Pierre Eugène du Simitière

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Portrait of the President of Pennsylvania Joseph Reed by Simitière (1781)

Pierre Eugène du Simitière (born September 18, 1737 in Geneva , † October 1784 in Philadelphia ) was a Swiss - American artist , philosopher and member of the American Philosophical Society .

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Simitières sketch from 1776

Du Simitière left Switzerland around 1750 and stayed in the West Indies until around 1765 , when he emigrated to New York and finally to Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) in 1766. In 1768 he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.

A passionate advocate of the American Revolutionary War , he was one of the first collectors of war history and was very well known for it. He added a series of portraits of American leaders to this collection. Thirteen of these were published in Paris in 1781 and also edited separately. His collection eventually became so famous that he opened it to the public under the name American Museum of Natural History in 1782 .

Du Simitière was an artistic advisor to the federal government of the United States . The idea of using the All-Seeing Eye in the seal of the United States goes back to his suggestion, as does the motto E pluribus unum on the banner on the front of the seal.

Today, much of his collection is in the Free Library of Philadelphia . The College of New Jersey (now Princeton University ) awarded him an honorary Master of Arts in 1781 .

literature

  • Helmut Stalder: Pierre Eugène du Simitière. The dollar bill - Swiss made. In: Helmut Stalder: Misunderstood visionaries. 24 Swiss life stories. Verlag NZZ Libro, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-03823-715-0 , pp. 79-87.
  • Helmut Stalder: Swiss made - the dollar bill . The Swiss Observer 26/2010 of December 24, 2010, pp. 46–48.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Helmut Stalder: Swiss made - the dollar bill . The Swiss Observer 26/2010 of December 24, 2010, pp. 46–48.
personal data
SURNAME Simitière, Pierre Eugène du
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ducimetière, Pierre-Eugène
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss-American artist and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1737
PLACE OF BIRTH Geneva
DATE OF DEATH October 1784
Place of death Philadelphia