Compendium

This page is not intended as a definitive bibliography or catalog, but rather as a living collection of the materials I’ve gathered in my research on Gouverneur Morris (1752–1816).

Here you will find:

• Bibliographical references: published biographies, editions of Morris’s diaries and correspondence, secondary works, and selected articles.

• Iconography: portraits, busts, engravings, and later artistic interpretations that shaped (and sometimes distorted) his image.

• Links to online resources: archives, museums, digital projects, and related writings.

My goal is not to claim academic authority but simply to bring together what I have found, in one place, as a resource for anyone who shares an interest in Gouverneur Morris. If you know of additional sources, images, or references that should be included, I would be delighted to hear from you.

As Gouverneur himself once wrote:

“Let it be Remembered, that Nothing Human is Perfect.”

This list is neither complete nor perfect. But perhaps it can serve as a starting point for others, and as an invitation for collaboration.

Bibliography

Primary

• Sparks, Jared: Life of Gouverneur Morris Vol. I. (1832)

• Sparks, Jared: The Life and Correspondence of Gouverneur Morris Vol. II. (1832)

• Sparks, Jared: The Life of Gouverneur Morris with Selections from his Correspondence ans Miscalleneous Papers. Detailing Events in the American Revolution, The French Revolution, and in the Political History of the United States (1832)

• Roosevelt, Theodore: Gouverneur Morris (1888)

• Morris, Anne Cary: The Diaries and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 1. (1888)

• Morris, Anne Cary: The Diaries and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2. (1889)

• Davenport, Anne Cary: A Diary of the French Revolution by Gouverneur Morris (1752 - 1816), Minister to France during the Terror (1939)

• Swiggett, Howard: The Extraordinary Mr. Morris (1952)

• Mintz, Max: Gouverneur Morris and the American Revolution (1970)

• Kline, Mary-Jo: Gouverneur Morris and the new nation, 1775-1788 (1970)

• Fiechter, Jean-Jaques: Un diplomate américaine sous la Terreur (1983)

• Adams, William Howard: Gouverneur Morris: An Independent Life (2003)

• Miller, Melanie Randolph: Envoy to the terror : Gouverneur Morris & the French Revolution (2004)

• Brookhiser, Richard: Gentleman Revolutionary: Gouverneur Morris the Rake who wrote the Constitution (2004)

• Kirschke, James J.: Gouverneur Morris: Author, Statesman, and Man of the World (2005)

• Miller, Melanie Randolph: The Diaries of Gouverneur Morris : European Travels 1794-1798 (2011)

• Barlow, J. Jackson: To Secure the Blessings of Liberty: Selected Writings of Gouverneur Morris (2012)

• Coby, John Patrick: America’s Machiavellian: Gouverneur Morris at the Constitutional Convention (2017)

• Miller, Melanie Randolph: The Diaries of Gouverneur Morris : New York, 1799 - 1816 (2018)

• de Baecque, Antoine: Journal de Gouverneur Morris 1789-1792 (2002)

• Rasmussen, Denis C.: The Constitution’s Penman (2023)

• Miller, Melanie Randolph: An Incautious Man: The Life of Gouverneur Morris (2024)

Secondary

• Ferguson, James E.: The Papers of Robert Morris (1973)

• Miller, Nathan: Theodore Roosevelt: A Life (1992)

• Chernow, Ron: Alexander Hamilton (2004)

• Fleming, Thomas: Liberty! The American Revolution (2004)

• Evan, Thomas: John Paul Jones (2004)

• Crawford, Alan Pell: Unwise Passions: A True Story of a Remarkable Woman (2005)

• Brookhiser, Richard: What Would The Founders Do? (2007)

• Beeman, Richard: Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution (2010)

• McDonald, Robert M.S.: Sons of the Father: George Washington and his Protégés (2013)

• Foster, Thomas A.: Sex and the Founding Fathers: The American Quest for a Relatable Past (2016)

• Conroy, James B.: Jefferson’s White House: Monticello on the Potomac (2019)

Articles

• Treanor, Michael: The Case of the Dishonest Scrivener: Gouverneur Morris and the Creation of the Federalist Constitution, 2021*

• Brookhiser, Richard: The Forgotten Founding Father, 2002

• Wilkinson, Will: The Fun-Loving Founding Father, 2004

• Hindley, Meredith: Ungoverned Passion, 2012

• McDonald, Forest: The imaginative Conservative: The Political Thought of GM, 2013

• Hindley, Meredith: The Confessions of Gouverneur Morris - An Interview with Melanie Randolph Miller, 2019

• Gouverneur Morris: His Purchases of Important French Furniture in Revolutionary Period Paris, 2019

• Al-Mohamed, Day: Gouverneur Morris: Playboy and penman of the American Constitution, 2020

• de Groot, Kristen: Gouverneur Morris: Founding Father, Disabled American, 2020

• MacQueen, Tyler: The Indispensable Legacy of Gouverneur Morris, 2020

• Bush, John K.: An Imperfect Founder Who Sought A More Perfect Union of Merit, 2022

• livingwithamplitude.com: The Down-Low on America’s Amputee Founding Father, 2023

• Brockell, Gillian: The disabled Founding Father who put ‘United’ in ‘United States’, 2023

• constitution.laws.com: Gouverneur Morris: The Forgotten Founding Father, 2023

• Levinson, Adam: Case Closed - Morris boarded with Miss Dally, 2023

• Phipps, Trevor: Gouverneur Morris: The Penman of the Constitution, 2025

• de Cicco, Theresa: Gouverneur Morris — The Forgotten Founding Father (Fraunces Tavern Museum) n.d.

“ Whatever is, is.”

Iconography

Pierre Eugène du Simitière, 1783 (Wikimedia Commons)

Charles Willson Peale, Gouverneur Morris and Robert Morris, 1783
(Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts)

Jean-Antoine Houdon Bust, Paris, 1789 (Wikimedia Commons)

Jean Antoine Houdon, Gouverneur Morris’ Body (1790) with George Washington’s Lifemask, 1788–92 (Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Pierre Henri, Miniature Portrait, 1798 (The Met - not on view)

Thomas Sully, 1808 (Museum of the City of New York)

James Sharples, GM Wedding Portrait, 1810 (National Portrait Gallery, no domain)

Sadly, Gouverneur Morris passed away, Nov 6th, 1916, at the age of 64.

Ezra Ames, 1817, Portrait done because his extended family (his niece?) refused to provide the Sully. (Wikimedia Commons)

Likeness from a Calendar of Emmet Collection, 1801-ca.1886
(Emmet Collection of Manuscripts Etc. Relating to American History)

Henry Bryan Hall Engraving, 1808-1884 Engraver, 1756-1896 (New York Public Library) originally from 1789 when Jefferson and Morris went together to have their Physiognotrace taken by Chrétien and Quenedey acc. to (Th. Jefferson Monticello)

Augustus Tholey, Leaders of the Continental Congress--John Adams, Morris, Hamilton, Jefferson, 1894 (Wikimedia Commons)

Alonzo Chappell, ca. 1850-1860 (Wikimedia Commons)

J. Rogers, fl. 1860
published in New York by Virtue & Yorston and likely distributed in the 1850s–1870s
as part of book illustrations or historical print editions (Wikimedia Commons)

Albert Rosenthal, 1888 (New York Public Library Digital Collection)

Henry Hintermeister, “The Foundation of American Government”, 1925
(Library of Congress)

Barry Faulkner, “Constitution Mural”, 1936 (National Archives)

Howard Chandler Christy, “Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States” Mural, 1940 hangs at the Capitol East Grand Stairway (Architect of the Capitol)

Howard Chandler Christy, “We the People” Poster, date unknown, ca. 1940
(Swann Auction Galleries)

Louis S. Glanzman, “Signing of the Constitution”, 1987
(Daughters of the American Revolution National Headquarters)
now at Philadelphia Independence Hall

“Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania” Artist unknown, date unknown
(Annapolis Collection Gallery)

Sarah Karina Geser, Digital Artworks based off the Lifebust by Jean-Antoine Houdon, 2025 (LinkedIn) — Please feel free to use these as you please, I am happy to bring more of Gouverneur out into the World.