Trumbull
Trumbull names 6 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Trumbull JOHN, an American artist
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JOHN, an American artist; born in Lebanon, Conn., June 6, 1756; grandson of of the first Jonathan Trumbull; was graduated at Harvard College in 1773; studied painting in Boston; served in the Revolutionary War on the staffs of Generals Washington and Gates; and in 1780 went to England to become a pupil of Benjamin West, but was arrested on a charge of treason and forced to leave the country. On the conclusion of peace he returned to England and resumed his studies under West. In 1786 he produced his first historical picture, the "Battle of Bunker Hill"; which was soon followed by the "Death of Montgomery Before Quebec" and the well known "Sortie of the Garrison from Gibraltar." After serving for several years as a secretary to John Jay, the American minister to England, and as a commissioner to execute the seventh article of Jay's treaty, he returned to his profession. In 1817 he was employed by Congress to paint four pictures for the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington. For these works, which represented "The Declaration of Independence," the "Surrender of Burgoyne," the "Surrender of Cornwallis," and the "Resignation of Washington Washington at Annapolis," he received $32,000. Subsequently he was for many years engaged in finishing former sketches and painting copies of the National pictures, many of which, together with portraits and several copies of old masters, 54 pictures in all, he gave to Yale College in consideration of an annuity of $1,000. He died in New York City, Nov. 10, 1843.
Trumbull JOHN, an American poet and lawyer
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JOHN, an American poet and lawyer; born in Waterbury, Conn., April 24, 1750. He wrote, with Timothy Dwight, a series of essays in the "Spectator" style, which first drew attention to his ability. In "The Progress of Dullness" (1772-1773) he satirized contemporary methods of education; but he won his greatest fame with "Mc- Fingal" (1775-1782), a satire on the loyalists of the Revolution time, written in Hudibrastic verse. Thirty pirated editions are said to have been sold; and some of its lines are still "familiar quotations" popularly credited to "Hudibras." Later he was associated with Joel Barlow and others in the production of "The Anarchiad" (1786-1787). His "Poetical Works" were published at Hartford, Conn., in 1820. He died in Detroit, Mich., May 10, 1831.
Trumbull HENRY CLAY, an American editor
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
HENRY CLAY, an American editor; born in Stonington, Conn., June 8, 1831. He was army chaplain, 1862-1865; afterward secretary of the American Sunday-School Union, 1865- 1872; and after 1875 editor of the "Sunday-School Times." He published many books, including "Army Sermons" (1864); "The Knightly Soldier" (1865); "A Useful Life," etc. (1866); "The Captured Scout" (1869); "Children in the Temple" (1869); "A Model Superintendent" (1880); "Kadesh-Barnea" (1884); "Teaching and Teachers” (1884); "The Blood Covenant" (1885); "Yale Lectures on the Sunday-School" (1888); "Hints on Child Training" (1890); "Friendship the Master Passion" (1891); "Studies in Oriental Social Life" (1894); "War Memories" (1898); "The Covenant of Salt" (1899); "Answers to Prayer" (1900); etc. He died in 1903.
Trumbull LYMAN, an American statesman
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
LYMAN, an American statesman; born in Colchester, Conn., Oct 12, 1813; removed to Belleville, Ill., in 1837; became secretary of state of Illinois in 1841; and justice of the Supreme Court of the State in 1848. In 1854 he was elected to Congress as a Democrat, and in 1855 was chosen United States senator. He joined the Republican party on the anti-slavery principle, in 1860, and supported Abraham Lincoln; was re-elected to the Senate; secured the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment; and was one of the Republicans who voted against the im- Repu peachment of Andrew Johnson. Later, peachment he became a Democrat. He died in Chicago, Ill., June 25, 1896.
Trumbull JONATHAN, an American patriot
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JONATHAN, an American patriot; born in Lebanon, Conn., Oct. 12, 1710; was graduated at Harvard in 1727; was successively judge, deputygovernor, and governor (1769-1783) of Connecticut; and took a very prominent part in forwarding the Revolutionary War. Washington placed great reliance on him, and frequently consulted him; to this habit, and his phrase, often repeated when in doubt, "Let us hear what Brother Jonathan says," has been traced the name which stands (though not so generally now as "Uncle Sam") for a personification of the United States as "John Bull" does for England. Trumbull died Aug. 17, 1785.
Trumbull Jonathan. See Connecticut
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
Jonathan. See Connecticut ; Brother Jonathan
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The biographical facts Collier's gathered in 1921 still hold, with one correction worth making: Lyman Trumbull is remembered today chiefly as the principal author of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, and of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, rather than for the Fourteenth Amendment credited to him here, which was largely drafted by the Joint Committee on Reconstruction. Of John Trumbull the painter, the entry notes the four Capitol rotunda canvases and the 54 pictures given to Yale for a $1,000 annuity; those Yale works became the nucleus of what is now the Yale University Art Gallery, and his "Declaration of Independence" has appeared on the back of the United States two-dollar bill since 1976. The charming derivation of "Brother Jonathan" from Washington's supposed habit of saying "Let us hear what Brother Jonathan says" is now generally treated by scholars as folklore, unsupported by contemporary evidence. Collier's guess that "Uncle Sam" had overtaken it proved right: "Brother Jonathan" has all but vanished from use.
Written for this edition, 2026.