In this painting, Ruth Bader Ginsburg appears with a calm yet determined gaze—perhaps a reflection of her stalwart position supporting gender equality, reproductive justice, and LGBTQ rights. Constance Peck Beaty also painted Ginsburg’s official portrait, which today hangs in the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C.

A frequent visitor to the Brooklyn Museum as a child, Ginsburg gifted this work to the collection in 2019.

Gilbert Stuart portrayed George Washington several times in this stately, full-length English portrait format, known as the Grand Manner. Representing Washington in the classical pose of an orator (with arm extended), Stuart added a sword, symbolic of the first president’s military victories. The dramatic setting of columns and billowing drapery is typical of European Grand Manner portraits (in particular, a seventeenth-century French work by Hyacinthe Rigaud), but Stuart included American details such as the books leaning against the table leg. The added symbolism of the rainbow in the background referred to the era of peace following the Revolution, during Washington’s terms as president.

Stuart’s portrait was copied many times, and his original was reproduced in a popular print that led to the image’s fame.

Albert Bierstadt was a skilled showman. Here, he reorganized Rocky Mountain landmarks, exaggerated their scale, and introduced dramatic weather to thrill audiences at a moment when the North American continent was under rapid development. Bierstadt’s display for profit of theatrically lit large canvases like this one was a forerunner of today’s movies.

In 1863 Bierstadt made on-site studies for the work, which he completed in his New York studio. The painting had a personal significance, for “Mt. Rosalie” (now Mount Evans) was named by the artist in honor of his traveling companion’s wife, Rosalie Osborne Ludlow, whom Bierstadt would marry in 1866 following her divorce.

This delicately modeled ceramic figurine depicts a bejeweled male figure emerging from a water lily. Hundreds of figurines in this style have been found on Jaina Island, just off Mexico’s Campeche coast. The island served as an elite Maya burial site.

The water lily is associated with the underworld in Maya cosmology. The figurine may symbolize the renewal of life after death, making it an especially appropriate burial offering.

Herter Brothers was the most prestigious decorating firm and furniture maker in the United States of its time. This cabinet was made for George B. Sloan, the richest man in Oswego, New York. Its form closely follows that of an example produced by the Lamb cabinetmaking firm in Manchester, England, of which Herter Brothers must have been aware. The large painted panels representing Spring and Autumn, and the smaller ones of Taurus and Leo, were probably executed by Christian Herter, a principal of the firm.

This shirt may have been made for trade, because it has no embellishments that identify a specific warrior owner.

The woman who made it was proficient in many techniques. The bib is delicately embroidered with rays of traditional porcupine quills. On the bodice a two-pony-bead edging technique is used, with blue beads on the top and red garnet beads on the sides. Pony beads are so called because they were brought in by traders in the packs of ponies. The shoulder seam coverings were finely woven on a loom. Hanging tabs along the side and sleeves show pierced decorations.