Portrait of Samuel Pierpont Langley

Object number86.1.64

Artist William Robert Shulgold (1897 - 1989)

Date1926

MediumOil on canvas; Wood

Credit LineGift of William H. Stevenson

DescriptionFramed oil painting. Portrait of an older man with gray hair and a beard. He is dressed in a grey suit and whote shirt and is standing by a table and holding a red book. He is facing proper left, looking at the viewer. Light blue-gray background.Dimensions53.9999 x 41.9999 in. (137.2 x 106.7 cm)
SignedLower right corner: W. R. Shulgold 1926
MarksGold plaque on bottom: "Samuel P. Langley 1834-1906 / R. Shulgold 1928"; Back top ce
Historical NotesThe painting was donated to the Historcial Society of Western Pennsylvania by William H. Stevenson in 1927.Label TextAs a boy in Massachusetts, Samuel Langley asked questions about the sky. “Some of these childish questions occupied many years of my adult life,” he later recalled. Trained as an architect, Langley’s interest in astronomy led him to Pittsburgh in 1867. He became the Allegheny Observatory’s first director and professor of astronomy and physics for the Western University of Pennsylvania, now University of Pittsburgh.

Related person Samuel Pierpont Langley

Related institution Allegheny Observatory

Related institution Smithsonian Institution

Related institution University of Pittsburgh

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