Eaves was able to compile this list from the notations engraved below each image. The artists used the Latin abbreviation, inv., to identify the person responsible for designing each illustration and sculpt. to credit Gravelot with engraving the entire series. To "design" an engraving meant, quite simply, drawing a picture, deciding on both the arrangement of the composition and the elements to include. The engraver, in this case Gravelot, produced the actual illustrations using a tool called a "burin" to copy the drawings onto copper plates. He would gouge each image onto the surface of a plate which was then inked and used to print the illustration in multiple copies, reversing the design as it had appeared in the original drawing.

We do not know whether the artists themselves selected the passages to be illustrated or chose the scenes for whose designs they were individually responsible. It seems most probable, however, that Richardson chose the passages for illustration, possibly in consultation with the artists. Gravelot was an older and more experienced artist than Hayman, and because he produced all the engravings, his artistic "hand," as it were, remains present in all twenty-nine pictures. Using Duncan Eaves’ lists, students have the opportunity to consider the ways in which the features of each illustration reflect the personality and/or style of its creator(s).

As far as we know, neither the artists nor Richardson himself made a list of subjects, provided descriptions of the illustrations, or commented on their meaning in relation to the verbal text. By defining what he regarded as the "subject" of each "design," Eaves thus performed an interpretive gesture, and in some cases his readings seem strangely biased. Why, for example, does he identify the illustration in volume 4, facing page 145, as "Goodman Andrews praying by the cradle of Pamela’s baby"? That description is true as far as it goes; however, it obscures the fact that as Pamela’s father utters this prayer he is "hand in hand" with Pamela’s mother who kneels on the other side of the cradle, "both looking at the dear Baby . . . ." The decision to illustrate this particular scene gave Mrs. Andrews a heightened presence in the text from which she is otherwise virtually absent, except as a distant reader of Pamela’s letters.

Using Eaves’ lists students can experiment with their own alternative readings of each picture’s subject. To give a further example, the illustration that Eaves describes in literal terms as "Pamela taking refuge in the woodhouse after her attempted escape" (volume 1, page 290) might instead be construed as Frances Hayman’s attempt to represent visually what is taking place in Pamela’s imagination. The text of the novel would support such an interpretation, for shortly before readers come upon the illustration they encounter a passage in which Pamela imagines the effect of her intended suicide upon her captors, and she does so in highly melodramatic terms:

And then thought I, (and Oh! That Thought was surely of the devil’s Instigation; for it was very soothing and powerful with me) these wicked Wretches, who now have no Remorse, no Pity on me, will then be mov’d to lament their Misdoings; and when they see the dead Corpse of the unhappy Pamela dragg’d out to these slopy Banks, and lying breathless at their Feet, they will find that Remorse to wring their obdurate Hearts, which now has no Place there! (Eaves and Kimpel, Pamela, 152)

Within the illustration that we soon encounter, Pamela stares meditatively off into space, and in the background we see four of the "wicked Wretches" frantically gesturing on the "slopy banks" as they fish what appears to be Pamela’s clothing out of the pond. In the passage facing the illustration we experience Pamela’s thought process as she reasons herself out of committing the deed. When viewed in conjunction with these two portions of the verbal narrative, the illustration might well strike a first-time reader as the figurative evocation of what Pamela has been imagining, and not merely a literal depiction of the heroine hiding in the woodshed. A few pages later we learn that Pamela’s "cruel Keepers" actually do fish Pamela’s coat, cap and handkerchief out of the water [Eaves and Kimpel, Pamela, 155]). Only in retrospect, however, would a first-time reader be able to make sense of the illustration by connecting it with this later passage. According to either reading, the illustration has the effect of emphasizing Pamela’s heightened emotional state at this moment in her narrative.

If nothing else, the study of Eaves’ list may tempt students to read Pamela’s neglected volumes 3 and 4, especially after they encounter Eaves’ description of the subject for the illustration facing page 210 in volume 4: "Pamela telling Mr. B. that she will relinquish him to her rival." As this hint of marital infidelity suggests, the continuation of Pamela’s story offers more in the way of plot than its reputation for heavy moralizing would suggest.

Here, then, is the list of the "headings" (the volume and page numbers noted on each illustration by the artists) and the "subjects" of Hayman’s and Gravelot’s designs, as interpreted by T. C. Duncan Eaves:

1 "Vol. I. p. 4.": Mr. B. Reading Pamela’s letter.

2 "Vol. I. p.123.": Pamela revealing to Mrs. Jervis her wishes to return home.

3 "Vol. I. p.151.": Goodman Andrews pleading with Mr. B. For the return of his daughter.

4 "Vol. I. p. 214.": Pamela throwing the carp into the stream.

5 "Vol. I. p. 290.": Pamela taking refuge in the woodhouse after her attempted escape.

6 "Vol. I. p. 358.": Pamela begging Mr. B. not to ruin her.

7 "Vol. II. p. 267.": Pamela fleeing from Lady Davers.

8 "V. III. p. 11.": Goodman Andrews conversing with Mr. Longman.

9 "V. III. p. 94.": Sir Simon throwing a book at his daughter.

10 "Vol. III. p. 161.": Mr. B. Rebuking Pamela for her behavior toward Sir Simon.

11 "Vol. III. p. 228.": Mr. B., Lord and Lady Davers, the Countess, and Pamela.

12 "Vol. III. p. 377.": Sir Jacob surveying Pamela.

1 "Vol. I. p. 373.": Pamela and the fortune teller.

2 "Vol. II. p. 32.": Pamela and Mr. B. entering his coach.

3 "Vol. II. p. 89.": Pamela’s meeting with her father at Sir Simon’s.

4 "Vol. II. p. 175.": The marriage of Pamela and Mr. B.

5 "Vol. II. p. 249.": Lady Davers’ nephew attempting to force Pamela to serve Lady Davers.

6 "Vol. II. p. 305.": Pamela beseeching Mr. B. not to quarrel with Lady Davers.

7 "Vol. II. p. 404.": Pamela receiving Miss Goodwin.

8 "Vol. III. p. 361.": Mr. B. telling Mr. Adams about the new living he has obtained for him.

9 "Vol. III. p. 451.": Mr. H. returning Polly Barlow’s note to Pamela in the garden.

10 "Vol. IV. p. 29.": Mr. B. consoling Pamela after the discussion concerning a wet-nurse for her baby.

11 "Vol. IV. p. 108.": Pamela at the masquerade.

12 "Vol. IV. p. 145.": Goodman Andrews praying by the cradle of Pamela’s baby.

13 "Vol. IV. p. 178.": The Countess holding Pamela’s little boy.

14 "Vol. IV. p. 210.": Pamela telling Mr. B. that she will relinquish him to her rival.

15 "Vol. IV. p. 277.": Polly serving Mr. Adams and Pamela.

16 "Vol. IV. p. 372.": The nurse bringing Billy to Pamela.

17 "Vol. IV. p. 474-475.": Pamela and her children.