Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Description

Oil on canvas portrait painting of "Charles Carroll of Carrollton" (1737-1832), 1846, by Michael Laty. Carroll was born in Annapolis to a prominent Maryland family. By the time of the American Revolution he was one of the wealthiest men in the American colonies, owned thousands of acres of land, and around one thousand slaves. Carroll served as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776 and signed the Declaration of Independence. He was a major financier during the Revolutionary War and served as one of Maryland's first U.S. Senators from 1789-1792. Carroll also served as a Maryland State Senator from 1777-1800. He helped establish the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) in 1828 and was the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence when he passed away at age 95 in 1832. This portrait, painted in 1846, was donated to the Maryland Center for History and Culture by Carroll's granddaughter Emily Jane Caton MacTavish (1793-1867) through her mother Mary Carroll Caton (1770-1846).