- The Yale University Art Gallery completed a ten-year renovation and reopened to the public December 2012. Founded by John Trumbull, who donated many of his own works in exchange for an annuity of $1000, the renovation links together three architecturally diverse buildings that, once inside, seem very much a whole. There is a wonderful collection of American art — one of the best in the country — including a room devoted to paintings by Trumbull (69 miniatures and iconic historical paintings are on view), as well as paintings by his contemporaries.
Yale University Art Gallery Reopened
[Of those opposed to slavery,] George Washington belonged, with Mason and Jefferson, in the hardest category — disapproving owners. Theirs was the most difficult position to maintain, psychologically and rhetorically. It would not be maintained over the next sixty years, as southern antislavery rhetoric withered. Practically and politically, disapproving owners were in the hardest position from which to achieve their goals. How do you weaken an institution in which you and all your neighbors are enmeshed? Washington did enough, finally, to free his own slaves, which was more than many owners in his position did. Jefferson never freed all his, nor did any of the other slave-owning presidents.
Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington (1996)