The Declaration of Independence: Rare Americana from the Collection

The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 5 May — 13 September 2026

Declaration of Independence (Dunlap Broadside), 1776, printed in Philadelphia by John Dunlap (New York: The Morgan Library & Museum, PML 77518).

In honor of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Morgan Library & Museum presents a select group of important materials relating to the history of the founding of the nation in the rotunda of the historic library from May 5 until September 13, 2026. Placed in conversation with each other, the six works in this installation provide a snapshot of a robust area of the Morgan’s collection that speaks to the vitality of the country in its nascence.

The centerpiece of the installation is a rare copy of the Declaration of Independence. Known as the “Dunlap Broadside,” this artifact of the nation’s founding was typeset by John Dunlap on the night of July 4, 1776 for distribution to “the several Assemblies, Conventions & Committees or Councils of Safety and to the several Commanding Officers of the Continental troops.” Among the rarest of the rare in this category, it is one of only twenty-six recorded copies surviving today. As a foundational document it is put in context with other important works from the period. Thomas Paine’s radical polemic Common Sense, for example, published earlier that year, gave the nation’s founders a solid rationale for a break from monarchical rule based on the principles of reason.

Also included are correspondences from key figures of the Revolutionary period. A letter dated June 29, 1776, from Patrick Henry, written upon his appointment as Governor of Virginia, reveals the combined sense of humility and anxiety he felt regarding his ability to lead the infant commonwealth through the war effort to combat the “Tyranny of the British King.” Another letter from Martha Washington to her sister Anna Maria ‘Nancy’ Dandridge Bassett, dated August 28, 1776, shows us a window into life on the home front, as she reports on the massive troop movements through Philadelphia toward New York.

In addition, the installation features a life mask of George Washington. In 1785, the French sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon (1741–1828) visited Washington at his Mount Vernon residence. To make a mold of the future first president’s visage, Houdon had Washington lie down and then applied a protective layer of grease followed by a layer of plaster. Once hardened, the mold was removed, and plaster was poured into it to make this positive cast. Houdon brought this ‘life mask’ with him to France and apparently used it while working on the marble statue of Washington for the Virginia State Capitol.

Emily Sneff, When the Declaration of Independence Was News (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2026), 272 pages, ISBN: 978-0197816691, $30.

Tracing the moments after its creation, this groundbreaking book follows how news of the Declaration of Independence spread to people throughout the thirteen United States and the Atlantic world.

In 1776 people could hear the Declaration of Independence proclaimed in public squares and could read it in the pages of their local newspapers. Stories of the Declaration typically recount the work that took place inside the Continental Congress, focusing on the men tasked with drafting the text. Although Congress declared independence, the work of spreading the news involved printers, post riders, ship captains, civic leaders, soldiers, clerks, orators, preachers, diplomats, and translators.

When the Declaration of Independence Was News reveals the stories behind how the Declaration was communicated in the United States and around the Atlantic. Tracing the travels of the founding document of the United States from Philadelphia to New York, Boston, Charleston, London, Leiden, Paris, and beyond, Emily Sneff shows how people both celebrated the Declaration and critiqued it. In the weeks after the document was penned, it was printed in the columns of newspapers, translated into German and French, and shared with Native American allies. The document induced some people to make public their privately held beliefs about whether they wanted the United States to be independent or to reconcile with King George III. The Declaration was met with unique circumstances everywhere it went, and people modified the text along the way. The questions of who experienced the news of independence, when, and how reveal an expansive and complex history of a critical moment in the American Revolution.

Published for the 250th anniversary of American independence, When the Declaration of Independence Was News returns to a time before the legacy of these words and the outcome of the war against Great Britain were known to reconsider what the founding of the United States meant to the people who were living through it.

Emily Sneff is a historian of the founding era of the United States and a leading expert on the Declaration of Independence. With a PhD in history from William and Mary, she is a consulting curator for museum exhibitions for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration.

c o n t e n t s

Acknowledgments

1  Introduction: The News of Independence
2  When the Declaration of Independence was News
3  Short of Independence: The May 15 Resolution
4  Postponed: The Continental Congress Debates Independence
5  Publish and Declare: The People Learn the News
6  Melted Majesty: Statues Fall and Tensions Rise in New York
7  The Reigning Subject: Inoculation and Independence in Massachusetts
8  Words and Wampum: Native Americans Acknowledge Independence
9  Embarrassment: Clergymen Close Churches and Change Prayers
10  Intercepted: Broadsides in British Hands
11  Pretended Acts: London Changes the Declaration
12  An Old Storey: Silas Deane Waits for the Declaration
13  Conclusion: A Lasting Testimony

Appendix: Transcription of the Dunlap Broadside of the Declaration of Independence

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Port of Philadelphia, with several church steeples visible, as depicted by John Carwitham in 1752.

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From the press release (2 June 2026) from Partners for Sacred Places:

Founding Faiths: Historic Sacred Places Celebrate America’s 250th

To commemorate the United States Semiquincentennial, Partners for Sacred Places has launched Founding Faiths: Historic Sacred Places Celebrate America’s 250th, a citywide public engagement initiative honoring the historic significance and ongoing community impact of sacred places in America since before the nation’s founding. Open through the end of 2026, the initiative invites residents and visitors alike to experience some of Philadelphia’s most historically significant and architecturally distinguished structures and interfaith organizations through tours, open houses, educational programming and special events.

Through the participation of 17 historic congregations—along with Interfaith Philadelphia and The Dialogue Institute—the program highlights how sacred places have long served as hubs for civic engagement, cultural life, education, activism, social services and community gathering. Together, these institutions tell a broader story about the role faith communities have played in shaping American society, advancing social change and strengthening civic life across generations.

“Sacred places are often among the most culturally and historically significant buildings in their communities, but they are far more than spaces for worship and reflection,” Partners President Bob Jaeger said. “For centuries, they have served as centers of education, community organizing, cultural expression, services to neighbors in need, and public dialogue. They are repositories of memory, shared values and civic engagement that have helped shape our cities and our nation since long before America’s founding.

“As America approaches its 250th anniversary, this initiative creates a rare opportunity to recognize the foundational contributions these institutions have made to our national story,” Jaeger pointed out. “While this initiative is rooted in Philadelphia—the birthplace of the nation and home base of Partners—we hope it will inspire communities across the country to celebrate the sacred places that have shaped their own histories, identities, missions and civic life.”

As the nation’s only nonsectarian nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening the community-serving capacity of historic sacred places and preserving their significant structures, Partners organized Founding Faiths to underscore the essential role faith-based and interfaith institutions continue to play as civic infrastructure. These spaces serve as places where people gather, learn, organize, celebrate, mourn, solve problems and build stronger communities together. Through exhibitions, performances, storytelling, tours, and public programming, the initiative also encourages visitors to engage with difficult chapters of American history and connect past struggles and achievements to contemporary issues and opportunities.

“This initiative also reinforces the enduring power and value of sacred places when they are fully activated through community engagement, cultural programming and public service,” said Partners Executive Vice President Gianfranco Grande. “For generations, these institutions have addressed pressing social issues, supported vulnerable populations, fostered civic dialogue, and brought communities together in moments of both challenge and celebration.”

By opening their doors through tours, exhibitions, lectures, and special events, participating congregations offer visitors an opportunity not only to experience remarkable architecture and history, but also to better understand difficult moments in America’s past and connect those stories to present-day conversations about community, justice, belonging and the common good.

Participating congregations and organizations (at press time)
Arch Street Meeting House
Christ Church
Congregation Mikveh Israel
Congregation Rodeph Shalom
First Presbyterian Church
First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia
Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’ Church)
Historic African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas
Historic St. George’s United Methodist Church
Interfaith Philadelphia
Mother Bethel AME Church
Old First Reformed UCC
Old Pine Street Church
Old St. Joseph’s Church
Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church
Old Zion Lutheran Church
St. Augustine Catholic Church
St. Peter’s Church
The Dialogue Institute

The Founding Faiths website provides information about participating sites, public events, and visiting opportunities, with programming and calendar updates continuing throughout 2026. Visitors are encouraged to explore the architecture, artistry, history, and living community impact of these historic churches, synagogues, and meeting houses.

Partners for Sacred Places is the only national nonsectarian nonprofit organization dedicated to helping congregations and communities sustain and actively use historic sacred places for the public good. Through training, research, advocacy, and community engagement, Partners works to ensure that sacred places remain vital resources serving neighborhoods and strengthening civic life across the United States.

Jean-Baptiste Lestiboudois, Botanical and Medicinal Chart, detail, 1774, engraving with watercolor
(Paris, MNHN, Central Library; source: archive.org, 2016)

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From the Call for Papers:

Journal18, Issue #24 (Fall 2027) — Data

Issue edited by Yuthika Sharma and Clara Drummond

Proposals due by 15 September 2026; finished articles will be due by 2 April 2027

How does the notion of ‘data’ shape our understanding of the eighteenth century?

This issue of J18 queries the role of data in relation to art, visual, and material histories of the eighteenth century: for example, maps as an encapsulation of land-based statistics, the recording of flora and fauna, lists of people and occupations, the making of pattern books, logs of plantation produce, the quantification of goods traded, building/describing archives, the catalogues of collections, taxonomies, census taking, or even journals of voyages and touristic activities in the context of Europe’s maritime expansion into Asia, Americas, and the Pacific. From trade ships carrying porcelain as ballast (that was cataloged diligently) to personal cabinets of curiosity (that are examples of selective data mining), the scale and scope of data building varied. To what extent was the creation of ‘big data’ foundational to the process of empire building? And what sort of products (maps, albums, logs, gazetteers, almanacs) were the result of this information gathering? To what extent can complex, high volume datasets, such as those generated from maritime exploration, account for modes of colonial expansion? What was the nature of intangibles that resisted typification and classification?

The theme of ‘data’ takes a historical view of a phenomenon that is now driving the creation of large data centers and a quest for infinite data, and what critics have described as ‘data colonialism’ and dispossession. This issue seeks to query the idea of humanistic data as something emerging from specific cultural and historical contexts and representations of lives and ideas that were subjective and personal but that nonetheless drove larger conceptual and economic shifts in the context of empire building in the eighteenth century. This issue also encourages papers that bring together ideas from the digital humanities and collection-as-data theory and practice in order to reflect on the eighteenth century.

Proposals for issue #24 Data are now being accepted. The deadline for proposals is 15 September 2026. To submit a proposal, send an abstract (250 words) and a brief biography to the following email addresses: editor@journal18.org, yuthika.sharma@northwestern.edu, and cdrummond@northwestern.edu. Articles should not exceed 4000 words (including footnotes) and will be due for submission by 2 April 2027. For further details on submission and Journal18 house style, see Information for Authors.

Issue Editors
Yuthika Sharma, Northwestern University
Clara Drummond, McCormick Library, Northwestern University

A Day in the Eighteenth Century: Chronicle of a Parisian Townhouse

Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 18 February — 5 July 2026

Curated by Ariane James-Sarazin and Sophie Motsch

Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre, La Mauvaise Nouvelle (The Bad News), oil on canvas, 23.5 × 18.5 cm (Paris: Musée des Arts Décoratifs).

A Day in the Eighteenth Century: Chronicle of a Parisian Townhouse invites visitors to step inside the intimate world of an eighteenth-century aristocratic residence and its inhabitants—masters, servants, and household animals. Featuring more than 550 original objects, drawn from the museum’s collections and for most of them, rarely on view, the exhibition gathers all fields of expression of the decorative arts—wood panelling and wallpapers, furniture, ceramics, silverware, clothing and fashion accessories, toys, and jewellery—to recreate the life of a Parisian hôtel particulier in the 1780s. In a cinematic, sound-filled and scented atmosphere, the visitors wander from room to room as if they were close acquaintances, friends, or privileged guests of the family.

The exhibition is curated by Ariane James-Sarazin, Chief Heritage Curator responsible for the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century collections and the Nissim de Camondo collection, together with Sophie Motsch, Assistant Curator.

Ariane James-Sarazin and Sophie Motsch, eds., Une journée au XVIIIe siècle, chronique d’un hôtel particulier (Paris: Éditions Les Arts Décoratifs, 2026), 528 pages, ISBN: 978-2383140351, €39.

French Art and the Aesthetics of Power

Special issue of Arts, edited by Hector Reyes

Proposals due by 31 July 2026; final manuscripts due by 1 June 2027

French art looms large in the historiography of art history; its centrality is tied to the political role that France played in articulating the very idea of centralized state power for Europe more generally during the transition between the early modern and the modern age. The art of French culture, born of centralized power and encoded with cultural knowledge, has been able to sustain our collective attention, analyses, and interpretations. But as the field and the humanities have reconfigured what constitutes power and how it operates, it seems appropriate to rethink the transparency of the historical narrative that links political centralization to cultural authority to formal manifestation in art.

We invite papers that reconfigure those seemingly streamlined relations in various ways, for example: the identification of new archives that challenge our ideas about the locations or operations of power; new ideas about form, its constitution, or theorization; new ways to think about ‘experience’ as a political, social, or artistic phenomenon; new narratives of cultural patrimony; new theories or ideas of periodization; postcolonial or decolonial analyses. Together, the articles of this Special Issue will compliment and challenge the established narratives of French cultural authority while still taking seriously the artistic object that is at the heart of French patrimony’s power.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors first submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–400 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editor hectorre@usc.edu or to the Arts editorial office (arts@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editor for the purpose of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Hector Reyes
Guest Editor
Department of Art History, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Holly E.J. Black, The Story of Printmaking: A Global History of Art (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2026), 272 pages, ISBN: 978-0300274080, $35.

A vivid history of the evolution of printmaking as a means of creative expression, from prehistory to the present day

The significance of printmaking within the history of art is often underplayed, obscured or misunderstood. This book tells the story of artist prints from across the globe in a manner that is accessible and engaging. It demystifies how prints are made—from woodblock to etching—and explores how, throughout history, printmaking has defied easy categorisation, straddling ‘fine’ art practices and commercially minded production. In fact, it has been employed as much for creative experimentation as it has for disseminating information.

Beginning in ancient East Asia and travelling through Renaissance Europe, revolutionary Mexico, and post-Apartheid South Africa, these ten chapters celebrate the interconnected nature of the printed image and its multiple histories, while illuminating the lesser-known players who have been deliberately or erroneously overlooked. Whether formed by slicing linoleum or plunging plates into acid, then distributed via bound books or pasted posters, the print has not just replicated the world, it has shaped it.

Holly E. J. Black is a London-based journalist and contributing arts editor at The World of Interiors. Her writing has appeared in titles including The Art Newspaper, Art Review, Financial Times, House & Garden, and Wallpaper. She is the author of Artists on Art.

Thomas Gainsborough, Landscape with Sheep and Cattle on the Bank of a Stream, 1780–84, synthetic black chalk with stumping on wove paper, all four corners cut (London: Courtauld Gallery, Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952).

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Upcoming at the Courtauld:

Imagining Britain: Postgraduate and Early Career Research in British and Irish Art

Courtauld, Vernon Square Campus, London, 9 June 2026

Organized by Claire Ó Nualláin and Clara Shaw

A decade on from the inaugural provocation of British Art Studies Volume I, published in November 2015, in which art historians responded to the statement, “There’s No Such Thing as British Art,” a significant aspect of British art studies has involved reflection on the nature and boundaries of the field itself.

The expansion of the field’s geographic and intellectual perspectives has opened new avenues for further research. For instance, scholars have recognised the possibilities afforded to the study of British art when it is brought into dialogue with the arts of regions which have been marginalised in its discussion, including Ireland and former colonial territories. This introspection has instigated a re-examination of British collections, with major rehangs including at Tate Britain, encouraging fresh perspectives on canonical works of art and the emergence of lesser-known artists and histories from the archive. In 2025, the Courtauld Institute of Art announced the opening of the Manton Centre for British Art, a major new initiative in the field, and providing new contexts in which to explore the definition, scope and even relevance of the concept of ‘British’ art.

Centred around themes of a national taste, the construction of landscapes, visualisations of empire, and the fabrication of a ‘national’ identity, this symposium provides an interdisciplinary, cross-period forum for fruitful discussions by PhD and early career researchers on the role of visual and material culture in reinforcing, challenging and complicating the notion of ‘British.’

This symposium event is organised by Claire Ó Nualláin and Clara Shaw, supported by the CHASE Doctoral Training Partnership and the Manton Centre for British Art.

p r o g r a m m e

9.30  Registration

10.00  Opening remarks

10.10  Session 1 | Cultivating Taste
Chaired by Jelena Sofronijevic
• Isobel Muir — ‘Art for the People’? An Examination of the Response to the ‘Modern Painters of To-Day’ exhibitions of 1942, curated by Lillian Browse
• Nam Huh — Whose Britain? Diasporic Moving-Image, Archives, and Contemporary Histories
• Ella Nixon — The Arts Council Collection: Redefining British Art in the 1980s

11.20  Tea and Coffee break

11.35  Session 2 | Constructing Spaces
Chaired by Jack Englehardt
• Grace Fannon — Performing Britain in John Speed’s The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine
• Eleanor Stephenson — Visualising Britishness in Industrial Landscapes of Wales
• Méabh Scahill — Germinating ‘Britain’ in Ireland?: Centring Ireland in Decimus Burton and Richard Turner’s Botanic Architecture

12.45  Lunch break

13.45  Session 3 | Conceptualising Empire
Chaired by Alisha Ma
• Abigail Spencer — The Maternal Image and the Visual Culture of Slavery, c.1788–1814
• Sarah Hutcheson — ‘Whose rich productions we so justly prize’: Naturalizing Catarina de Bragança in the Ceiling Paintings at Windsor Castle, 1678–88
• Shaheen Alikhan — Elephant and Castle: African Forts and Heraldry in the Shaping of British National Identity

14.55  Tea and coffee break

15.10  Session 4 | Creating Identities
Chaired by Emma Davis
• Christina Childs — Free Unions Locked Up: The Paradox of Resistance and the Special Branch Confiscation of a British Surrealist Journal
• Ed Kettleborough — Sunset on Stability: Class, Nation, and Masculinity in the Early Work of Derek Boshier
• Amber Butchart — Fabric of Britain: Textiles, Affect, and the Propaganda of National Identity

16.20  Closing remarks

16.30  Wine reception

Microhistories of the Andes

San Antonio Museum of Art, 24 May 2026 — 23 May 2027

Curated by Kristopher Driggers

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Peru, late 18th century, oil on canvas, 45 × 31 cm (San Antonio Museum of Art, 2003.45).

Named one of the must-see shows this spring by The New York Times, the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) presents Microhistories of the Andes, an exhibition that closely examines individual objects to draw out larger stories about their culture of origin. Curated by Kristopher Driggers, Curator of Latin American Art, Microhistories of the Andes will be on view in the Golden Gallery from 24 May 2026 to 23 May 2027. The exhibition explores Andean cosmologies, cultural conceptions of agricultural practices, objects of devotion and spirituality, and the histories of materials across land and time.

Microhistories of the Andes highlights textiles, ceramic sculptures, paintings, metalwork, and feather arts from the Andean region, including recent acquisitions, such as a gift from Hank Lee in memory of Margie M. Shackelford, and gifts from prominent collectors such as Lindsay and Lucy Duff.

“Microhistories of the Andes poses a question to our visitors: How do singular objects become the starting point for telling broader stories about the past?” Driggers said. “At art museums, we are used to thinking of artworks as exemplifying broader narratives. With its framing, this exhibition brings our attention to the way we move from objects to the larger human stories behind them, with SAMA’s collection as the starting point—including recent gifts to the collection and works that have not been seen in many years.”

Featuring ancient objects from as early as the first millennium AD to more recent objects from the twentieth century, this exhibition examines the cultural context in which they were created. Additionally, highlighting objects from different countries across the Andean region provides a comprehensive look at the region’s diverse history and landscapes, including mountainous, desert, and tropical areas.

David Pearson, Bookbindings: An Illustrated History (Oxford: Bodleian Library Publishing, 2026), 240 pages, ISBN: 978-1851246458, £50 / $75.

An extravagantly illustrated history of the development of bookbindings, from antiquity to modern day.

Bindings have been an essential—and often beautiful—component of books since the codex form was invented 2,000 years ago. They make books work, but they also provide an opportunity for binders to display their skills. Until book trade processes were industrialized in the nineteenth century, every binding was a unique handcrafted object, no matter how simple or elaborate. Bindings have been made of all kinds of materials—calfskin, parchment, vellum, ivory, even silver—and embellished using many different techniques to satisfy the wishes of owners, ranging from students to kings. How they were produced and decorated has evolved, and many countries have their own distinctive traditions. Bindings may testify to the taste and social status of wealthy connoisseurs, or to the economic necessities of ordinary households. Because they can often be dated and localized, they also give us information about the histories of individual volumes. This lavishly illustrated book provides a fascinating history of the development of bookbindings from Roman times to the present day. Almost all the examples are chosen from the shelves of the Bodleian Library, showcasing the outstanding collection of historic bindings to be found there.

David Pearson is a leading authority on the history of books. His previous books include Provenance Research in Book History and Speaking Volumes: Books with Histories also published by Bodleian Library Publishing.

c o n t e n t s

Birth of the Codex to Medieval Traditions
New Ideas in a World of Print
Craftsmanship & Innovation
Nineteenth-Century Transformations
The Rebirth of Craft Binding
Bindings with a Purpose
Materials & Techniques
Decorative Themes