Rev Nathan Bourne Crocker, 1860, by Daniel Huntington Originally located in RI Hall, image from Brown University Portrait Collection.

Reverend Nathan B. Crocker read the address at the dedication of RI Hall following William Giles Goddard's illness. He came to Providence in 1802 after graduating from Harvard University to take up a position in St John's Church. At Brown University's commencement in 1808 he was elected to their Board of Fellows. He maintained his positions in these two institutions until his death in 1865, making his commitment to the community one of over fifty-five years. His fellowship post at Brown "connected him with the government and the care of the University for a longer period than any other person, whether living or dead, whose name is recorded in its annals."

His portrait was commissioned by friends of Brown University, and in a letter to the Corporation of Brown University, they wrote:

"It was designed to be a testimonial to his pure life and worthy example; to the fidelity and usefulness of his life-long services among us, as a minister of the gospel, and to the sympathy which he has always maintained with the well-being, both moral and social, of this community. We ask that this portrait may be suspended with those already collected in Rhode Island Hall, and we earnestly hope that it may remind the scholars of the University and all who in the present and future time shall gaze upon it, how beautiful and venerable is a serene and unostentatious life spent in the performance of elevated duties, and in labors for others' good."