All his life, Washington Allston was caught between his natural talents as an artist and the expectations of his wealthy South Carolina family and upbringing.

This collection of Allston's papers, letters, sketchbooks, poetry notebooks, and lectures on Composition and Form begins in 1800, when he sold the properties he had inherited from his father and set out to study painting in England, France, Switzerland, and Italy. There is also later biographical material written by Leonard Jarvis and Richard Henry Dana on Washington Allston's life and ill-fated genius.