Virtually explore the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with Smarthistory as your guide
Some background
videos + essays
Link to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts's website
Benjamin West, Penn’s Treaty with the Indians
A founding myth for Pennsylvania and for the United States
Peter Frederick Rothermel, De Soto Raising the Cross on the Banks of the Mississippi
Picturing Spanish conquest in an era of U.S. expansion
Thomas Birch, Perry’s Victory on Lake Erie
"We have met the enemy and they are ours." The battle that turned the War of 1812
Charles Willson Peale, The Artist in His Museum
What couldn’t Peale do? He is shown as he saw himself: portraitist, naturalist, curator, and Enlightenment thinker.
John Vanderlyn, Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos
Unusually early for an American artist, Vanderlyn trained in France—but Old World style didn’t sell in America.
