Morven’s Curator Corner: The Joseph Hewes Miniature

RSVP for a free virtual lunchtime talk with the museum’s curatorial team.

Curatorial Assistant Emily Marturano will discuss the Joseph Hewes miniature, currently on view in Five Independent Souls: The Signers from New Jersey.

This watercolor miniature by famed artist Charles Willson Peale is adorned in garnets and is the only known likeness of Hewes, a Signer of the Declaration and a founder of the American Navy. Commissioned as a gift, it helps shed light on personal connections, sentiments towards independence, and illness in the months leading up to July 1776.

Pictured: Miniature of Joseph Hewes (1730–1779), 1776. Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827). Watercolor on ivory. Loan courtesy of the U.S. Naval Academy Museum.