Attorney General: John Nelson
John Nelson was born in Frederick, Maryland, on June 1, 1791. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1811, was admitted to the bar in 1813, and began practicing law in Maryland. From 1821 to 1823, Nelson served as a Representative in the U.S. Congress from Maryland. He received a master’s degree in 1825 from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). In 1831, he was appointed to the diplomatic role of Chargé d’Affaires to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, in which post he served until 1832.
President John Tyler appointed Nelson as Attorney General of the United States on July 1, 843. He served in this role until March 3, 1845. Nelson also served as Secretary of State ad interim toward the end of the Tyler administration. He died in Baltimore, Maryland, on January 18, 1860.
Freeman Thorp was born in Ohio in 1844 and served in the 2nd Ohio Cavalry during the American Civil War. In 1870, at the age of 26, he became an honorary member of the Berlin Society of Artists. The next year, Thorp began using a small loft in the U.S. Capitol dome as a portrait studio. He painted many presidents, cabinet officials, congressmen, governors, and military leaders. One of his portraits of President Abraham Lincoln, made from earlier sketches, was purchased in 1920 for exhibition in the U.S. Capitol. His portrait of Attorney General Nelson was painted in 1872. Thorp died in 1922.