Portrait of Charles Grandison Finney

Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875) was a professor of theology at Oberlin College from 1835 (writing two major volumes on systematic theology), and College President from 1851 to 1866. He was also one of America's great revivalists with church rolls swelling in the wake of his missions. Finney was a "Grahamite" – a follower of the popular health advocate Sylvester Graham who taught the bad eating habits were as sinful as drinking alcohol. Samuel Lovett Waldo and William Jewett jointly executed portraits of many prominent American citizens and worked together in Connecticut and New York. Waldo, the older of the two artists, worked with Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley in London, England, before returning to New York where he took on Jewett as his apprentice, and then as a partner.