National Council on Public History

Colonial Virginia Portraits is an interactive database of oil portraits with a documented history in Virginia or featuring colonial Virginia subjects painted before ca. 1776. This includes portraits painted in both the colonies and abroad. While most subjects are colonists, there are also records of portraits of family, friends, and officials from England or elsewhere that hung in Virginia homes. It also includes portraits of colonial Virginians that were sent or left abroad. The database does not include miniature portraits, prints, or public commissions of public figures, such as the portraits of the monarchs that hung in government buildings. Instead, the emphasis of this project is on domestic portraiture.