On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Immigrants admitted from all countries: 1820 to 1840 —15,773
Jacob Lawrence American
Not on view
A table of immigration statistics published in Richard B. Morris’s Encyclopedia of American History (1953) inspired this unlocated painting, which is known only through a black-and-white reproduction. A trio of figures, perhaps a family, huddles together. The male figure, who wears a shawl, clutches what could be a prayer book, a common possession among nineteenth-century immigrants traveling to America, who were often fleeing religious persecution. Many of these immigrants arrived only with what could be carried, symbolized here by the exaggerated size of the figures’ hands.
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