Joel Barlow, model 1803, cast by 1913

[1] Peter Barlow, a New York jurist and magistrate, was a collateral descendant of the sitter, and in 1914 donated to several American museums plaster casts of the Houdon marble bust of his ancestor (see documentation in NGA curatorial files).

An article in The New York Times of 7 April 1912, "Magistrate Barlow Finds Bust of Ancestor," recounts the history of the marble bust from which the casts were made. Peter Barlow told newspaper that the bust was on exhibition in the Paris Salon in 1804, and that the sitter, Joel Barlow (1754-1812), an American diplomat, probably brought it to the United States in 1805 when he returned to the U.S. and took up residence in Washington, D.C. Several years after his death, Joel Barlow's immediate descendants took the bust with them when they moved to far western Pennsylvania. The last owner of the bust was H.P. Chambers of Washington, Pennsylvania, from whom Peter Barlow acquired it.