Before televisions, computers, and high-speed internet, everyday Americans engaged with image-based storytelling through illustration. Designed covers—based on finished paintings—by artists like Norman Rockwell (1894–1978) regularly reached thousands of homes via massed-produced publications such as The Saturday Evening Post. Celebrating the charming, wholesome, and seemingly commonplace, Rockwell enjoyed a successful career, which unfolded against a string of epoch-making crises and revolutions, including the Great Depression, World War II, the Civil Rights movement, feminism, the moon landing, and the Vietnam War. Through illustration, Rockwell and his peers revealed the many shapes of 20th-century American society, chronicling its transformations, struggles, and ideals. 

In partnership with the National Museum of American Illustration (NMAI), based in Newport Rhode Island, Norman Rockwell & Peers: Illustrating Childhood will feature over 60 works from NMAI’s collection by key figures in the history of American illustration, including Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish (1870–1966), J.C. Leyendecker (1874–1951), Ethel Franklin Betts (1877–1959), Jessie Wilcox Smith (1863–1935), and N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945).

Donors at the $1,000 and above will receive name recognition*, complimentary admission tickets, and invitations to upcoming exhibition-related programming! View a full list of benefits here.

*To ensure listing in magazine and on the exhibition banner, commitments must be made by July 31, 2024.



Thank you to our generous sponsors!

Major funding by Bob Faircloth, Littlejohn Family Foundation, and Linda McWhorter

Exhibition investment is provided by the City of Savannah and the Georgia Council for the Arts

Exhibition funding is provided by Inge A. Brasseler and Truist

Parrish sponsor: Jacqueline and Ken Sirlin

Wyeth sponsors: Mrs. Rebecca Cheatham, Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Davis, James O. and Chloë L. Dekle, Jim and Dottie Kluttz, Mrs. Robert O. Levitt, Sylvia F. Severance

Annual exhibition support by Director's Circle Council Members

Listing as of 7/25/2024

LEFT: Elizabeth Shippen Green (1871-1954), New Kodak, 1906; mixed media on board; advertisement for Kodak. RIGHT: Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), One of Uncle Sam’s Assets, 1921; oil on canvas; Literary Digest, October 22, 1921 cover; © 2024 National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, RI www.americanillustration.org and the American Illustrators Gallery, New York, NY, www.americanillustrators.com.