In 1857, the inventor of a coal-burning stove, Jordan Mott, commissioned Christian Schussele to paint a group portrait of eighteen American scientists and inventors who "had altered the course of contemporary civilization." As with Schussele's celebration of American letters, Washington Irving . . . at Sunnyside, the group portrait did not mark an actual occasion but was designed to honor the achievements of American industry. The artist sketched study portraits of each of his subjects before putting them all into his final, formal composition. Men of Progress is a remarkable document of the growth of the American economy by the 1850s as it celebrates the inventions and processes of manufacturing pioneered by men such as Cyrus McCormick, Charles Goodyear, Samuel Colt, Samuel Morse, Elias Howe, and fourteen others.

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Sitter

William Thomas Green Morton, 9 Aug 1819 - 15 Jul 1868

James Bogardus, 14 Mar 1800 - 13 Apr 1874

Samuel Colt, 19 Jul 1814 - 10 Jan 1862

Cyrus Hall McCormick, 15 Feb 1809 - 13 May 1884

Joseph Saxton, 22 Mar 1799 - 26 Oct 1873

Charles Goodyear, 29 Dec 1800 - 1 Jul 1860

Peter Cooper, 12 Feb 1791 - 4 Apr 1883

Jordan Lawrence Mott, 12 Oct 1799 - 1866

Joseph Henry, 17 Dec 1797 - 13 May 1878

Eliphalet Nott, 25 Jun 1773 - 29 Jan 1866

John Ericsson, 31 Jul 1803 - 8 Mar 1889

Frederick Ellsworth Sickels, 20 Sep 1819 - 8 Mar 1895

Samuel Finley Breese Morse, 27 Apr 1791 - 2 Apr 1872

Henry Burden, 22 Apr 1791 - 19 Jan 1871

Richard March Hoe, 19 Jul 1815 - 13 Sep 1884

Erastus Brigham Bigelow, 2 Apr 1814 - 6 Dec 1879

Isaiah Jennings, 1792 - 1862

Thomas Blanchard, 24 Jun 1788 - 16 Apr 1864

Elias Howe, 9 Jul 1819 - 3 Oct 1867