Judge Jesse Adkins

Born: April 13, 1879
Knoxville, Tennessee

Died: March 29, 1955
Washington, D.C.

Jesse Corcoran Adkins

Associate Justice, U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia [Supreme Court of the District of Columbia].

Nominated by Herbert Hoover on June 6, 1930; Confirmed by the Senate on June 17, 1930, and received commission on June 17, 1930. Assumed senior status on 10/15/1946.Service terminated on 3/29/1955, due to death.

Georgetown University Law School, LL.B., 1899
Georgetown University Law School, LL.M., 1900

Frame Dimensions
47″ x 36.5″

Canvas Dimensions
39.5″ x 29.5″

Overall Condition
Portrait is in excellent condition.

Artist
Richard C. Henderson- Richard C. Henderson has been a portraitist for more than 25 years. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where he majored in Art and English and holds a Master’s degree from Vermont College of Norwich University, which is today the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Mr. Henderson studied at the National Academy of Design in New York where he worked with Daniel Greene, who is considered the foremost pastelist in the United States and has been awarded the American Society of Portrait Artist’s John Singer Sargent Medal. Also at the National Academy of Design Mr. Henderson studied under Harvey Dinnerstein. Dinnerstein was one of several artists trained at the Tyler School of Arts at Temple University that rejected the prevailing trend toward modernism and Abstract Expressionism by embracing realism. Mr. Henderson also studied at the Art Students League of New York with Robert Brackman (1898-1980), a Russian artist who became nationally famous after painting portraits of Charles and Anne Lindbergh among others.

In 1978 Mr. Henderson was commissioned by Judge George Luzerne Hart, Jr. to paint portraits of both sitting and former judges of the U.S. District Court. Portraits of former judges were painted using black and white photographs sometimes supplemented with testimony from friends and family. Over the next five years Mr. Henderson would produce 23 portraits for the U.S. District Court and the U. S. Court of Appeals.

Since completing this commission Mr. Henderson has continued his work as an artist producing portraiture and landscape. He has taught at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL as well as several private art schools.

Year Painted
1981

Professional Career:

Assistant U.S. attorney, Washington, D.C., 1905-1908
Special assistant to U.S. attorney general, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., 1908-1911
Private practice, Washington, D.C., 1908-1911
Assistant U.S. attorney general, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., 1911-1914
Special assistant to U.S. attorney general, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., 1914-1916
Private practice, Washington, D.C., 1916-1930
Faculty, Georgetown University Law School, 1910-1945

Georgetown University Law Library Washington, D.C.

  • Jesse Corcoran Adkins Papers, 1913-1953. 2.8 linear ft.; finding aid; contains correspondence, newspaper and journal articles, and opinions of Jesse C. Adkins; one quarter of the collection deals with the 1913-1916 case, U.S. vs. Corn Products Refining Co., which addressed possible violations of the Sherman Act.