NOVEMBER 6 - 15, 2025 at Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion (All curtains at 7 pm, with the exception of a matinee at 2 pm on Sunday, November 9)

THE STORY: It's February 8th, 2018, in the wealthy suburbs of Savannah, Georgia. While grieving on the night of this fiftieth anniversary of her fiancé’s death, a reclusive, elderly woman is confronted by a young man believing himself to be the reincarnation of her long-dead lover.

Starring: Susan Giddings, Cathy Simpson, Travoye Joyner, Kathryn Wylde, and Brian Scott Campbell.

SPECIAL PRICING FOR MAXWELL MANSION MEMBERS! Members SAVE 20%! Only $24 -- $6 off the General Admission Price!

To purchase tickets and for more information, click the "More Info & Registration" link below.

At La Salle University Art Museum 2 Events: 12:30 and 5:30 (daytime event geared toward La Salle Students)

THE PAINTER'S FIRE: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution by Zara Anishanslin

The American Revolution was more cosmopolitan, geographically broad, and diverse than often remembered. The familiar image of a patriot—a white man writing pamphlets or leading battles—tells only part of the story, and not always the most interesting part.

In The Painter's Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution (Harvard University Press, July 1, 2025), historian and art historian Zara Anishanslin uncovers the vital role of patriot artists, women, Black individuals, and people of mixed race who shaped the revolution through art, espionage, and activism. Working across America, London, and Paris, they inspired rebellion and helped forge a new political culture all without ever lifting a musket.

Told through the intertwined lives of three remarkable figures—Robert Edge Pine, Prince Demah, and Patience Wright, The Painter’s Fire reveals how artists used portraits, wax sculptures, and public performance to challenge the British monarchy and imagine a new world. Pine, an award-winning British painter rumored to be of African descent, eventually emigrated to the U.S. to document its founding. Demah, his formerly enslaved student, became the first identifiable Black portraitist in America and later fought for the Patriot cause. Wright, a Long Island–born sculptor and outspoken revolutionary, became a sensation in London while also spying for the colonies.

Excluded from formal military or political power, these artists wielded creativity as a weapon, shaping public sentiment, smuggling intelligence, and giving visual form to revolutionary ideals. Their lives and work, often in conversation with figures like Benjamin Franklin and Phillis Wheatley, show that the Revolution’s most powerful battles weren’t always fought on the field.

Illuminating a transatlantic network of resistance and revealing the paradoxes of liberty and slavery at the heart of America’s founding, The Painter’s Fire expands our understanding of what it meant to be a patriot and who we remember when we tell the story of America.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Zara Anishanslin is Associate Professor of History and Art History at the University of Delaware. She is the author of the award-winning Portrait of a Woman in Silk: Hidden Histories of the British Atlantic World and has served as a historical consultant for the Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as “Hamilton: The Exhibition.”

At La Salle University Art Museum 2 Events: 12:30 and 5:30 (daytime event geared toward La Salle Students)

THE PAINTER'S FIRE: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution by Zara Anishanslin

The American Revolution was more cosmopolitan, geographically broad, and diverse than often remembered. The familiar image of a patriot—a white man writing pamphlets or leading battles—tells only part of the story, and not always the most interesting part.

In The Painter's Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution (Harvard University Press, July 1, 2025), historian and art historian Zara Anishanslin uncovers the vital role of patriot artists, women, Black individuals, and people of mixed race who shaped the revolution through art, espionage, and activism. Working across America, London, and Paris, they inspired rebellion and helped forge a new political culture all without ever lifting a musket.

Told through the intertwined lives of three remarkable figures—Robert Edge Pine, Prince Demah, and Patience Wright, The Painter’s Fire reveals how artists used portraits, wax sculptures, and public performance to challenge the British monarchy and imagine a new world. Pine, an award-winning British painter rumored to be of African descent, eventually emigrated to the U.S. to document its founding. Demah, his formerly enslaved student, became the first identifiable Black portraitist in America and later fought for the Patriot cause. Wright, a Long Island–born sculptor and outspoken revolutionary, became a sensation in London while also spying for the colonies.

Excluded from formal military or political power, these artists wielded creativity as a weapon, shaping public sentiment, smuggling intelligence, and giving visual form to revolutionary ideals. Their lives and work, often in conversation with figures like Benjamin Franklin and Phillis Wheatley, show that the Revolution’s most powerful battles weren’t always fought on the field.

Illuminating a transatlantic network of resistance and revealing the paradoxes of liberty and slavery at the heart of America’s founding, The Painter’s Fire expands our understanding of what it meant to be a patriot and who we remember when we tell the story of America.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Zara Anishanslin is Associate Professor of History and Art History at the University of Delaware. She is the author of the award-winning Portrait of a Woman in Silk: Hidden Histories of the British Atlantic World and has served as a historical consultant for the Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as “Hamilton: The Exhibition.”

NOVEMBER 6 - 15, 2025 at Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion (All curtains at 7 pm, with the exception of a matinee at 2 pm on Sunday, November 9)

THE STORY: It's February 8th, 2018, in the wealthy suburbs of Savannah, Georgia. While grieving on the night of this fiftieth anniversary of her fiancé’s death, a reclusive, elderly woman is confronted by a young man believing himself to be the reincarnation of her long-dead lover.

Starring: Susan Giddings, Cathy Simpson, Travoye Joyner, Kathryn Wylde, and Brian Scott Campbell.

SPECIAL PRICING FOR MAXWELL MANSION MEMBERS! Members SAVE 20%! Only $24 -- $6 off the General Admission Price!

To purchase tickets and for more information, click the "More Info & Registration" link below.

NOVEMBER 6 - 15, 2025 at Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion (All curtains at 7 pm, with the exception of a matinee at 2 pm on Sunday, November 9)

THE STORY: It's February 8th, 2018, in the wealthy suburbs of Savannah, Georgia. While grieving on the night of this fiftieth anniversary of her fiancé’s death, a reclusive, elderly woman is confronted by a young man believing himself to be the reincarnation of her long-dead lover.

Starring: Susan Giddings, Cathy Simpson, Travoye Joyner, Kathryn Wylde, and Brian Scott Campbell.

SPECIAL PRICING FOR MAXWELL MANSION MEMBERS! Members SAVE 20%! Only $24 -- $6 off the General Admission Price!

To purchase tickets and for more information, click the "More Info & Registration" link below.

Co-sponsored by the Preservation Alliance - click the "More Info & Registration" link below to purchase tickets and for more information.

This city neighborhood, dating to colonial times, underwent industrial development with the arrival of the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad in 1832 and this development continued rapidly with the arrival of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the 1880s. Learn more about this transportation impact and see some of Philadelphia’s finest examples of Victorian eclecticism.

This is a two part tour which includes a walk through the neighborhood and an interior tour of Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion.

Meet at the Southwest corner of Germantown Ave and Tulpehocken Street, Philadelphia PA 19144

NOVEMBER 6 - 15, 2025 at Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion (All curtains at 7 pm, with the exception of a matinee at 2 pm on Sunday, November 9)

THE STORY: It's February 8th, 2018, in the wealthy suburbs of Savannah, Georgia. While grieving on the night of this fiftieth anniversary of her fiancé’s death, a reclusive, elderly woman is confronted by a young man believing himself to be the reincarnation of her long-dead lover.

Starring: Susan Giddings, Cathy Simpson, Travoye Joyner, Kathryn Wylde, and Brian Scott Campbell.

SPECIAL PRICING FOR MAXWELL MANSION MEMBERS! Members SAVE 20%! Only $24 -- $6 off the General Admission Price!

To purchase tickets and for more information, click the "More Info & Registration" link below.

5:30 PM Refreshments
6:00 PM Book Talk
at NSCDA/PA Headquarters 1630 Latimer Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103


Join The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for this free, public book lecture and learn more about Genevieve Wheeler Brown's Beyond Blue and White: The Hidden History of Delftware and the Women Behind the Iconic Ceramic. Books will be available for purchase.

When over seventy-five pieces of rare and intriguing 17th and 18th century Delftware are rediscovered in an historic Manhattan townhouse, decorative art advisor and writer Genevieve Wheeler Brown quickly recognizes that, together, these pieces tell an amazing story. What begins as a curatorial exercise quickly evolves not only into an exploration of this colorful, expressive, and sometimes even humorous decorative art, coveted for hundreds of years, but also an unexpected uncovering of forceful female lives yet untold.

Connecting the accounts of women across centuries, Beyond Blue and White allows us to craft a more complete picture of female experience through the lens of material culture. We meet female Delftware makers, including Barbara Rotteveel founder of “The Three Bells” Delftware factory in 1671. We are introduced to female Delftware patrons such as Queen Mary II, who found her means of expression while creating a vogue in the 17th century for Delft blue and white across royal courts. And then there are the female collectors beginning in the 19th century who saw the artistry and craft in these ceramics others had overlooked. Foremost among them was Mrs. J. Pierpont Morgan and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt II who came together with fellow New York women and laid the groundwork for women in the museum world while preserving decorative arts with an educational mission.

With illustrations of period objects, documents, maps, paintings, prints and drawings, Beyond Blue and White is a colorful celebration of an iconic decorative art and dynamic women living in extraordinary times. Wheeler Brown's rich narrative encourages us to see beyond the dazzling cobalt glaze of Delftware to consider that these vessels are also our connection to a history with a fascinating group of women at its center.

A Mt. Airy Learning Tree (MALT) Class

Join us for a special tour, led by executive director Dr. George Boudreau, to explore how the Victorians transformed Christmas into the beloved holiday we know today. From the 1830s onward, what was once a solemn religious occasion evolved into a celebration filled with cherished traditions like Christmas trees, carols, and gift-giving. The mansion, built in 1859, is Philadelphia's only authentically restored Victorian house museum. As you step through its doors, you'll be immersed in the world of nineteenth-century Philadelphians, with the mansion adorned in authentic Victorian holiday decorations. Discover the origins of festive foods, holiday customs, and the literature that celebrated figures like Old St. Nick and the modern Santa Claus. This meticulously restored mansion offers insights into the lives of Philadelphia's rising middle class from the 1860s to the 1910s, both upstairs and downstairs. As a true neighborhood treasure dedicated to the Victorian period, the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion provides a unique glimpse into the past. Come visit and create a new holiday tradition for you and your loved ones!