Kirby Collection of Historical Paintings

The Kirby Collection of Historical Paintings, assembled by Allan P. Kirby, Class of 1915, represents a significant repository of 19th and 20th-century American portraits, history paintings, and sculpture that continues to evolve as a living testament to American democratic ideals and social progress.

Originally assembled in the 1940s and 50s with the intention to “broadly represent the many fields of achievement through which men can leave lasting impressions upon the nation,” the collection has undergone thoughtful expansion to better reflect the full spectrum of American voices and experiences that have shaped our democracy.

Why This Collection Matters to Today’s Lafayette Students

Confronting Historical Narratives: This collection offers students the opportunity to critically examine how historical narratives have been constructed and which figures are central to American memory. By exploring its original scope and recent additions, students can analyze how power and representation have evolved.

Expanding the Canon of American Leadership: New additions, including portraits of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, reflect the collection’s growth in recognizing diverse leadership and constitutional interpretation. These portraits highlight ongoing struggles for civil rights and gender equality as central to American ideals.

Visual Literacy and Democracy: In today’s image-driven world, the collection serves as a space for understanding how visual representation shapes public memory and political views. Students can investigate the artistic choices that influence narratives of American identity.

The Kirby Chair Connection: Linked to Lafayette’s Kirby Chair of Civil Rights, the collection creates opportunities for interdisciplinary study. Students can explore the intersection of artistic representation and legal scholarship, as well as contemporary civil rights issues.

Dialogue Across Time: This evolving collection prompts students to consider marginalized voices and fosters new dialogues between past and present, enriching campus discussions on diversity and institutional responsibility.

Critical Engagement with Institutional Legacy: For Lafayette students, the collection encourages a critical reassessment of educational institutions’ historical commitments, illustrating how collections can be active sites of scholarship rather than passive displays.

The Kirby Collection ultimately serves current Lafayette students as both historical artifact and contemporary teaching tool—a space where the complexity of American democratic ideals can be explored through the lens of artistic representation and evolving institutional values.

See other works in the collection.

Barbara Frietchie by Dennis Malone Carter