The Art, Imagery, and Parody of the Ten Crucial Days

​One of the iconic images of the early days of the American Revolution is that of Washington crossing the Delaware on Christmas Eve 1776, portrayed in an 1851 painting by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutz. This painting solidified this crucial event in the public mind, and it remains one of the best-known portrayals of the Revolution. Painted in Germany 75 years after the Battle of Trenton, it is not surprising that some of the details are not accurate. This is also true of many of the numerous other artistic interpretations of this and other events of the Battles of Trenton and Princeton.

Roger Williams will share many of these interpretations during his talk, pointing out how these images have reinforced certain beliefs about the Revolution and created opportunities for exaggeration and even distortion of the actual events.A book publishing professional, Mr. Williams serves as a historical interpreter at Washington Crossing Historic Park, Pennsylvania, and for the Princeton Battlefield Society. He is the State Historian for the New Jersey Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and is co-founder of TenCrucialDays.org, an organized affiliation of organizations committed to the promotion of the ten days in 1776-77 that “turned the tide of American fortunes toward independence.”