A Portrait of George Washington

# Catalog Note

This 1851 Boston publication by Charles Fox presents an engraved portrait of George Washington derived from an original drawing by artist Nathaniel Fullerton, executed in 1776 as Washington reviewed the Continental Army on Boston Common. The volume comprises biographical narrative and documentary evidence rather than serialized fiction. Fox provides an account of Fullerton's life—a young Boston-born portraitist of patriotic sympathies who pursued portrait painting before illness forced him to abandon the profession. The bulk of the work consists of formal testimonials from aging Boston citizens who had witnessed Washington in life, including Hon. Harrison Otis, Jeremiah Boies, and others, verifying the portrait's accuracy. These witnesses emphasize Washington's dignified bearing, serious countenance, and piercing eye, claiming the Fullerton likeness captures these qualities faithfully. The volume thus functions as provenance documentation and historical attestation rather than recreational literature.