Robert Edwards Carter Stearns

Media - 1928.1.4 - SAAM-1928.1.4_1 - 328
Copied Sarah C. Frothingham, Robert Edwards Carter Stearns, ca. 1840, watercolor on ivory, 3 142 58 in. (8.36.8 cm) rectangle, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Mary Roberta Stearns, 1928.1.4
Free to use

Artwork Details

Title
Robert Edwards Carter Stearns
Date
ca. 1840
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
3 142 58 in. (8.36.8 cm) rectangle
Credit Line
Bequest of Mary Roberta Stearns
Mediums
Mediums Description
watercolor on ivory
Classifications
Keywords
  • Portrait male — Stearns, Robert Edwards Carter — bust
Object Number
1928.1.4

Artwork Description

The son of Charles and Sarah Carter Stearns, Robert E. C. Stearns (1827-1909) was also the artist’s cousin. Shown here at about age ten, Stearns would grow up to become a leading naturalist and curator at the Smithsonian Institution. He was a widely published author on topics as varied as mollusks, cetaceans, ethnology, agriculture, forestry, and the land snails found in the John Day fossil beds in Oregon. He was appointed curator of mollusks at the Smithsonian by Secretary Spencer Baird, and in 1884 served as John Wesley Powell’s paleontologist for the U.S. Geological Survey.