Explore the times and traditions that shaped Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware and consider how he used artistic license to promote democratic reform.

This interactive gallery walk can be used by individuals or projected for small-group instruction. For a larger, more responsive, format paste this url in your browser http://bit.ly/McQStudios75

Background: The winter of 2020 is not America’s first winter of discontent. Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware reminds us that America was born in such a winter. Artistic license aside, Leutze depicts how a group of Americans, in a moment of desperation, rallied together on a stormy Christmas night to face down, what Thomas Paine described as, The Crisis. The deeper I looked into this painting, the more parallels I found with our own crisis. You do not read far into the history of the crossing before you encounter a speech by General Knox that describes the night General Washington, facing a perilous Delaware River churning with ice, said, “Who will lead us on?” and the mariners of Marblehead stood forward. I can’t help but think that the weary medical personnel across this country, their faces creased by protective gear, are our mariners of Marblehead. As I read deeper, the historian Joseph Ellis reminded me that by the time of Valley Forge, the enlisted veterans, the core of the Continental Army, were “indentured servants, recently arrived immigrants from Ireland or Scotland, emancipated slaves, landless sons from New England, mechanics from Philadelphia. They represented the poorest strata of American society.” Today, we call them essential workers. When you get beyond the heroic folktales, history describes how politicization and uncertainty split families between the loyalists and patriots and how neighbors turned on neighbors. While you cringe at the stories of war profiteers, you are heartened by the struggles of the valiant. I built this art-based interactive gallery walk with these learnings in mind. The deeper you dig, and the more voices you add to the historical discussion, the more you are comforted by the realization that we are marching on a well-worn path, and that the crisis we face today may best be resolved through the same collaboration and patriotism that established America’s original motto, E pluribus unum.

Give it a whirl and let me know how it goes. This interactive gallery walk still has room for improvement, and hopefully it always will, but it’s heading in the right direction. We can advance it together. In the space provided below tell me what you like, what you want, and what could be done better.

What this Look and Learn module offers

• Analyze the paintings of Emanuel Leutze and other artists from the Düsseldorf School of Painting.
• Compare historical facts with Leutze’s dramatized depiction. (Dude knows how to flex his artistic license.)
• Consider how Leutze fashioned a crew representative of the American population to evoke the motto E pluribus unum — out of many, one.
• Luxuriate in American Revolution histories large and small from a range of academic scholars and citizen historians.
• Bask in literature and nonfiction texts that projected and inspired their times.
• Apply the lessons of history to current events.

Teaching strategies

Let students roam this resource as they would museum galleries. Encourage them to follow their interests and take a closer look at things that catch their eye. The following strategies can provide some structure to the experience.

Follow Your Interests 3, 2, 1: Have students discuss 3 images from the galleries that interested them enough to read its supporting texts. Describe 2 things they learned in reading those texts. Identify 1 thing that they want to learn more about. Consider using the provided links to answer that question.

“Note This Detail” 6-Pack: Pick your favorite six Note This Detail features to help you guide art analysis discussions. Use the embedded links to the art work’s respective museums to project the image as large as possible. And then talk art.

Research with the Question Formulation Technique: After art analysis and discussion you may have anchor charts full of observations and wonderings. The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) can help turn these into inquiry-based research questions that build on student insights and interests. This model may help. Use the wealth of histories in the E pluribus unum gallery as examples of how others have researched a question and shared their findings.

In addition to class discussions and inquiry studies, these galleries also lend themselves to scavenger hunts and other instructional games. Please share your teaching ideas in the space provided below so everyone can benefit from them.

Literature Links (in order of appearance, most are free and downloadable)

Poems, Novels, and Essays: Phyliss Wheatley’s “His Excellency General Washington”; William Cullen Bryant’s “Rizpah”; Ferdinand Freiligrath’s “Before the Journey”; Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Chiefly About War Matters”; William Harrison Ainsworth’s Windsor Castle; Thomas Paine’s The Crisis; Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Concord Hymn”

Historic Nonfiction Texts: Worthington Whittredge’s The Autobiography of Worthington Whittredge; William T. Hornaday’s The Extermination of the American Bison; John Marshall’s The Life of George Washington; Henry Theodore Tuckerman’s Book of the Artists; Charles Dicken’s A Child’s History of England; Washington Irving’s The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus; Elizabeth Ellet’s Women of the Revolution; William Scudder Stryker’s Battles of Trenton and Princeton; George Washington Greene’s The Life of Nathanael Greene; George Athan Billias’s General John Glover and his Marblehead Mariners; Herman Mann’s The Female Review. Life of Deborah Sampson; Ethan Allen’s A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen’s Captivity. Plus personal correspondence from George Washington, James Monroe, John Cadwalader, John Marshall, Nathanael Greene, Edward Hand

History blogs, forums, and periodicals: Founders.Archives.gov, UShistory.org, EmergingRevolutionaryWar.org, AllThingsLiberty.com, MountVernon.org, EssaysInHistory.com, NewEnglandHistoricalSociety.com, EmergingCivilWar.com, BlackPast.org, Blogs.LOC.gov, WomensHistory.org, Poets.org, Journal of the American Revolution, American Heritage, The Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, Pittsburgh History, The New England Quarterly, Smithsonian Magazine, Revolutionary War Journal, American Indian Magazine, The American Art Journal, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography    

Supporting Resources

• Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware is in the MET’s collection. See their website for detailed information. Select the image to magnify.
• This interdisciplinary teacher’s resource offers a range of teaching moves and language for analyzing Washington Crossing the Delaware.
• This team-building game reviews key learnings from Washington Crossing the Delaware gallery walk.
• This sorting activity explores the distinct styles of art of four influential American artists from the mid 1800s — Albert Bierstadt, Eastman Johnson, Emanuel Leutze, and Worthington Whittredge.  
• This writing lesson uses Washington Crossing the Delaware to teach about artistic license.

Scavenger Hunt Crossword Puzzle: The names and terms in this crossword puzzle can build background and highlight connections. Used as a scavenger hunt, it will guide students around the galleries, encouraging them to peer into overlooked corners. While this may provide a structure for exploring the galleries, it is no substitute for group analysis and discussion.

Leutze-Crossword-Worksheet

Leutze-Crossword-Answer-Key