Warren C. Crane collection of engravings, mezzotints, and drawings by Peltro W. Tomkins and W. S. Leney
Summary
22 engraved and mezzotint portraits by Tomkins after various artists, produced in London, 1790-1839. Also contains 345 prints, 15 original drawings, 2 copper plates by Leney, executed in London and New York from the 1790s to the 1820s. With miscellaneous correspondence and photographs concerning Leney and the Crane collection.
Dates
- Creation: 1790-1839
Language of Materials
English
Restrictions on Access
Collection is open for research.
Extent
1 linear foot (2 boxes)Biographical / Historical
Warren Cady Crane (1882-1934) was a prominent merchant in New York City and collector of historical autographs, prints, and artifacts; president of Ye Olde Settlers Association of Ye West Side in New York.
Tomkins was a British printmaker and draughtsman who learned to engrave with Francis Bartolozzi. Tomkins gave drawing lessons to the daughters of George III, and in 1793 he was appointed historical engraver to Queen Charlotte. He joined his brother J.F. Tomkins to produce an illustrated edition of James Thomson's Seasons (1797) with stippled engravings. Leney apprenticed with Tomkins, after which he executed five plates for John Boydell's great edition of Shakespeare. He and his wife moved to New York about 1806, where he engraved some small portraits of George Washington, John Adams, and other notable Americans.
Arrangement
Collection is unprocessed.
Ownership and Custodial History
Gift of William Inglis Morse, 1944.
Processing Information
Minimal description derived from existing records and converted to online finding aid, Betts Coup, 2020.
- Title
- Crane, Warren Cady, -1934, collector. Warren C. Crane collection of engravings, mezzotints, and drawings by Peltro W. Tomkins and W. S. Leney, 1790-1839 (MS Can 52): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University.
- Date
- November 16, 2018
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou04192
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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