The Likeness of
George Washington

Amos Doolittle (1754-1832)
A Display of the United States of America
Engraving on paper (sixth or seventh state), 1794
Prints and Photographs Division
Gift/Purchase Marian S. Carson, 1996 (226.1)

Amos Doolittle, an enterprising printer and engraver in New Haven, Connecticut, exploited the commercial potential of George Washington's likeness following the 1788 election campaign -- the country's first -- to create one of the earliest American presidential political prints. This unusually large and ambitious print by a native-born, apparently self-taught engraver represents a significant achievement in American popular printmaking and marked George Washington's passage from military command to civilian rule. The engraving proved commercially successful and Doolittle later created similar engravings portraying John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.