Artifact of the Week: Pencil Drawing (969.199)

Clue: Before cameras, my counterpart and I were the only way to record an individual’s appearance.

Answer: Pencil Drawing

Last week’s artifact was an 1827 brass pendant with a pencil drawn portrait of Charles William McCormick. Charles and his younger brother, Samuel Jarvis McCormick, were members of the 1860-1861 expedition to the open Polar Sea. Led by Dr. Isaac Israel Hayes, the expedition was meant to explore the north coasts of Greenland, Grinnell Land and, if possible, to reach the North Pole. Charles served as seaman and his brother served as the sailing master. The McCormick family were early settlers of Niagara-on-the-Lake.