Liberty Walled

Label

These two personifications of the United States reflect the nation during distinct periods of political distress. John McNevin developed this figure capturing the spirit of disunion as he worked among the bubbling tensions of the Civil War. Here, Disunion is tangled in a dispute between an eagle, representing power and freedom, and a serpent, representing wisdom. Her foot is crushing the fasces, a bundle of sticks symbolizing national unity, foreshadowing the years of war to come.

Over 150 years later, Art Hazelwood printed this Statue of Liberty to reckon with the contradictions of the national embrace of freedom during a period of increased police violence, surveillance, and anti-immigration policy. Liberty, a longstanding figure of freedom and migration, is physically blocked by a bordering wall lined with barbed wire. Though nearly fully obstructed, she remains instantly recognizable due to her signature torch and crown, alongside the print’s oxidized green color.

From the 2025-26 exhibition Revolution Reconsidered: History, Myth, and Propaganda, curated by Michael W. Hartman (Jonathan Little Cohen Curator of American Art), Haely Chang (Jane and Raphael Bernstein Associate Curator of East Asian Art), Elizabeth Rice Mattison (Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art), Ashley B. Offill (Curator of Collections), and Evonne Fuselier (Hood Museum Board of Advisors Mutual Learning Fellow)

Course History

WRIT 5, Quests, Carl Thum, Winter 2015

Exhibition History

Revolution Reconsidered: History, Myth, and Propaganda, Harteveldt Family Gallery and Owen Robertson Cheatham Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 18, 2025 - August 8, 2026.

Provenance

Booklyn Artists Alliance, Brooklyn, New York; sold to present collection, 2013.

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