Gansevoort Gallery, New York City.
Religion and the Early American Republic at L.I.M.A.A.H.C.
STONY BROOK, N.Y. – A new exhibition examining the role that religion played in the early American republic will run February 24 through April 29 at the Long Island Museum of American Art, History & Carriages.
Organized by the Library of Congress, the exhibition focuses on the centrality of religion to early American life and politics from the Protestant Reformations of the 1500s through the Second Great Awakening and the rise of the Mormons and new sects during the 1830s-50s.
Composed of approximately 160 artifacts, including original prints, letters, paintings, manuscripts and other early documents form the Library of Congress, the exhibit traces the development of colonial America by examining the profoundly pious spirit and the traditions that shaped it. Religious convictions were at the heart of the early American experience; faith and the promise of religious freedom prompted many men and women to risk a perilous crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. The exhibition examines the full religious spectrum of early America, including Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Anglicans, Quakers and Congregationalists, as well as early religious minorities such as Jews and Catholics.
The ways in which religious needs and motivations informed the everyday political actions of the American founders is a central issue of the exhibition. It also examines the church-state relation and identifies the democratic theological precepts that helped to influence the Founding Fathers in writing both the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.
Exhibition highlights include a silver Torah breastplate; evangelist George Whitefield’s portable pulpit; a stained glass window depicting the Prayer in the First Congress, A.D., 1774, circa 1848, from Christ Church in Philadelphia; beautiful and colorful Pennsylvania German religious fraktur and watercolor images; and an important letter by Thomas Jefferson on the subject of religion.
The museum is at 1200 Route 25A. For information, 631/751-0066.
