Eleazer BURNHAM

1830 Ezra Ames portrait

From The Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture:
"Eleazer Burnham (1780-1867)
1826
sitter: Eleazer Burnham
1780 - 1867
Artist/ Maker: Ezra Ames
1768 - 1836
Overall: 30 x 24 in. ( 76.2 x 61 cm )
Oil on canvas
Purchase
Inventory Number: 1955.31
Classification: PAINTINGS-Portraits
Curatorial Remarks:

Eleazer Burnham was the son of Asa Burnham and Lucy (Huntington) Burnham of Bennington, Vermont. About 1798 he moved to Aurora, the first settlement in Cayuga County, New York. Burnham was county surrogate from 1811 to 1813 and from 1815 to 1820, deputy postmaster from 1798 and postmaster from 1811 until about 1822, collector of revenue at Aurora during the War of 1812, and county representive in the assembly in 1826."

Miss Catharine Bacon, Wells '18, wrote the author about two portraits, one of Eleazer Burnham and one of his wife, which she had seen in an Albany exhibit. They were painted in 1826 by Ezra Ames, an Albany artist; the portrait of Burnham bears the inscription, "Eleazer Burnham (1780- ) Lawyer and Presidential Elector of Aurora, New York."



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