A Book of Illustrations of the Roman Murals at Herculaneum (42 illustrations)
Noah Haynes Swayne, American, 1804 - 1884
1872
Gouche on paper
Overall: 13 9/16 × 9 5/8 in. (34.5 × 24.5 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Nancy Helen Marie Leeds Wynkoop
PR.979.76
Geography
Place Made: Italy, Europe
Period
19th century
Object Name
Research Area
On view
Label
After they had been buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum were rediscovered in the mid-18th century, promptly capturing the imagination of European and American audiences. Amateur and professional scholars, as well as tourists, flocked to the sites to witness excavations in progress. A note on the inside cover of this volume marks it as Noah Haynes Swayne’s personal effects from a trip to Naples in the summer of 1872. Swayne, a Supreme Court justice, likely painted the forty-two illustrations inside the book while on his travels, capturing vivid murals and mosaics that had been buried at Herculaneum until 1748.
From the 2025 exhibition, From Mastodon to Mosaic: Building an Academic Art Collection in America, curated by Ashley B. Offill, Curator of Collections
Course History
History 10.02, Archival Research, Julia Rabig, Summer 2025
Writing 5.20, Foundations of Dartmouth: Samson Occom, Edward Mitchell, and the History and Cultures of Native American, African American, and "Minority" Students at Dartmouth College, Doug Moody 1, Fall 2025
Exhibition History
Architecture and Memory in Europe, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 15, 2022-February 11, 2024.
From Mastadon to Mosaic: Building an Academic Art Collection in America, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 14, 2025 - Fall 2026
Provenance
Nancy Helen Marie Leeds Wynkoop (1925-2006), Woodstock, Vermont; given to present collection, 1979.
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