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Notes

1.  The Catalog.  A number of writers and researchers have contributed to the study and understanding of George Washington prints, but the two key works in the field are Charles Henry Hart's 1904 volume Catalogue of the Engraved Portraits of Washington ("Hart") and Wendy C. Wick's 1982 study George Washington, an American Icon:  The Eighteenth Century Graphic Portraits ("Wick"). Despite their many virtues, each suffers certain limitations in scope which this Boglewood Catalog seeks to address.  Hart undertakes to catalog all George Washington portrait engravings worldwide up to the approximate date of its publication in 1904, but offers only 21 illustrations, relying upon verbal descriptions for the hundreds of other images; Wick, on the other hand, is abundantly illustrated but restricted to prints published in the present-day United States through 1800.

Imagining George Washington:  The Boglewood Catalog addresses substantially the same time period as Wick, but expands its scope worldwide.  At the same time, it supplies illustrations for most of the prints.  Others images will be added as they become available.

The online format of the Boglewood Catalog introduces the world of George Washington engravings to a broader popular audience and facilitates rapid updating as new information becomes available.

2.  Boglewood Numbers.  Boglewood Catalog Numbers are assigned in groups reflecting the respective source likenesses from which the prints derive.  Gaps have been left between the number groups in order to accommodate the addition of prints which may be discovered later.

3.  Dimensions and text transcriptions. The dimensions and text transcriptions for the engravings are generally derived from Hart.  Hart records dimensions in inches and sixteenths, which have been recalculated here in centimeters.  (Dimensions in Wick are not comparable, because they generally exclude any inscription outside the border of the design; Hart, by contrast, measures the entire print, and sometimes offers additional interior dimensions as well.) 

Dimensions should be regarded as approximate, because size may vary among versions and the size of any individual print can be materially affected by paper shrinkage.

4.  States; Versions.  The plate used for producing engraved prints is seldom static.  Prints called "proofs" may be made at stages during the process of creating the image on the engraving plate, in order to review progress. 

Even after the plate has been completed and used to print production quantities, the plate may be reworked for any of a variety of commercial or aesthetic reasons and used to produce one or more variations, often called "states," of the original engraving.  This catalog uses "versions" as a collective term for all proofs and states produced from the same plate.

Concordance: 
Boglewood, Hart and Wick Catalog Numbers Cross-referenced

Links

George Washington's Mount Vernon

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