Dr. Lyman Spalding & Elizabeth Coues Spalding,
 by Raphaelle Peale, circa 1810.

  The "Father of American Pharmacopoeia," Lyman Spalding (1775-1821)  was one of the most celebrated physicians of his day.   Born in Cornish, New Hampshire, Spalding attended Harvard Medical School.   With Professor Nathan Smith, with whom he was then studying, in 1798, he and Smith established the medical school at Dartmouth College.  Spalding delivered the first lectures at the opening.   After continuing his own studies in Philadelphia and Cambridge, Spalding opened a practice in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  He served as president and professor of anatomy and surgery at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.  In 1818, the Medical society of the State of New York adopted Spalding's plan for the formation of "Pharmacopoeia of the United States."  The first edition of his work on the subject was published in 1820.   Additionally, he was instrumental in the introduction of small-pox vaccine to America.  In 1802, Spalding married Elizabeth Coues, (1779-1838) daughter of Captain Peter Coues of Portsmouth.  They had five children.  Lyman and Elizabeth Spalding are buried in the Old North Burying Ground, Portsmouth.  The Spalding family papers are in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society.  
 
Each set in the original ‘rolled gold' locket frames, Dr. Spalding's with a center reserve on the reverse containing plaited hair.  Both bear later engraving with the sitter's details and dated February, 1810.
 
2 ½ inches high.
 
Raphaelle Peale (1774-1825) was the eldest, and unquestionably the most talented of Charles Wilson Peale's sons.  Born to Rachael Brewer in Annapolis, he was raised in Philadelphia, where he took artistic instruction from his uncle James Peale. By 1796, Raphaelle and his brother Rembrandt were exhibiting their copies of Charles Willson Peale's portraits in Charleston and Baltimore as well as taking commissions themselves.  Much as Charles and James had divided their business, Raphaelle painted miniatures and Rembrandt the oil portraits.  At his best, Raphaelle was one of the finest miniaturists in America.  But his work, like his life, was erratic. And, try as his father did, Raphaelle still seemed to prefer painting still lifes.  Peale exhibited at the Columbianum from 1811-1825 and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Boston Athenaeum in 1827-1828. Rahpaelle, never good at the business of art, began touring the South in 1803, taking profiles with a physiognotrace.  He also took miniature commissions, working in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Richmond, Annapolis, Savannah and Charleston.  By 1805, he had gout, and was drinking heavily.  It is rumored that he was dying from arsenic poisoning, brought on from chemicals in his father's museum, and possibly administered by his jealous father.  It is certainly true that he had to live with constant letters of reproof from his father, about his drinking, his dissipated way of life and his squandered talents.  The foremost still life painter in America during the first half of the 19th century died in pain and poverty in Philadelphia at the age of fifty one.