Varnum, James Mitchell (1748 - 1789)
Role: Class of 1769Dates:
Portrait Location: Library-Annex
Artist: Arnold, John Nelson (1834 - 1909)
Portrait Date: 1870
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
Framed Dimensions:
Brown Portrait Number: 29
Brown Historical Property Number: 1317
James Varnum, one of Rhode Island College's (Brown's) first graduates, had a distinguished military and political career. After graduating from college, he began practicing law in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, but his professional life was interrupted by the War of Independence. He joined the Rhode Island forces and valiantly rose to a brigadier general in the Continental Army and a major general of the Rhode Island Militia. Varnum was also a member of the Continental Congress, and was a warm, unwavering advocate of the federal constitution. Varnum served as president of the Rhode Island Society of Cincinnati, an exclusive national group of army officers who had served George Washington in the Revolutionary War. He was a successful lawyer and remembered as a learned, eloquent orator. He eventually became a United States judge in the Northwest Territories.
Artist John Arnold was a Providence portrait artist who painted several Rhode Island governors and other distinguished citizens. His copy of the original Varnum portrait was presented to Brown University by John Carter Brown in 1870.