MFA Boston pairs Paul Revere bowl with David Drake jar in reimagined American galleries

The Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) Boston is reinstalling its 18th-century American art galleries for the first time since 2010, opening June 20 to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the US founding. A centerpiece is the pairing of Paul Revere's 1768 "Sons of Liberty" silver bowl with a 1857 poem jar by enslaved artist David Drake, moving Drake's work from folk art to the main American galleries. The reinstallation, led by chief curator Ethan Lasser (a Drake scholar), shifts focus from British rule and independence to cultural exchange and interdependence. Other highlights include Thomas Sully's 1819 "The Passage of the Delaware" placed near Alan Michelson's 2024 stainless steel bust "Hanödaga:yas (Town Destroyer)", which reflects viewers' faces. Both Revere's bowl and Drake's jar bear inscriptions; recordings of these texts will play automatically when visitors approach. Drake's jar, restituted to his heirs and re-acquired by the museum last autumn, reads: "I made this Jar for Cash- /though its called lucre trash." Lasser notes the pairing prompts reflection on who was excluded from the founders' concept of liberty.