Overview: 51 works by 26 American artists from the collection of John Wilmerding were presented in this exhibition, which included landscapes, marine paintings, portraits, still lifes, and figure paintings. Among the artists whose work was represented were George Caleb Bingham, Thomas Eakins, William Stanley Haseltine, Fitz Hugh Lane, John Marin, John Frederick Peto, and William Trost Richards. Drawings and watercolors by Frederic Edwin Church and other artists depicted Mount Desert Island, Maine, from the 1840s to the early twentieth century. In conjunction with the exhibition, Wilmerding announced that all of the works would remain at the National Gallery of Art and that George Caleb Bingham’s Mississippi Boatman would be an immediate gift.

On October 10, 2004 Wilmerding and exhibition curator Franklin Kelly were joined by other experts in American art for a public discussion about the development of American art scholarship and collections.

Organization: The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Franklin Kelly, senior curator of American and British paintings at the National Gallery, was curator.