and Cecil Rhodes. One of the most famous miniature painters in American during the eighteenth century was Robert Field. Many of the most prominent examples were produced by women artists, among them Eda Nemoede Casterton, who was selected to show her work in the prestigious Paris Salon. Nemoede Casterton used thin sheets of ivory rather than canvas for her paintings, a common practice among miniature portraitists. Around 1900, the United States experienced a revival of miniature portraiture, marked by the 1899 foundation of the American Society of Miniature Painters and the success of artists such as Virginia Richmond Reynolds, Lucy May Stanton, and Cornelia Ellis Hildebrandt. This has been reflected more recently by contemporary realist artists such as Dina Brodsky. Contemporary realist Ann Mikolowski was simultaneously a portrait miniaturist and illustrator of printed matter. Portrait Miniatures and Mourning in Colonial America Throughout the course of history, mourners have carried portraits with them to honor loved ones; this practice made its way to Colonial America in the mid 18th century. Portrait miniatures honoring the deceased could take many forms, such as rings, broaches, lockets, and small frame pictures. Prior to portrait miniatures, loved ones often received tokens of the deceased in the form of rings or lockets with inscriptions or images matching those in the coffin. The matching images and words created a type of bond, allowed surviving family to feel closer to their loved one. A shift in the eighteenth century from mourning death to celebrating life marked a change in the meaning behind tokens carrying morbid inscriptions and images. No longer did the tokens represent the bond between the departed and those left behind, they now represented a grim realization of mortality. The idea of gender also affected the view of mourning tokens; women were viewed as more emotional to carry tokens and society frowned upon men who carried such tokens. If men were to carry a token of a beloved one, an image of life rather than death would prove to be more becoming. The first miniature portraits documented in Colonial America first appeared in the 1750s and may have appeared before then. These portraits were usually commissioned to remember someone who died suddenly from illness at a young age. The family of a twelve year old named Hannah had a locket commissioned to make her look like she did before she become ill. The locket carried a