signed on July 20, 1790. [1] Wright is presumed to have painted the portrait in New York City, either toward the end of the First Congress's Second Session (January 4, 1790 – August 12, 1790) or in the recess between the Second and Third Sessions. [7] The Speaker's portrait is the only known life image of Frederick Muhlenberg, and the only known image of the interior of Federal Hall. [7]
The Speaker's portrait descended through the Muhlenberg family, and was owned by "the family of Mrs. George Brooke, of Birdsboro, Pa." in 1910. [8] It was passed down to her elder son, Edward Brooke II, in 1912; then passed down to his eldest son, George Brooke III, in 1940. [9] : 224, 230 George Brooke III married a cousin, who was also a descendant of Frederick Muhlenberg. [10] Virginia Muhlenberg Brooke (his widow) lent the Speaker's portrait to the National Portrait Gallery in 1968, for its inaugural exhibition in the Old Patent Office Building. [11] The National Portrait Gallery purchased it from her in 1974. [1]
Pennsylvania commissioned Samuel Bell Waugh to paint a copy of Wright's Frederick Muhlenberg portrait for the U.S. Capitol. [12] The artist changed the color of the Speaker's chair upholstery, changed the portrait's background, and gave Muhlenberg a ruddy complexion. Waugh's copy was donated to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1881. [12] It hangs in the Speaker's Lobby, just outside the Speaker's Office. [13]
The Speaker's House Museum in Trappe, Pennsylvania owns a circa-1838 copy of Wright's Frederick Muhlenberg portrait. [14] Unsigned, but attributed to artist Jacob Eichholtz, it was donated to the museum by a Muhlenberg descendant in 2007. [15]
Muhlenberg also commissioned Wright to paint a pendant portrait of his wife, Catharine Schaeffer Muhlenberg. [10] This followed the same line of descent as the Speaker's portrait, owned by the family of Mrs. George Brooke in 1910. [8] "Brookewood," the George Brooke mansion in Birdsboro, burned on Christmas Day, 1917. [9] : 225 The pendant portrait had remained unpublished since 1910, and scholar Monroe H. Fabian presumed (in 1970) that it had been lost in the 1917 fire. [7]
The rediscovery of the Catharine Muhlenberg portrait was announced in 2018. [10] It had survived the 1917 fire, and been passed down to George Brooke III's first cousin, Elizabeth Muhlenberg Brooke Blake, of Dallas, Texas. Blake died at age 100 in 2016, and the portrait was subsequently found in the attic of her Newport, Rhode Island house. [10] Blake's sons have placed the pendant portrait on long-term loan to The Speaker's House Museum in Trappe, the family home of Frederick and Catharine Muhlenberg and their seven children at the time the portraits were painted. [10]
Trappe is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 3,509 at the 2010 census. Augustus Lutheran Church, built in 1743, is the oldest unchanged Lutheran church building in the United States in continuous use by the same congregation. It has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg was an American minister and politician who was the first Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and the first Dean of the United States House of Representatives. A member of the Federalist Party, he was delegate to the Pennsylvania state constitutional convention and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and a Lutheran pastor by profession, Muhlenberg was born in Trappe, Pennsylvania. His home, known as The Speaker's House, is now a museum and is currently undergoing restoration to restore its appearance during Muhlenberg's occupancy.
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, was a German-born Lutheran clergyman and missionary. Born in Einbeck, Muhlenberg immigrated to the Province of Pennsylvania in response to demands from Lutherans for missionary work in the colony. Muhlenberg was integral to the founding of the first Lutheran church body or denomination in North America, and is considered the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in the United States.
John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg was an American clergyman and military officer who served during the American Revolutionary War. A member of Pennsylvania's prominent Muhlenberg family political dynasty, he became a respected figure in the newly independent United States as a Lutheran minister and member of the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate.
Francis Rawn Shunk was the tenth governor of Pennsylvania from 1845 to 1848.
The Muhlenberg family created a United States political, religious, and military dynasty that was primarily based in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but which had also expanded into the State of Ohio by the early nineteenth century.
Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg II was a leading architect, an American military and political leader who served as a US Congressman from Pennsylvania, and a member of the Muhlenberg political dynasty.
Francis Swaine Muhlenberg was a political leader, member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio, and a member of the Muhlenberg Family political dynasty.
Henry Augustus Muhlenberg was an American politician and Congressman (Democratic) representing the state of Pennsylvania.
Henry Augustus Philip Muhlenberg was an American political leader and diplomat. He was a member of the Muhlenberg family political dynasty.
The 1790–91 United States House of Representatives elections were held on various dates in various states between April 27, 1790, and October 11, 1791. Each state set its own date for its elections to the House of Representatives before or after the first session of the 2nd United States Congress convened on October 24, 1791. This was the first midterm election cycle, which took place in the middle of President George Washington's first term. The size of the House increased to 67 seats after the new state of Vermont elected its first representatives.
The 1788–89 United States House of Representatives elections were the first U.S. House of Representatives elections following the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. Each state set its own date for its congressional elections, ranging from November 24, 1788, to March 5, 1789, before or after the first session of the 1st United States Congress convened on March 4, 1789. They coincided with the election of George Washington as the first president of the United States.
Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg was an American clergyman and botanist.
The Speaker's House is a museum located in Trappe, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania that preserves the home of Frederick Muhlenberg, the First and Third Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. The house was built in 1763, bought by Muhlenberg in 1781, and occupied by his family until 1791.
Johann Conrad Weiser Sr. (1662–1746) was a German soldier, baker, and farmer who fled his homeland with thousands of other Germans from the Palatinate region due to constant invasions by French armies and destruction of crops. As a result, Weiser, along with his countrymen, became known as the German Palatines. Ultimately, they settled in the Colony of New York where Weiser became a leader in the Palatine community and was founder of their settlement of Weiser's Dorf, now known as Middleburgh, New York. When the Germans were in dispute with their English landlords and the colonial government of New York, he was among the representatives chosen to go to London and seek help from the British government. This contributed to the downfall of the governorship of New York's colonial governor, Robert Hunter.
St. Michael's Episcopal Church, Parish House and Rectory is a group of architecturally-significant religious buildings located at 200-216 North Mill Street in Birdsboro, Berks County, Pennsylvania. It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Frederick Muhlenberg (1750–1801) was the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Lucile Stewart Carter Brooke was an American socialite and the wife of William Ernest Carter, an extremely wealthy American who inherited a fortune from his father. The couple and their two children survived the RMS Titanic disaster after the ship struck an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912. She was said to be one of the heroines of the tragedy as she, with some of the other socially elite women, assisted in the rowing of one of the Titanic's lifeboats.
Joseph Wright was an American portrait painter and sculptor. He painted life portraits of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, and was a designer of early U.S. coinage. Wright was President Washington's original choice for Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint, but died at age 37, before being confirmed to that position.
The Edward Brooke II Mansion (1887–88), also known as "Brookeholm," is a Queen Anne country house at 301 Washington Street in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania. Designed by architect Frank Furness and completed in 1888, it was Edward Brooke II's wedding present to his bride, Anne Louise Clingan.
