The American Rattle Snake

The American Rattle Snake

James Gillray

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This satirical print, perhaps one of Gillray's earliest, uses a snake--a popular American symbol before the invention of the emblematic stars and stripes. The coils here surround two military camps with text below that states, "Two British Armies I have thus Burgoyn'd, And room for more I've got behind." A sign on the serpent's tail reads, "An Apartment to lett for Military Gentlemen," referring to the recent surrender of Generals Burgoyne and Cornwallis to the Americans.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.