<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle">In five dramatic allegorical paintings, Thomas Cole echoed the fear of Americans, over a century ago, that all civilizations, our own included, must someday perish.</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">The canvases of John Trumbull, sometime soldier, reluctant artist, have given us our visual image of the colonies’ struggle to be free</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Edward Moran’s series of Victorian seascapes recall a vanished national mood—when the eagle screamed, when painters were sentimental and poets misty about the eyes.</span> </span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span><span>American colonial elites surrounded themselves with paintings, furniture, and other objects to shape their identities and to set themselves apart from others.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
