Portrait miniatures, small enough to fit in the palm of the hand, are unique among works of art for their highly personal associations. At the height of their American popularity, from 1760 to about 1840, these cherished portraits were frequently commissioned as a way to hold on to absent loved ones. This beautifully illustrated book reproduces and discusses some one hundred portrait and mourning miniatures. Robin Jaffee Frank examines the miniatures in detail, offering new insights into their role in American art and social history. Through painstaking detective work, she uncovers the stories of the people who sat for them and the people who treasured them, restoring to these intimate tokens their power to move us.

Portrait miniatures were most often painted in watercolor on thin disks of ivory. They were sometimes worn as jewelry, sometimes framed to be viewed privately. Many were painted by specialists, although renowned easel artists—including Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley, and Charles Willson Peale—also created them to commemorate births, engagements, marriages, deaths, and other joinings or separations. The book traces the development of this exquisite art form, revealing the close ties between the history of the miniature and the history of American private life.