Exhibition Opening Reception

Exhibition Opening Reception

George Pope Morris:Defining American Culture

Exhibition dates: September 23 - December 5, 2009

From 1823 to 1846, George Pope Morris (1802 – 1864) was editor and publisher of the most popular literary journals of the day, including the New-York Mirror and the Home Journal, which was the journalistic ancestor of the magazine Town and Country. Morris published the writings of William Cullen Bryant, Lydia Maria Child, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Washington Irving, and Edgar Allan Poe and serialized the works of Charles Dickens. Morris himself was the author of dozens of critical articles, poems, and popular songs. As a friend and supporter of American artists including Asher Durand and Thomas Cole, he played a key role in the development and promotion of the Hudson River School as the first major movement in the history of  American art. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, photographs, letters, books, periodicals, and sheet music that represent Morris’s pioneering achievements as a writer, poet, critic, journalist, and publisher.

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, available for purchase at the Athenæum, with essays by art historians Dr. David B. Dearinger, Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Boston Athenæum, and Dr. Trudie A. Grace, Curator at the Putnam County Historical Society & Foundry School Museum, who are co-curators of the exhibition.

The exhibition is organized by the Boston Athenæum in conjunction with the Putnam County Historical Society & Foundry School Museum, Cold Spring, New York, and is supported in part by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities.

 Please Note: This event is open to the public. Reservations are not required.