A Young Woman, Portrait miniature bracelet with woven hair band
Dominicus Ducaju, 1849
Among the treasures in the museum's collection is a group of over seventy portrait miniatures dating to the 18th – 20th centuries by American and European painters. Portrait miniature painting was particularly popular between 1750 and 1850, before the advent of photography; painters endeavored to capture the individual character of the sitter in watercolor on thin disks of ivory. Portrait miniatures in the group take the form of pendants, brooches, small framed pictures, and rings. The cases of many portrait miniatures contain a small glass-covered opening to house a lock of the sitter's hair.
Valentine Blanchard
Charles Cromwell Ingham, 1839