One of my favorite paintings in PEM’s current exhibition Making History: 200 Years of American Art from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is a work by John Lewis Krimmel depicting Philadelphia’s Centre Square on the Fourth of July in about 1812.

Krimmel’s painting shows the coming together of the city’s diverse residents in the early 1800s, including well-dressed Quakers and members of the free Black community. The scene is centered around a modern marvel: the fountain in the geographic center of the city. Philadelphians saw this fountain as a godsend to save the city from waves of disease outbreaks and epidemics, which the political and scientific minds of the day attributed to unclean water. Krimmel’s scene captures a lot about the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), too, and its relationship to the vanguard scientific and medical communities of its home city: that Philadelphia was a center of ingenuity, innovation and industry — a place where art and science intersected.

The city of Philadelphia was founded by William Penn as a "greene country towne.” Penn and subsequent leaders planned the city around large blocks, and eventually four quadrants, each centered on its own public park with Centre Square at the nexus of the city (now the location of Philadelphia’s City Hall). Penn and those who came after him hoped that nature and human settlement could physically coexist. Longstanding debates around the environment and human relationships to nature are tied up in the history of the city.

While he may not be as well-known as some of the other artists in the exhibition, Rush holds an important place in the history of American art. He was one of the earliest American-born artists to achieve international renown, blending masterful woodcarving with ambitious neoclassical forms and subjects. When the newly established United States Navy commissioned its first six frigates, Rush was selected to create the figureheads. He carved four himself, including Nature for the USS Constellation, and designed the Hercules figurehead for the USS Constitution. (In yet another connection to the PEM collection, Salem’s Reverend William Bentley witnessed the carving of Rush’s design in Boston.) During his lifetime, Rush also served in the American Revolution and helped PAFA co-founder Charles Wilson Peale reconstruct the first mastodon skeleton to be displayed to the public.

Despite all of his achievements, Rush’s surviving sculptures remain rare. Many wooden figureheads have been destroyed or lost to the passage of time; others, like the figurehead in PEM’s collection, were not always recognized as works by Rush in the first place.

As we approach American Independence Day, I invite you to come to Making History to see the many incredible paintings and sculptures visiting us from Philadelphia. These icons of American art seldom leave PAFA’s buildings, but thanks to the coordination of the American Federation of Arts, they are traveling the country as part of the exhibition. In this exhibition, Black artists, women artists and queer artists stand alongside the white male artists who have typically been understood as the heroes and icons of American painting and sculpture. This exhibition returns these marginalized artists to the forefront.

In short, Making History is a show that considers the crucial role of artists in shaping our understanding of American history and culture. It reframes what we might think we know about our country, about our history, and provides us a way forward in understanding the American future by better understanding the American past.

Making History: 200 Years of American Art from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is on view at PEM from June 14 to September 21, 2025. Join us for a curator talk about the exhibition on July 17. Making History: 200 Years of American Art from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). Lead support was provided to PAFA by the William Penn Foundation with additional support from the Richard C. von Hess Foundation and donors to PAFA's Special Exhibitions Fund. In-kind support is provided by Christie's and Gill & Lagodich Fine Period Frames, New York. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. This exhibition at PEM is made possible by Carolyn and Peter S. Lynch and The Lynch Foundation. We thank Jennifer and Andrew Borggaard, James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes, The Creighton Family, Chip and Susan Robie, and Timothy T. Hilton as supporters of the Exhibition Innovation Fund. We also recognize the generosity of the East India Marine Associates of the Peabody Essex Museum.