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| Life-size plaster statue of George Washington made by William James Hubard in the 1850s, a copy of a late-18th-century marble statue by Jean-Antoine Houdon that resides in the Virginia State Capitol. The Hubard statue stood in the Hall of Representatives of the U.S. Capitol from 1870 to 1950. Gift of the Library of Virginia. |
Portrait of Charles Cornwallis, commander of British troops at the 1781 siege of Yorktown, by Daniel Gardner, 1780s.
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Portrait of King George III in coronation robes, from the studio of Allan Ramsay, who served as Principal Painter in Ordinary at the royal court. The oil-on-canvas painting with the original 18th-century gilt frame is one of several done by the studio between 1762 and 1784.
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| An early broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence printed in Boston soon after the Declaration was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. |
Portrait of Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, an American who joined the British side during the Revolution and was one of the most prominent scientists of the late 18th century, by an unknown artist, dating to circa 1800. |
Frontispiece of the Phillis Wheatley volume, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, 1773, First Edition.
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| Portrait medallion of Benjamin Franklin, produced by Jean-Baptiste Nini in 1777 while Franklin was serving as an American representative in France, where he had a key role in persuading the French to aid the American cause. |
A British officer’s gorget made of gilt brass, engraved with a crown and the initials “GR,” dates to the second half of the 18th century.
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"Lord Rodney's flagship 'Formidable' breaking through the French line at the battle of the Saintes, 12th April, 1782," painted between 1784 and 1787 by Lieutenant William Elliott of the Royal Navy.
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| Small wooden dome trunk owned by Continental Navy shipbuilder Captain Tobias Lear, 1773. |
Circa 1790 Wedgwood cameo medallion depicting a manacled slave surrounded by the motto, “AM I NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER?” |
Portrait of Louis XVI, King of France, attributed to the studio of Count Joseph Boze. The 16- by 13-inch portrait is a variation of Boze's original done in 1784. |
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Creamware jug dating to the 1770s decorated with the inscriptions “God Speed the Plow” and “Success to the Grain Return’d.”
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Wood desk, or bureau, made in the 1790s in the mid-Atlantic region, featuring American eagle inlays adapted from the Great Seal of the United States on the exterior side of its fall-front. |
Detail of the American eagle inlay on 1790s bureau.
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| Miniature portrait of General Daniel Morgan, renowned for defeating the British at the Battle of Cowpens in 1781, by James Peale, brother of Charles Willson Peale. The watercolor-on-ivory miniature portrait is set in a gilt case, designed to be worn as a locket or pin, engraved on the back with the initials “D.M.” |
Iron shackles manufactured in Africa for use in the transatlantic slave trade. Shackles of this type, called “bilboes,” have been found by underwater archaeologists on slave shipwrecks dating from the 16th through the 18th centuries.
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Silver and brass gorget, made in the late 18th century in Albany, New York. In the late colonial period, American silversmiths made a number of items to be traded to Indian tribes on the western frontier or given as presents in treaty negotiations.
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18th century, 26-inch-tall doll from Chalkley Farm in southern England. English dolls were a popular luxury trade commodity in Revolutionary-era America and are depicted in portraits of prosperous American children.
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Extracts from the Votes and Proceedings of the American Continental Congress, a pamphlet published by William and Thomas Bradford in Philadelphia in 1774. The First Continental Congress, which met in 1774, sought the repeal of the Intolerable Acts, a series of measures meant to reform colonial government and restore British authority after the Boston Tea Party, and approved the Declaration of Rights, a precourser to the Declaration of Independence. |
American silver-hilted, eagle-pommel sword. The scabbard mount is marked by the maker, Richard Humphreys of Philadelphia, and is dated 1776. The sword belonged to Captain William McKissack, an officer who fought in the Revolutionary War.
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18th-century British halfpenny token bearing the image of a man strung upon the gallows on one side with the slogan "End of Pain," a reference to the banished political theorist and British radical, Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense.
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Brass surveyor's compass, made by Goldsmith Chandlee, Winchester, Virginia, late 18th century. Surveyors mapped small claims of land as well as huge speculative parcels that pushed the frontier west toward the Blue Ridge Mountains and beyond after the Revolution.
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Silver-embroidered epaulette star, 1798-99, made for George Washington after he left the presidency and was re-appointed as commanding general of the new United States army.
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| James River Bank note adapted by the Virginia government for use as official currency. Issued in 1773, the note was signed by Peyton Randolph, the first president of the Continental Congress, John Blair and Robert Carter Nicholas. |
Firing Glass inscribed ‘Success to Trade,’ English, circa 1765. The firing glass, often inscribed with a motto, was a type of drinking glass used for delivering toasts. ‘Success to Trade’ was a popular sentiment on both sides of the Atlantic.
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Mahogany or rosewood octant with brass fittings, 1750-60, likely the work of English instrument makers Benjamin Cole senior or junior. The octant is a type of navigational instrument that would have been used on transatlantic voyages in the 18th century. |
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