The Norman Rockwell Museum assembled Imprinted: Illustrating Race with co-curator Robyn Phillips-Pendleton, a professor at the University of Delaware. The exhibition honors Rockwell’s powerful images supporting the Civil Rights Movement, displaying his work within a sweeping historical survey of American illustration that features illustrators including Romare Bearden, Emory Douglas, Howard Pyle, and Loveis Wise.
Illustration has been at the forefront of defining events in the United States, from the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era to the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, moving forward to today. Imprinted examines widely circulated imagery, conceived and published over the course of more than three centuries, which has reflected and shaped perceptions of race across time.
Featuring over 100 artworks commissioned by publishers and advertisers, the exhibition traces harmful and prolific stereotypical representations of race that were historically sanctioned and prominently featured in newspapers, magazines, and books, on trade cards, posters, and advertisements, and on packaging and products. Imprinted also celebrates the concerted efforts of 20th and 21st century artists and editors to shift the cultural narrative through the publication—in print and across digital platforms—of positive, inclusive imagery emphasizing full agency and equity for all.
In assembling this show the Norman Rockwell Museum consulted a national advisory board of artists and scholars, including DelArt Curator of American Art Heather Campbell Coyle, who also contributed to the exhibition catalogue. While Imprinted is on view at DelArt, the Norman Rockwell Museum is hosting Jazz Age Illustration from November 8, 2025 – April 6, 2026.
Organized by Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Imprinted: Illustrating Race is made possible through the generous support of Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg’s Hearthland Foundation, Mellody Hobson and George Lucas, and Mass Humanities with funding made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Media sponsorship has been provided by Curtis Licensing, a division of The Saturday Evening Post and by the Norman Rockwell Family Agency.
This exhibition was made possible in Delaware through support from the Edgar A. Thronson Foundation Illustration Exhibition Fund. This organization is supported, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The Division promotes Delaware arts events on www.DelawareScene.com.
