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In 1998, The Connecticut Historical Society (http://www.chs.org) began a comprehensive effort to document and conserve its collection of sixty-five tavern and inn signs, the largest collection of its kind in the nation. The project included extensive research on Connecticut’s tavern keepers, which aided in dating and establishing the provenance of many inn signs, not only those in the CHS collection but also in other public and private collections. Parallel to this research, the CHS also began to address the collection’s conservation needs, with the assistance of a team from the Williamstown Art Conservation Center (WACC) in Williamstown, Mass.

Both building on and recasting the rich legacy of "folk art," Lions & Eagles & Bulls provides a wealth of new information about these highly significant and well-loved objects to scholars, collectors, and art lovers alike.

Published in association with Princeton University Press, the 195-page exhibition catalogue is handsomely illustrated with over eighty color plates and ninety-five halftones. Eight essays, written by prominent scholars of American art and cultural history, explore the medium and discuss why these signs are much more than picturesque relics of bygone times. Indeed, this volume reconnects sign paintings to the broad continuum of artistic genres and practices within which they were produced, displayed, and viewed.

Available in hardcover ($49.50) from Princeton University Press and paperback ($29.50) from The Connecticut Historical Society.