Acknowledgements
Preface
John Trumbull: A Founding Father of American Art
Benjamin West and John Trumbull
Conflicting Interpretations, Paradoxical Images
Foreword
The John Trumbull drawings, part of Fordham University Library's Charles Allen
Munn Collection of Early Americana, are treasures that have only been exhibited
at Fordham once, in 1943. This was the year they were acquired from Augusta
Munn Tilney, the niece of Charles Allen Munn who was the founder of Scientific
American Magazine and a collector of Americana. In addition to the 36 Trumbull
drawings, the collection includes 58 letters diaries and other papers of Washington,
Penn, Franklin, Revere, Lafayette, and others of the Revolutionary period.
Some of the drawings were exhibited at The Free Library of Jersey City in
1956 and at Yale University in 1982. They have never been reproduced in one
publication before now.
The scholar who has produced the most important work on the drawings, happily,
is Fordham's own Irma Jaffe, now Professor Emerita of Art History. She is
responsible for two distinguished books about Trumbull: John Trumbull, Patriot,
Artist of the American Revolution (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1975)
and John Trumbull: The Declaration of Independence (New York: Viking,
1976). She also wrote twelve articles on Trumbull in various art journals.
I thank Dr. Jaffe for her help in mounting the exhibition, Daniel Favata
for curating it, and Kathryn Heleniak and Keira Dillon for contributing articles
to this catalogue.
James P. McCabe
University Librarian
