Discover seven newly unveiled galleries of American art.
Commemorating the 250th anniversary of the nation, this major reinstallation of the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art presents seven new spaces dedicated to art of the colonial period through the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. These two foundational moments in the nation’s history provide a backdrop for an exploration of American history drawing from The Huntington’s extraordinary art and library collections. Building upon the “Borderlands” galleries, these refreshed and reimagined spaces examine issues of land, history, and identity within a global context and unveil exciting new acquisitions of works by artists Winslow Homer, Grafton Tyler Brown, Edward Mitchell Bannister, Agostino Brunias, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Nari Ward, and others. There is also a gallery devoted to historic silhouette portraits and works by such contemporary artists as Kara Walker, Todd Gray, and Letitia Huckaby, with responses by students produced in partnership with Ghetto Film School.
Highlights
Recently acquired works by Grafton Tyler Brown, Toshio Aoki, Agostino Brunias, and Jean‑Baptiste Carpeaux
Rare Civil War painting by Winslow Homer, The Sutler’s Tent (1863), acquired through partnership with The Ahmanson Foundation
Historic documents, including a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation and the first Bible translated into an Indigenous language and printed in what is now the United States
Works by such contemporary artists as Kara Walker, Nari Ward, and Todd Gray, offering dialogues between past and present
A dedicated gallery for the award-winning Ghetto Film School—the only space of its kind in an art museum—featuring student filmmaker responses to works in “By-and-By: Telling Stories Through Silhouettes”
Seven New Themed Galleries
Global Objects
From the fifteenth century onward, the world became linked through trade and communication as never before. This period marked the first time that Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas—what Europeans considered the “four continents”—became interconnected through robust, transoceanic trade networks. The colonial Americas were at the center of these networks. Whether part of the British, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, German, or French colonial settlements in the Americas, or the lands of Indigenous populations, these areas formed a complex, hemispheric borderland where peoples, goods, languages, and cultures intermixed. The objects in this gallery speak to this colonial interchange and provide examples of the styles and materials that circulated due to the expansion of global trade.
A New Nation
The early years of the United States were defined by debates over what the new nation would be. It was a period of hope and growing prosperity as the country rapidly expanded. Neoclassicism became popular in art and design, reflecting not only the styles of ancient Greece and Rome but also the origins of the democratic government that replaced colonial rule. These galleries center stories of place, histories of migration, and the close relationship between art, land, and politics. We hope that these galleries will raise questions about the nation’s past and present and become a space of reflection on art and the American experience.
Contested Ground
The map of the United States changed dramatically during the nineteenth century, leading up to the period of the Civil War and Reconstruction. During an era of growth and westward expansion, free states and slave states were added, creating borders within borders. California, formerly a territory of Mexico, became a free state in 1850. The Civil War cleaved the country in two, with the Union and Confederate states redrawing the map, a division not to be resolved until Reconstruction. This tumultuous moment marked what might be considered a second founding for the United States, one premised on emancipation. Many of the artworks displayed in this gallery express the unease and anxieties of the Civil War period and convey stories of enslavement and liberation. Other artworks show the growing professionalization of artists in the United States and enduring influences from abroad.
Imagined Pasts
At the beginning of the twentieth century, many American artists turned to history for inspiration. Some looked to the distant past—illustrating scenes from the Bible or ancient texts—while others were drawn to the painting and sculpture of the Renaissance. The art and architecture of Greece and Rome were enduringly popular, and the recent archaeological discoveries in Egypt became a sensation. Other artists like Japanese émigré Toshio Aoki and Pasadena architects Charles and Henry Greene adapted traditional Japanese iconography and design motifs. Regardless of their sources, each artist worked within these artistic traditions but updated and innovated them for the modern world.
By-and-By: Telling Stories Through Silhouettes
Silhouettes and profile images are forms of creative expression with an ancient history. In eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America, careful tracings of the human figure were especially popular, whether as cut silhouettes or as ornamentation on objects. What began as a quick and inexpensive form of portraiture, representing a wide range of everyday people, evolved into a profound and creative genre. Modern and contemporary artists have rediscovered the art form, eliciting its stark graphic power and evocations of memory. Featured in this gallery is a display of historical silhouettes alongside profiles by contemporary Black artists, such as Kara Walker, Mustafa Ali Clayton, Charles White, and Deidrick Brackens, that reclaim untold or underdocumented histories.
Ghetto Film School
Ghetto Film School (GFS) is an award-winning nonprofit founded in 2000 to educate, develop, and celebrate the next generation of great American storytellers. Through a partnership between GFS and The Huntington, high school-aged GFS students spent months immersed in a study of the Art Museum’s collections to create short films drawn from their own experiences and perspectives that are presented in our American art galleries. This year, responding to both historic silhouette portraits and works by contemporary artists, the students created black-and-white films shot on Bolex cameras using 16mm film. Their highly personal films explore how portraiture reveals the histories that shape us and our communities.
Zebulon Trickey House Mural
In the 1820s, muralist Rufus Porter advertised “Landscape Scenery Paintings” to “those gentlemen who are desirous of spending gloomy winter months amidst pleasant groves and verdant fields.” His nephew and apprentice Jonathan Poor painted a vibrantly colored mural in the parlor of the Zebulon Trickey House, a farmhouse outside of Portland, Maine. Completed in the mid 1830s, the mural features scenes of the Maine coastline, large trees on a rocky shore, islands punctuating the harbor, tall ships sailing in the distance, and a single figure piloting a small skiff. The walls have undergone extensive conservation treatment to stabilize the fragile plaster surface and are on view for the first time in the Jonathan and Karin Fielding Galleries of American Folk Art.
| The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, 1827 – 1875), Why Born Enslaved! 1868 (1872). Terracotta, 23 1/2 × 19 × 12 in. Photo courtesy of Schoelkopf Gallery. Purchased with funds from the Art Collectors' Council, with additional support from the Frances Crandall Dyke Bequest, and the Caillouette Acquisition Endowment for British and Continental Art.
| The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Agostino Brunias, Flower Girls of Dominica, n.d., oil on canvas, 11 3/4 × 9 1/8 in. Purchased with funds from the Art Collectors' Council, with additional support from the Schweppe Art Acquisitions Fund, the Connie Perkins Endowment and the estate of George and Nancy Parsons.
Thomas Cole, Portage Falls on the Genesee, ca. 1839. Oil on canvas, 84 1/4 x 61 1/4 in. Gift of The Ahmanson Foundation.
| The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Jonathan D. Poor, Mural for the Zebulon Trickey House (detail), ca. 1835, pigment, glue, and distemper on lime plaster, 68 5/8 × 143 × 3 in. Gift of Jonathan and Karin Fielding.
| The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Generous support for this installation is provided by The Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, and an anonymous foundation. Additional support is provided by the Steve Martin Fund for American Art, Susan W. and Carl W. Robertson, the Hannah and Russel Kully Fund for American Art, and the Decorative Arts Trust.
This installation is part of The Huntington’s “THIS LAND IS…” initiative, which is made possible through major support from The Fletcher Jones Foundation and Stewart R. Smith, Robin A. Ferracone, Logan Smith, and Tracy Beetler through The H. Russell Smith Foundation. Generous support for this initiative is also provided by LeeAnn and Ronald Havner through the JCS Foundation.
