In The Founder’s Footsteps – Adam Van Doren

The Cornwall Library is delighted to announce an art exhibition by Author and Artist (and longtime Cornwall resident) Adam Van Doren,  an exhibition of original watercolors and oils from his book, In The Founder’s Footsteps: Landmarks of the American Revolution (Godine).

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 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.” 

The art exhibition runs till July 9th and all artwork is for sale.

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.