Museum Collections

When this marble bust was given to the Society, family tradition identified the subject as Judge Edmund Pendleton (1721-1803). This seems to be contradicted by the date inscribed on the back which places its execution thirty-six years after Judge Pendleton's death (though it is possible that the bust was made posthumously and based on another likeness). Another identification has been suggested: John B. Pendleton (1798-1866), the lithographer of Boston and Philadelphia. It is also possible that it is of Edmund Pendleton Gaines (1777-1849), a military man, who married his third wife, a New York socialite, in 1839. A third possible sitter for the portrait was Edmund Henry Pendleton (1788-1862), also a great-nephew of Edmund Pendleton. Edmund Henry was a lawyer and a judge in Dutchess County and a member of Congress from 1831-1833.