He painted the White House portrait of President Monroe before much wider fame as an inventor in the 1840s
[DOC] [TLE] Full text of "A register of portraits painted by Thomas Sully, 1801 ... [PAR] These he transcribed into monthly memoranda of por- traits he painted, and at 
the ... S. F. B. Morse, better known as the inventor of the electric telegraph than as 
an ...