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“For a Noble Man, a Prince”: Images and Identity in Colonial America

Phyllis Hunter, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Paul Staiti, Mount Holyoke College


Parlors Across Classes

Let’s reconsider some of the ideas about the parlor in Step One and in the Visual Culture essay. While many colonial residents would have had a parlor or best room in their home, economic and geographic factors would have shaped the room’s appearance and items. British Americans displayed portraits and chairs along with other prized possessions in their best room where visitors might see them—whether that room was the ballroom of the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg, Virginia, or the new parlor of a middling merchant’s house. But these rooms were not like museums today: colonial Americans did not view their contents as separate, unrelated displays.

First: Take a look at the three Georges—the portraits of King George III. Take notes about what you observe in the three different portraits, considering the following questions: How do these three portraits differ? Start with the relative size of each portrait. What do you notice about the sitters’ pose, clothing, and other aspects of their presentation? What do you know about how the portraits were made? And how they were displayed? How would that matter to the viewers of these portraits? Finally, how do the portraits’ different methods of production and the ways they were viewed help us understand how the colonists viewed King George III?

Figure 5: King George III (in coronation robes), 1761-62 Allan Ramsay, Scottish, 1713-1784, oil on canvas Source: National Portrait Gallery (London)
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Figure 5: King George III (in coronation robes), 1761-62 Allan Ramsay, Scottish, 1713-1784, oil on canvas Source: National Portrait Gallery (London)
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Figure 6: King George III William Pether, published by Henry Parker, and John Boydell, after Thomas Frye mezzotint, published 1 October 1762 Source: National Portrait Gallery (London)
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Figure 6: King George III William Pether, published by Henry Parker, and John Boydell, after Thomas Frye mezzotint, published 1 October 1762 Source: National Portrait Gallery (London)
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Figure 7: King George III Woodcut, 1774, Bickerstaff's Boston Almanack Source: Library of Congress
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Figure 7: King George III Woodcut, 1774, Bickerstaff's Boston Almanack Source: Library of Congress
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Second: Consider the three chairs. Chairs were important items in houses, and not just as furniture to sit on. Depending on their design, they also could be a prominent feature of a room. Take notes about what you observe about these three chairs. How do they appear different to you? What are the differences in labor and skill involved in their manufacture? Pick out some parts of the chair that seem noteworthy. What other differences do you notice among the three side chairs?

Figure 8: Side Chair, ca. 1770 Attributed to Thomas Affleck (British, active in America, 1740-1795) American; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mahogany, northern white cedar Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Figure 8: Side Chair, ca. 1770 Attributed to Thomas Affleck (British, active in America, 1740-1795) American; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mahogany, northern white cedar Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Figure 9: Armchair Probably made by Eliphalet Chapin (1741-1807) East Windsor Hill, CT, Mahogany and pine, 1780-1790 Source: Wadsworth Atheneum
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Figure 9: Armchair Probably made by Eliphalet Chapin (1741-1807) East Windsor Hill, CT, Mahogany and pine, 1780-1790 Source: Wadsworth Atheneum
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Figure 10: Side Chair (one of a pair) Anonymous, about 1750-1850 probably South Jersey, Delaware Valley, United State Maple Source: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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Figure 10: Side Chair (one of a pair) Anonymous, about 1750-1850 probably South Jersey, Delaware Valley, United State Maple Source: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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Third: Let’s put together some of these eighteenth-century objects to get a better picture of how people of different social classes lived and how they used their objects to make larger statements about social identity.

Choose one of the three social levels of colonial consumers—prosperous, middling, or modest—and put the portraits and chairs together to imagine a family’s parlor. Write 2-3 paragraphs considering the following: What did the parlor look like? What goods and images did your imagined family display in their home? How did your family use these consumer goods to make a statement about their identity? What sort of statement do you think they were making?