On this tour, Hannah Gadway ’25 will explore how works of art have envisioned the past, present, and future of the United States and will highlight their place in the Harvard Art Museums’ free U.S. Citizenship Course. Offered in partnership with the St. Mark Community Education Program, and featuring special tours led by Harvard students, this course prepares aspiring citizens for the naturalization test. The stops on the tour include Charles Willson Peale’s 1784 portrait of General George Washington awaiting the British surrender at Yorktown; Rocky Mountains, “Lander’s Peak” (1863), painted by Albert Bierstadt during the U.S. Civil War; and Jackson Pollock’s No. 2 (1950), an example of the artist’s iconic “drip” method, which garnered international attention in the years after World War II.

Spotlight Tours offer a chance to explore the collections of the Harvard Art Museums through the eyes of a Harvard student. Free and open to the public, these tours start outside the museum shop on Saturdays and Sundays at 11am and 2pm. Drop in and join the conversation! And find out what the Student Guides are up to anytime on Instagram @harvardarthappens.

Please check in with museum staff at the Admissions desk in the Calderwood Courtyard to request to join the tour. Tours are limited to 18 people and are available on a first-come, first-served basis; no registration is required.