Treasures From the Archives

Engraver Joseph Napoleon Gimbrede American After John Trumbull American Subject Joseph Warren American 1840–77

Cover art by J.C. Leyendecker

"Trade cards from the "Holidays" series (N88), issued in a set of 50 cards in 1890 to promote W. Duke Sons & Co. brand cigarettes. The series depicts citizens from various countries in traditional dress celebrating local holidays. Each card verso contains the title of the series, a description of the particular holiday and its history, as well as an ad for W. Duke, Sons & Co. Tobacco producers Goodwin & Co. also published this series with brand advertising for Old Judge and Dog's Head Cigarettes."

Good Housekeeping 1911-07

"This satire takes the form of a rebus letter written by Henry Laurens (1724-1792), a native of Charleston, South Carolina, sent as ambassador to the Netherlands by the Continental Congress. He was captured en route in 1779, off Newfoundland, tried for treason, thrown overboard then recovered. On October 6, 1781 became the first and only American ever imprisoned in the Tower of London, released on December 31 in exchange for Lord Cornwallis following the latter's surrender at Yorktown."

"According to the donor, this ensemble was worn by Obedeak [sic] Herbert, a Continental Naval Admiral of the Revolutionary War. This form of jacket, the tail coat, persisted first, as men's everyday wear and, later, as formal attire throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The epaulettes retain sense of delicacy and refinement as handmade objects. The silk on the underside is padded and sewn into a roll at the edge to enhance the shape of the tassels as they fall over the shoulders. The tape on the other end is meant to tie into corresponding studs on the shoulders of the jacket. The phrase on the medallion of the bicorne, "E Pluribus Unum" (translated as "Out of Many, One") was submitted by the committee Congress as part of a design for the seal for the United States of America in 1776, which, upon revisions, was passed as the official seal in 1782. The phrase was considered the motto of the United States until 1956 when it was replaced with the motto, "In God We Trust.""

"When he was eighteen, Rembrandt Peale painted a portrait of Washington from life in the presence of his father, Charles Willson Peale. During the remainder of his career, Rembrandt demonstrated a near obsession with Washington and replicated this famous portrait seventy-nine times. The stone oval derives from the seventeenth-century European fashion for tromp l'oeil stone casements, a format Peale may have observed during periods of study in Europe."

"With the nation’s approaching centennial, the market-savvy Rogers began modeling a statuette of George Washington (1732-1799) in spring 1875. The careful detailing of Washington's garb suggests the artist made use of the many drawings he executed in 1871 and 1872 in preparation for the unrealized group, “Camp Fires of the Revolution.” In pose, costume, and likeness, Rogers’s “Washington” owes much to Jean Antoine Houdon's marble statue of Washington (ca. 1788-91) that was installed in the Virginia State House in Richmond in 1796. "Washington" was patented on October 19, 1875, and was included in the large display of Rogers’s work at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. The statuette, devoid of Rogers’s customary narrative detail, did not sell well and was dropped from his catalogue of available statuary by 1888."

"Six scenes that comment on the American Revolution appear here in different compartments. The imagery suggests that tyranny, military failures and atrocities have resulted from the influence on George III of his ministers John Stuart, the Earl of Bute, Lord Mansfield and Lord Germain."

Publisher Currier & Ives American After John Cameron American, born Scotland Sitter George Washington American 1876

"Scene from the American Revolution. George Washington rests a hand on a cannon. Behind Washington troops travel across the snowy landscape and at right a group of soldiers gather around a campfire."

Publisher Currier & Ives American 1876

William Morris Smith July 1865

Cover art by J.C. Leyendecker

Gettysburg proved to be the Confederacy’s last great effort to engage the Union on home ground, and the three-day battle produced more casualties than any other in the Civil War with 40,000 to 50,000 lost on both sides. In the foreground General Meade directs Major General Daniel E. Sickles–an historical inaccuracy since Sickles was not on the field on July 3, having been wounded the day before after famously disobeying an order from Meade. In the background the fierce fighting likely represents Pickett's Charge, the central action on July 3, where 12,500 Confederates assaulted the Union line on Cemetary Ridge and came close to breaking through but were repulsed. After the battle Robert E. Lee led his shattered army back to Virginia and the focus of the war shifted to Southern soil."

"This rare early American print depicts a conflict often referred to as the Battle of Bunker Hill. Near the start of the American Revolution, the action took place on the Charlestown Peninsula, north of Boston Harbor and involved 2,400 British troops commanded by Major General Howe ranged against 1,500 Americans of the Continental Army under General Artemas Ward and General Israel Putnam. Here, straight ranks of colonial troops in blue face the advancing red-coated British, with a glimpse of Boston shown at right and Charlestown burning at left."