Congressional Pugilists

Anonymous, American, 18th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This print satirizes the intense factionalism that dominated Congress during the administration of President John Adams (1797–1801). It records a physical fight that broke out on the floor between Representative Roger Griswold of Connecticut (a Federalist) and Representative Matthew Lyon of Vermont (a Jeffersonian), provoked by an insulting remark made by Griswold. Also present are Speaker Jonathan Dayton and Clerk Jonathan W. Condy (both shown seated), Chaplain Ashbel Green (at left, in profile). Griswold kicks Lyon and swings a cane, while Lyon is armed with a pair of fireplace tongs.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art