ELKANAH TISDALE (1771-?)
after Walter Robertson (c. 1750-1802)
Etching and engraving, 1796
Height 17.8, sub height 16.7, width 10.0, oval height 9.4, oval width 7.5 cm

Boglewood: 2302
Hart: 248
Wick 43

Source likeness:
Miniature watercolor
on ivory, 1794

Text:
Genl. Washington takes Command of the American Army at Cambridge July 3d1775. / Tisdale Sc. / Genl. Washington. / Engrav'd for C. Smith N-York.

Version I:  As shown.  Collections:  Library of Congress; New York Public Library.

Published in: (i) Charles Smith, The Monthly Military Repository (New York: Davis for Author, 1796); and (ii) Charles Smith, The American War, from 1775 to 1983 (New York: Smith, 1797).

Note: Hart 248 (pp. 116-117) says the source of this likeness of Washington was a 1791 miniature on ivory painted by Archibald Robertson. That Robertson miniature is known today only by way of a stipple engraving of it published in 1866.  Baker 173 (p. 108), on the other hand, identifies Tisdale's source as a 1792 painting by Walter Robertson, and would seem to be on sounder ground in doing so.  Wick 48 (p. 114) offers the possibility that Tisdale may have combined several images to produce the Washington likeness. In any event, the vignette at the bottom, depicting Washington taking command of the American Army in 1775, is likely Tisdale's own invention.