This engraving depicts Patrick Henry as an older man, seated, dressed formally, with a curtain and pillar behind him. James Barton Longacre (1794–1869) completed the original portrait for the "National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans," which he produced in cooperation with James Herring in 1834. Longacre's original portrait is lost and Wellmore's engraving is all that remains. This portrait was supposed to have been modeled after an earlier Patrick Henry portrait miniature taken from life in 1795.