Portrait artist Thomas Sully (1783-1872) reflected the manners and demeanor of great people of his day. A naturalized American citizen, he preserved for posterity the nation's politicians, military heroes, inventors, actors, and aristocrats as well as European nobles and the queen of England. In the decades preceding the invention of photography, his prolific output of portraits and historic scenes became a storehouse of details from the past.

Born in Horncastle in Lincolnshire, England, on June 8 (some sources say June 19), 1783, to actors Sarah Chester and Matthew Sully, Thomas Sully emigrated to America with his parents and eight siblings at age nine and lived in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1795, his father arranged for his training for a career in business at an insurance office. The broker urged Sully's father to allow the boy to pursue art, his first love. He received coaching from school friend Charles Fraser, who became Charleston's...