Cornwall, CT – In The Founder’s Footsteps – A Walk Through History with Adam Van Doren
June 11th, 2022 – Book talk and signing at 5 pm; Artist’s Reception, 6-8 pm.
Registration required: https://cornwalllibrary.org/art-exhibits/

The Cornwall Library is delighted to announce a book talk and artist exhibition by Author and Artist (and longtime Cornwall resident) Adam Van Doren, who will discuss his newly published volume In The Founder’s Footsteps: Landmarks of the American Revolution (Godine). Van Doren’s presentation will include a slide show featuring images from the book, which incorporates his essays and paintings of more than thirty historic sites of the War of Independence. Historian Nathaniel Philbrick has written the preface.

This book is an artistic tour of the original thirteen colonies through elegantly crafted images. Combining well-known places like Bunker Hill and the home of Alexander Hamilton with more obscure ones, the range of locales (including taverns, meeting houses, battlefields, forts, and monuments) each play a role in the rich tapestry that defines our country — the places where daring people forged a revolution.

There is always something new to be found in America’s past that also brings greater clarity to our present, and the future we choose to make as a nation. With this in mind, Adam Van Doren traveled from Maine to Georgia touring an American cultural landscape with his curious and insightful perspective.

For armchair travelers and anyone fascinated by Americana, Van Doren has created an unforgettable journey through history. We see the Founders – both their stunning achievements and chilling moral failures — where they lived, fought, and agreed on a common purpose, to create a nation whose future, and its legacy, is continually evolving.

The book has been awarded the 2022 Distinguished Book Award from the Society of Colonial Wars, and has been praised by the The New Criterion in its recent issue: “Van Doren’s watercolors give the book visual appeal, and the window it opens on the lives of these places, past and present, makes it worth keeping around.” Author and Historian Simon Winchester has also written “This is not just a pretty book — though Adam van Doren’s many watercolors are pretty indeed —but is wise and fascinating too…The seven years of the Revolutionary War are retold with a measured sympathy— no jingoism here! And we must be grateful for the images and words of a supremely able historian and artist.”

After the talk, which begins at 5 pm, Van Doren will have books available and will happily sign them to anyone who purchases a copy. Following the lecture, an artist’s reception will take place from 6-8pm, featuring an exhibition of original watercolors and oils from the book, which will be on display and for sale. The art exhibition runs till July 9th.

Adam Van Doren received his masters degree at Columbia University and has been a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome. He teaches art and is an Associate Fellow at Yale University, and has exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., among other institutions. His work is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Wadsworth Atheneum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He is the author of The House Tells the Story: Homes of the American Presidents, The Stones of Yale, and An Artist in Venice.

The Cornwall Library – 30 Pine Street, Cornwall Village, 06753

Events