A quilt with the Declaration of Independence reproduced at its center. Enclosing this central image are concentric borders of red, white, and blue patterning. Within one of the borders, the American flag is centered above the declaration, and the British Red Ensign below it. Floral borders in shades of brown run along the quilt’s outer edges.
On now

Exhibition: Keeping Alive the Remembrance: Commemorating America's Founding, 1776–1876

Drawn from the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery, this focused installation commemorates the nation’s 250th anniversary. The works on display, all made between 1776 and 1876, reveal how artists working in different art forms preserved a sense of vital connection to the founding during the country’s first century. By recording portraits and illustrating key events, artists shaped the American visual imagination in ways that still resonate today.

Keeping Alive the Remembrance is on view in the second-floor American art galleries.

A quilt with the Declaration of Independence reproduced at its center. Enclosing this central image are concentric borders of red, white, and blue patterning. Within one of the borders, the American flag is centered above the declaration, and the British Red Ensign below it. Floral borders in shades of brown run along the quilt’s outer edges.

Quilt, probably made in Philadelphia, ca. 1870. Red, white, blue, beige, printed on solid calico and white cotton. Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of the Joel E. and Carole Bernstein Family Collection

Objects in the Exhibition

Quilt

Maker: (of quilt) Unknown, Maker: (of handkerchief) Robert and Colin Gillespie (Scottish, 1808–ca. 1825)

The Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, October 16, 1777

Artist: John Trumbull (American, 1756–1843)

George Washington (1732–1799), LL.D. 1781

Artist: Robert Field (British, ca. 1769–1819)

The Peaceable Kingdom

Artist: Edward Hicks (American, 1780–1849)

George Washington (1732-1799) LL.D. 1781, 1789

Artist: Marquise Jean-Françoise-René-Almaire de Brehan (French, 1749–1826, active United States, 1788–89)

Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834)

Artist: William Russell Birch (British, 1755–1834)

Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834)

Artist: John Wesley Jarvis (American, born England, 1781–1839)

Memorial for George Washington (1732-1799), LL.D. 1781

Artist, attributed to: Samuel Folwell (American, ca. 1765–1813)

Constitution of the United States with Ornamental Frame

Artist: John William Casilear (American, 1811–1893), Printer: Toppan, Carpenter, Casilear & Company (American, 1851–61)

The Declaration of Independence

Artist: William Woodruff (American, 1797–1862)

Sword

Maker: Unknown, Honorand: Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, French, 1757–1834

Roger Sherman

Artist: Unknown, Artist, copy after: Ralph Earl (American, 1751–1801)

Related Content

Organized by the Departments of American Decorative Arts and American Paintings and Sculpture.