Portrait of Vincent Loockerman

John Hesselius (1728/29–1778)

1750s

Oil on canvas

On loan courtesy of the Delaware State Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs

Descended from Dutch colonists in New York, Vincent Loockerman (1722–1785) was a wealthy merchant and landowner who built his home in Dover, Delaware, where it remains in his family’s possession to this day. Today, many of the house’s important eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Delaware and Philadelphia furnishings are on view in the Biggs Museum. These objects’ well-recorded history over many years helps tell that of Delaware.