‘The Marquis de Lafayette and the Antislavery Movement’ Opens in New York City

The Marquis de Lafayette’s role as America’s savior during the Revolutionary War is in the spotlight, thanks to the award-winning Broadway musical Hamilton. His role as an ardent abolitionist is less well known but no less worthy of celebration. It’s now getting some well-deserved attention in a new exhibition, A True Friend of the Cause: Lafayette and the Antislavery Movement, which runs through Feb. 4 at The Grolier Club, 47 E. 60^th Street, New York City. The exhibition is free and open to the public Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

The exhibition provides the first comprehensive look at the Marquis de Lafayette as an international antislavery advocate who influenced the abolitionist movement on three continents and draws upon Lafayette College’s rich collections of 18th and 19th century rare books, manuscripts, paintings, prints, and objects, some of which are on public view for the first time. The approximately 130 works in the exhibition also include loans from Cornell University and the New-York Historical Society. Read more about the exhibition.

A 75-page catalog will accompany the exhibition, which is curated by Lafayette’s Olga Anna Duhl, Oliver Edwin Williams Professor of Languages, and Diane Shaw, director of special collections and College archivist.

In conjunction with the exhibition, a roundtable discussion will be held from 2-3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at the Grolier Club in New York City on the role of the Marquis de Lafayette as an international antislavery advocate.  The discussion will be moderated by the exhibition’s curators. Panelists include three scholars: Laura Auricchio, professor of art history at Parsons School of Design (The New School); François Furstenberg, professor of history at Johns Hopkins University; and John Stauffer, professor of English, American studies, and African American studies at Harvard University.

For more information visit www.grolierclub.org or contact Diane Windham Shaw, shawd@lafayette.edu, (610) 330-5401.

View photos in Flickr from the opening reception.

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Photos: Courtesy of Lafayette College, photography by Roy Croething.

Kristine Y. Todaro
Director/Special Projects & Media Relations
Lafayette College
610-330-5119
LafColnews@lafayette.edu
www.lafayette.edu

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