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Aaron Bancroft
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AARON BANCROFT (1755-1839), 1832
Alvan Fisher (1792-1863)
oil on canvas
36 x 28 1/8 (91.4 x 71.4375)
signed, l.r.: 'A. Fisher Pixt. 1832'
Gift of Eliza Bancroft Davis, 1863
Weis #5 Hewes #4
More
information
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The Reverend Aaron Bancroft was minister of the Second Parish
Church
in Worcester for over fifty years. After graduating from Harvard
in 1778,
he went to Nova Scotia to preach, but returned to the United
States in
1783 to serve as the pastor of the First Parish. Opposed to
Calvinism,
he gradually built support among his parishioners for his Arminian
doctrine
and eventually became president of the American Unitarian
Association.
Bancroft, keenly interested in American history, published An
Essay
on the Life of George Washington, Commander in Chief of the
American Army,
through the Revolutionary War; and the First President of the
United States
in 1807. Five years later, he was one of the incorporators of the
American
Antiquarian Society, of which he remained a member for the rest of
his
life. Many of his sermons published during his lifetime are
preserved
in the manuscript collections at the Society.(1) In later years,
Bancroft
was described by Massachusetts Governor Levi Lincoln (1782-1868)
as a
man 'of spare and slight habit but of elastic and firm step, his
manners
and personal address courteous and affable and his general
appearance
and bearing that of the accomplished gentleman of the old school.
The
slightness of his figure was made more apparent by the style of
his dress,
he having continued throughout his life to wear the knee-breeches
and
hose.(2)
Citing his advanced years, Bancroft resigned as vice-president
of the
American Antiquarian Society in 1831, but remained active.(3)
Bancroft
was seventy-seven years old when the Society's librarian,
Christopher
Columbus Baldwin, arranged for this portrait to be painted by
Alvan Fisher.
The artist spent the summer of 1832 in Worcester and struck up a
friendship
with Baldwin. Although primarily regarded as a landscape painter,
Fisher
did occasionally take portrait commissions.(4) In September
Baldwin noted
in his diary: 'I made application to Deacon Butman and Rejoice
Newton
Esq. to get Mr. Fisher to take the portrait of the Rev. Dr.
Bancroft &
raise by subscription money enough to defray the expense of it.
They very
obligingly call [sic] on the venerable Doctor and he readily
consents
and the picture was finished in just one week. And a most accurate
likeness
it is.'(5) The family retained the painting until 1863 when it was
given
to the Society.(6)
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| 1) Aaron Bancroft
Papers, 1789-1839,
American Antiquarian Society Manuscript Collection. This collection
contains
autobiographical material, sermons, and correspondence. Bancroft's
published
writings are part of the American Antiquarian Society's book
collection.
2) Levi Lincoln, quoted in 'Aaron Bancroft: His Portrait
Painted for
the Unitarian Association,' unidentified clipping, May 28, 1886,
American
Antiquarian Society Newsclipping File.
3) His son, the great American historian George Bancroft
(1800-91), followed
in his father's footsteps as a vice-president of the Society.
4) For more on Fisher, see Robert C. Vose, Jr., 'Alvan
Fisher 1792-1863,'
Connecticut Historical Society Bulletin (October
1962): 97-111.
5) Christopher Columbus Baldwin Diary, September 5, 1832,
Christopher
Columbus Baldwin Papers 1817-1835, American Antiquarian Society
Manuscript
Collection.
6) This portrait was copied twice by the painter Edwin T.
Billings (1824-93).
One copy was given to the Unitarian Association in Worcester by
Bancroft's
son George in 1886 (see 'Aaron Bancroft: His Portrait Painted for
the
Unitarian Association'). Billings copied the portrait again in
1891 for
Channing Memorial Hall, Boston, see Proceedings of the American
Antiquarian
Society 7 (October 1891): 354.
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This site and all contents © 2004 American Antiquarian
Society
Last updated December 10, 2004
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