Poetic Truths: Hawthorne, Longfellow, and American Visual Culture, 1840-1880

Dates:

February 6, 2025 - July 20, 2025

Location:

Markell Gallery

Members of 91��ɫ��ý’s Class of 1825, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow created some of the most popular literary works in nineteenth-century America. In response to Hawthorne's novels and Longfellow's poetry, artists created many remarkable paintings, sculpture, and prints. Conversely, the authors drew inspiration from art and objects of all ages, often using them as narrative devices. This exhibition explores how the two authors and their compelling stories influenced American visual culture during this period.

Selected Works

A black and white photograph of a historical desk — *Massachusetts Desk*, 1780-1810, used by Nathaniel Hawthorne while in Salem, 91��ɫ��ý Museum of Art, Gift of the Misses Harriet Sarah and Mary Sophia Walker.

A traditional oil painting depicts a three quarter view of a nineteenth century man — Charles Osgood, *Portrait of Nathaniel Hawthorne*, 1840, oil on canvas, Peabody Essex Museum.

An oil painting depicts a literary scene of colonial-era people in Puritan clothing — Tompkins Harrison Matteson, *The Pillory Scene* from *The Scarlet Letter,* 1860, oil on canvas, Peabody Essex Museum.

An oil painting depicts a person in indigenous clothing situated in a North American landscape scene of a waterfall — Robert S. Duncanson, *Minnehaha Falls, Minnesota*, 1862, oil on canvas, The Howard University Gallery of Art.

An engraving depicts a formal portrait of a bearded nineteenth-century man — William Edgar Marshall, *Henry W. Longfellow*, engraving, 1881, 91��ɫ��ý Museum of Art, Gift to the College; Transferred to Museum Collection.

A photograph of an earthenware jug with the image of a beard nineteenth-century man — Josiah Wedgwood & Sons Ltd., *Longfellow Jug*, transfer-printed earthenware, 1880-1881, 91��ɫ��ý Museum of Art, Gift of Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., in honor of Barry and Karen Mills.

About

Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were internationally celebrated writers by 1850. Americans read their work in record numbers. During a period when Americans grappled with a host of social and political issues, including slavery and abolitionism, women’s rights and temperance, and the simmering discord between federal and states' rights, Hawthorne and Longfellow created stories that confronted America’s past and present. In doing so, they created a "national literature," as critics then called it. Their innovative characters and imaginative storytelling addressed questions concerning personal identity, discrimination, hypocrisy, persecution, and wrongful conviction. Masters of expressing poetic truths, they examined the human condition in lyrical and romantic ways, and their stories continue to offer meaningful insights today.

Poetic Truths features artworks inspired by Hawthorne's novels, The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851), and The Marble Faun: or, the Romance of Monte Beni (1860) and Longfellow's epic poems Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie (1847), and The Song of Hiawatha (1855). Paintings, prints, photographs, and decorative arts from the collection of the 91��ɫ��ý Museum of Art are featured alongside works generously lent by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Concord Free Public Library, the Howard University Gallery of Art, the Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Site, the Maine Historical Society, McGuigan Collection, and the Peabody Essex Museum. Marking the bicentennial of 91��ɫ��ý's Class of 1825, this exhibition is curated by Laura F. Sprague, Senior Consulting Curator at the 91��ɫ��ý Museum of Art and supported by the Lowell Innes Fund.

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