Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Historical Commission
Est. 2023
Philadelphia Conference Room Portraits
The Court's spacious conference room adjoining the Philadelphia courtroom displays fifteen Justice portraits.
John M. Read
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
Admitted to the Philadelphia Bar in 1818, Read began his public service in the Pennsylvania House in 1822. In 1845, President John Tyler nominated Read to the United States Supreme Cout, but his stance against slavery resulted in his nomination being withdrawn.
Read was an early organizer for the Republican party and was the keynote speaker at its first national convention in 1856. He was elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1858, becoming the first Republican elected to the Court. Two years later, at the Republican Convention supporters of Abraham Lincoln planned to nominate Read as its presidential candidate with Lincoln as his running mate. However, hoping to be the presidential nominee himself, Pennsylvania's Senator Simon Cameron defeated that effort. Abraham Lincoln was nominated to be the Republican's presidential candidate on the third ballot and after Lincoln was elected, Simon Cameron became his Secretary of War. Read finished his career in Pennsylvania becoming Chief Justice in December 1872 and retiring just over a month later, in January.
Sylvester B. Sadler
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
After graduating from Yale University, Justice Sadler attended Dickinson Law School. He was admitted to the Cumberland County Bar and began practicing law with his father, Wilbur, in 1898. Following in his father's footsteps, Sadler was elected the President Judge of the Cumberland County Court of Common Pleas in 1914. He won a seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1920 and while on the Court, Sadler also served as the President of Dickinson Law School until his death in office in 1931.
Jacob Hay Brown
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
A staunch Republican and member of the "Famous 306" delegates that tried to force the nomination for Ulysses S. Grant third presidential term at the 1880 National Convention, Brown distinguished himself as a member of the Lancaster County Bar. He served as the County Solicitor while in practice with William U. Hensel, a former Pennsylvania Attorney General. Governor William Stone appointed Brown to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1899 and he won a full term the following election. He became Chief Justice in 1915 and served in that position until his retirement in 1921. Chief Justice Brown was the last Chief Justice from South Central Pennsylvania until Thomas G. Saylor in 2015.
Edward M. Paxson
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
Edward Paxson was first admitted to practice in Bucks County in 1850 and was later appointed as a judge to that county’s common pleas court in 1869. Paxson was elected to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1874 and served until 1893, when he stepped down to become the receiver of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company. Interestingly, after Paxson’s death, the Supreme Court invalidated his will on the basis that it failed to satisfy certain requirements that Paxson himself had recognized in an opinion he previously authored on behalf of the Supreme Court.
John Stewart
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
After graduating from Princeton, John Stewart studied law under Frederick Watts in Carlisle before being admitted to the Cumberland County bar in 1960. During the Civil War, he served as an adjutant with the 126th Pennsylvania Volunteers. During his service a Rebel soldier entered Stewart’s home in Chambersburg, removed his diploma from Princeton, and lit a fire which would consume his house and much of the town. Stewart returned to private practice in 1863 and he was elected to the Pennsylvania Senate in 1881. He was elected the President Judge of the 39th Judicial District in 1888 and later appointed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court by Governor Samuel Pennypacker in 1905. He was elected to the Court the following year and served until his death in 1920 after being struck by a trolley car in Chambersburg, two months shy of becoming Pennsylvania’s Chief Justice.
James Thompson
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
Admitted to practice in Erie County, James Thompson later served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and was elected Speaker in 1834. Thompson later became a judge and congressman, serving three terms. He was elected to the Supreme Court in 1857, became Chief Justice in 1867, and served until 1872. He retired to engage in private practice and unexpectedly died on Wednesday, January 28, 1874 while presenting an oral argument to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Philadelphia.
Henry W. Williams
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
The second Justice Henry Warren Williams, this portrait was a gift from his family. Williams began studying law with E.B. Chase in Montrose and later Judge John W. Gurnsey in Tioga County. After being admitted to the Tioga County bar in 1854, he entered private practice. His practice was interrupted when Governor Andrew Curtin appointed him to be an Additional Law Judge of the Fourth Judicial District. He was the youngest judge in the Commonwealth and was elected to a full term later that year. Governor James A. Beaver appointed him to fill a vacancy on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1887. He was elected that same year and served until his death in office in 1899.
​
The first Justice Henry Warren Williams's portrait hangs in the Court's Pittsburgh conference room.
Charles Alvin Jones
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
After studying law at Dickinson School of Law, Jones was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1910. His nearly thirty years of practice was briefly interrupted for service as a volunteer ambulance driver with the French Army and later as an Ensign in the US Navy during World War I. Jones began his judicial career in 1939 after being appointed to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He remained in that position until he was elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1944. In 1956, Jones became the first Justice elected as a Democrat to become Chief Justice in ninety years. Citing his deteriorating vision, Jones retired five years before the expiration of his term.
H. Edgar Barnes
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
Justice H. Edgar Barnes was born in Washington D.C. and attended the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania before going to law school. After graduating from law school he moved to London to study English common law for one year. Barnes returned to Philadelphia and taught at the Wharton School for ten years before entering private practice. He served as personal counsel for George H. Earle, and upon Earle’s election as Governor was appointed the Secretary of Revenue. He served in that position for just a few months before being appointed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to fill a vacancy caused by the unexpected death of Alexander Simpson, Jr. He was elected to a full term in 1935 and served on the bench before dying in office in 1940.
Marion D. Patterson
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
​After teaching school in Blair County, Patterson graduated from Dickinson Law School and was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1904. He served as Blair County’s District Attorney from 1912 until his election as that county’s President Judge in 1927. As Blair County only had one judge with 140,000 residents he served the largest population in Pennsylvania across several of Blair County’s courts. Patterson was elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1939 and served until his death in office. On January 6, 1951 after hearing oral arguments, Justice Patterson suffered a heart attack in the Philadelphia Conference Room and died shortly thereafter.
William B. Linn
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
William Linn was a school teacher in Lancaster County before attending the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. After graduation, he was admitted to the Philadelphia bar and entered private practice with William H. Addicks. After twenty years of practice, Governor William Sproul appointed Linn to a vacancy on the Superior Court and he was elected to a full term the following year. He served as a judge on that court for twelve years until Governor Gifford Pinchot appointed him to serve on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1932 and he won a full term the following year. Linn was an ardent fisherman and reader with a private library with more than 10,000 books. He served on the court until his death in office in June 1950 becoming the third justice to die that year after Justice Marion Patterson in January and Chief Justice George W. Maxey in March.
John W. Kephart
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
After his father died when Kephart was three years old, he was placed in the state-maintained Soldiers' Orphan School in McAllistersville. He graduated at 16 and eventually worked his way through Dickinson Law. Kephart was admitted to practice in Cumberland County in 1894 and he practiced privately until his election to the Superior Court in 1913, in a surprise victory after running a campaign in which he sent every registered voter a postcard with his picture and judicial philosophy.
​
Kephart and Alexander Simpson, Jr. were both elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1919, with Kephart winning seniority after drawing lots. He became Chief Justice in 1936 and retired in 1940. During his time on the Court, he heard over 10,000 cases and wrote more than 1,200 opinions. His opinions touched on a number of workers' rights issues emerging at the time, and upon his retirement he joked that there should be a union for Supreme Court Justices.
Allen M. Stearne
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1905, Allen Stearn was admitted to practice in Philadelphia. After twenty years of private practice, he was appointed Philadelphia’s Orphans Court by Governor John S. Fisher. Stearne was elected to the Supreme Court in 1942, becoming the first judge from the Orphans Court to do so.
One of his most notable opinions was issued after the County and City of Philadelphia were consolidated into one government. Upon consolidation, the City’s Sheriff fired over 300 of the County’s Sheriff employees for flimsy reasons that most speculated were political. In Cornman v. City of Philadelphia, 111 A.2d 121 (Pa. 1955), Justice Stearne found the fired employees were entitled to take the Civil Service exam and were the protections that would result should they pass. He died in office just over a year later in February 1956 and was succeeded by Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, Hebert Cohen.
Alexander Simpson Jr.
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
Alexander Simpson attended Central High School in Philadelphia and received his Bachelors and Masters of Arts degrees (Central High School is the only high school in the country that can award academic degrees after an Act of Assembly in 1849). Upon graduation he decided the law was not for him and began a four-year apprenticeship as a carpenter. After nearly three more years as a journeyman and master carpenter, Simpson won a debate on the constitution on behalf of the West Philadelphia Debating Society to which he belonged. He was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1879 and engaged in private practice for forty years, becoming known as the "dean of the Philadelphia bar." Governor Martin Brumbaugh appointed Simpson to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1918 and he was elected to a full term the following year. Justice Alexander Simpson died in office in 1935 at age 80.