Historical American Portraits
One of the permanent artist collections at the Karpeles Manuscript Library is a series of ten paintings of "Historical Americans" by artist Dona McPhillips. All are oil on canvas painted during the bicentennial. The artist read and researched more than 300 books from12 libraries in four states while making the selection of the characters portrayed. Most are composites with ideas gleaned from many old photographs.
Each group study includes a panoramic scene below the portraits, dynamically linking the characters to a period or to a theme representative of their involvement in our history.
Dona McPhillips has a degree in Commercial Art from Woodbury University in Los Angeles and served as an illustrator apprentice with an educational TV station in LA. She attended night classes at the California Art Center College of Design. McPhillips returned from a year with Vista in Pennsylvania to California for a year with the Department of Social Services, then moved back to Washington State where for the past 18 years she has worked for the Department of Social and Health Services.
Civil War Confederates
Lt. General John B. Hood
Major General Nathan B. Forrest
Brig. General Jeb Stuart
President Jefferson Davis
General Robert E. Lee
Lt. General (Stonewall) Jackson
Col. John S. Mosby
Civil War Union
Major General Philip H. Sheridan
Major General George H. Thomas
Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant
President Adraham Lincoln
Major General William T. Sherman
Brig. General William J. Palmer
Major General William S. Rosecrans
The Founding Fathers
Samuel Adams
James Madison
Ben Franklin
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Patrick Henry
John Adams
Pathfinders
James Beckwourth
Joseph Meek
William Clark
Joseph R. Walker
Meriwether Lewis
James Brindger
Jedediah S. Smith
Pioneers
Ezra Meeker
Reverend Jason Lee
Narcissa Prentiss Whitman
Dr. Marcus Whitman
Father Jean Pierre DeSmet
Dr. Elijah White
Brigham Young
Texas
William B. Travis
James Bowie
Stephan F. Austin
Samuel Houston
Mirabeau B. Lamar
Anson Jones
Davey Crockett
Indian Heroes
Sitting Bull (Sioux)
Captain Jack (Modoc)
Two Moon (Cheyenne)
Red Cloud (Sioux)
Geronimo (Apache)
Quanah Parker (Commanche)
Crazy Horse (Sioux)
More Indian Heroes
Young Man Afraid of His Horses (Sioux)
Spotted Tail (Brule Sioux)
Chief Joseph (Nez Perce)
Dull Knife (Cheyenne)
Santana (Kiowa)
Women
Jane Adams
Susan B. Anthony
Mary McLeod Bethune
Eleanor Roosevelt
Frances Perkins
Margaret Sanger
Mary Harris Jones
Blacks
Malcolm X
Ralph Bunche
W.E.B. DuBois
Frederick Douglas
Martin Luther King Jr.
Booker T. Washington
George Washington Carver