Hudson Portraits

Date created:

June 1829

Artist:

James Henry Beard, American, 1812-1893

Physical Dimensions: 

58″ x 63″ (David Hudson); 58″ x 51″ (Mary Robinson)

Object number: 

P.11.01.983 (DH); P.11.01.984 (MR)

Building location: 

First floor of the Hudson Library, Flood Family meeting room

In 1799, David Hudson, Sr. (1761-1836) set out from his home in Goshen, Connecticut, to survey land he had acquired in the Western Reserve known as “range 10, town 4”, which was later named Hudson in his honor. Hudson was married twice and had nine children. Mary “Polly” Robinson Hudson, his second wife, was born in Granville, Massachusetts, in 1771 and died in Hudson in 1847. David Hudson helped to establish much of the town’s early religious, educational and governmental infrastructure. He organized the first Congregational Church in 1802 and helped establish Western Reserve College in 1826.

Itinerant artist James Henry Beard (1812-1893) painted these portraits; the Hudson portraits were a few of Beard’s earliest works. Beard later went on to paint portraits of prominent individuals including Presidents John Quincy Adams and Zachary Taylor as well as eminent American statesman Henry Clay.