Vicki Denby

Technical Services

John Foster (1648-1681)
Portrait of Richard Mather
Boston, Mass., ca. 1675

This is the first woodcut made in New England, and probably the earliest of the five impressions of the portrait that survive. The image was reproduced in a college textbook I used for a course on print history, taught by Charles D. Cutler at the University of Iowa in 1981. From its citation credit line, “By permission of the Houghton Library,” I first became aware of a great work of art and a great institution.

AC6.Ad198.Zz683t no. 5, Gift of Alfred Mitchell, 1908