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Hello and Happy Spring!  Thank you for the wonderful feedback on our first newsletter last month.

In this second newsletter, we are presenting the painting “Colonial Wedding” by Edward Lamson Henry (1841-1919), one of America’s leading historical genre painters. This painting was acquired by Jack Warner from a New York gallery in 1980 and remained one of his favorites over the next 37 years.  He loved it because it depicts not only the promise of America as a new beginning but also the metaphor of America as a “melting pot” implying the successful intermarriage of diverse cultures and ethnicities. 

This great painting is as relevant to a divided America today as it was to America in the tumultuous and rapidly changing years following the Civil War.   The Colonial Revival, sparked by the Centennial celebrations of 1876 and lasting through the 1930s, brought a new awareness of America’s past and helped re-create a sense of unity and national identity.  Created during this period, Henry presents a nostalgic, yet historically accurate depiction of a fashionable Colonial wedding in which the newlywed couple, setting off by horseback, seem to represent America’s future.

This painting reminded Americans then, and is capable of reminding Americans today, of who we are!  It reminds us that America has always represented the promise of a new beginning, the blending of new and old cultures and the fulfillment of spiritual as well as material ideas and aspirations. 

To learn more about the history in this painting and related primary source documents researched by noted historian Gregory Balan, Click here.

To see a sample inquiry-based lesson plan using this painting to teach the history of the Colonial Period and the development of an American Sense of Identity, click here.

We look forward to hearing from you and hope you will share this newsletter with others interested in the understanding of American History through Art. Also, if you know someone who would enjoy receiving our newsletter, we’ve added a form on our site to join the newsletter. Click here to view.

Susan G. Warner

Chair, Warner Foundation

Welcome,

At the Warner Foundation, we’ve been spending time planning for the future of the Foundation, and the work is continuing. At the same time, we’ve been funding interesting work around the country that connects to our mission.

During our planning, we spent time considering what was truly important to Jack Warner and how his enthusiasm for American history, concern for education, and his incomparable zeal for collecting early American art could continue to build upon his impressive legacy.

The work that we have recently been undertaking includes

1. Sponsorship of Ashbrook Seminars to Encourage the teaching of American History thru American Art using inquiry methods and primary documents   (click here to see one in October 2022 at the New Britain Museum of American Art)
2. Enhancing and traveling the Foundation Exhibit “American History in Art”  currently at Figge and using it to promote professional development for local teachers of American History and Social Studies.
3. Encourage and support other museums to use their art collection to develop resources for local US History and Social Studies teachers in private and public schools.  A new RFP will be released soon that will invite specific museums and galleries to respond to these ideals.
4. In our monthly e-newsletter, we will feature a work of art from the historic Jack Warner Collection that can be used to teach history in the classroom.  A historian will be invited to provide additional historical content and context to encourage teachers to promote inquiry methods of teaching in the classroom.  Recommend related primary documents, literature, and music will be included in lesson plans. Click here to view this month’s selected piece “Washington and Gist Cross the Allegheny River.“

We look forward to providing you with new Historical Context to pieces from the collection each month.

Kind regards,

Susan Warner