Hancock's portrait of the Congregationalist minister and geographer Jedidiah Morse, with its reverse depicting a geography lesson, exemplifies the miniature's role in the establishment of national identity after the Revolution. The author of influential and widely read geography texts, Morse promoted the science's power to build a sense of nationhood. The study of geography would, he believed, unite a diverse citizenry and encourage Americans to discard feelings of inferiority to Europe.