Art historian Margaretta Lovell and social historian David Henkin, both professors at UC Berkeley, offer a rich context for the artwork on view in American Wonder. They will discuss pre-Civil War American society and culture, touching on such issues as individual and community identity, rituals of mourning, schoolgirl skills, professional penmanship, and the role of domestic animals.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Discover the early years of our nation through portraits, landscapes, commemorative mourning pictures, weather vanes, and decorative sculptures that reflect the daily lives and aspirations of Americans between the years 1776 and 1865. Drawing upon our distinguished collection of American folk art, one of the finest in California, American Wonder begins in Colonial New England, evoking the world of early settlers, and ends in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the pitched optimism of the Gold Rush met with dreams of a post-Civil War American Eden.