- While Royal Academy classes were held in the morning, afternoons were dedicated to drawing from nature or copying Old Master paintings from the collection of Munich's Alte Pinakothek.
- Copying paintings by Old Masters like Murillo and Rembrandt was more than a student excercise for Adams. Before leaving Indiana for Munich in 1880 he advertised in The Muncie Daily News for a fund to support his studies. Subscribers would be "reimbursed [...] with careful copies of celebrated productions of old and new masters of art...."
- Since there was no access to Old Master paintings in the Midwest at that time, copies like Adams's were very appealing to collectors.