Eagle

William Rush

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This monumental eagle, of fluid and energetic form, was commissioned in 1809 by Saint John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Philadelphia for its new building. The bird’s open beak contains a red-painted iron tongue, from which a long chain was suspended to support the sounding board above the pulpit. In 1847 the sculpture was removed from Saint John’s and installed in the Assembly Room of Independence Hall, where it remained until 1914. In that location, near the Liberty Bell and Rush’s 1815 carved wood statue of George Washington, its symbolism changed; once an attribute of the church’s patron saint, it metamorphosed into an emblem of national pride.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art