The Reply: A Complimentory [sic] Hieroglyphic Epistle from the Honorable Henry Laurens to Lord George Gordon

Henry Laurens

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This satire takes the form of a rebus letter written by Henry Laurens (1724-1792), a native of Charleston, South Carolina, sent as ambassador to the Netherlands by the Continental Congress. He was captured en route in 1779, off Newfoundland, tried for treason, thrown overboard then recovered. On October 6, 1781 became the first and only American ever imprisoned in the Tower of London, released on December 31 in exchange for Lord Cornwallis following the latter's surrender at Yorktown.

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.