October 9, 2021–February 6, 2022

American Impressions: A Nation in Prints is an exhibition that seeks to identify some of the amorphous, often conflicting allegorical representations of the United States, from the colonial era to the present day, as mirrored in a chronological survey of the art of printmaking in America. Presenting approximately fifty prints, rare books, and photographs selected entirely from the collections of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center and the Department of Special Collections at the Library at Vassar College, the exhibition is divided into four sections: Allegorical Landscapes; Narrative Histories; American Identities; and Contemporary Complexities. Within these four sections, the works have been grouped together to generate a series of visual discourses that contrast various narrative themes and perspectives that offer multiple symbolic representations of the nation.