On the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of the American Revolution, the marquis de Lafayette embarked on a tour of the United States, returning for a final time to the country he helped established and whose republican form of government he saw as a model for the rest of the world.
In August 1824, Lafayette sailed into New York Harbor, beginning a thirteen-month tour of the United States that took the Frenchman to all twenty-four states of the union and the federal city of Washington. He was celebrated in each city and town, and the routes along the way, with processions, banquets and receptions, worship services and visits to important sites—along with a flood of souvenirs that met the intense demand for a memento of the French hero.
Through more than fifty objects drawn from our collections, along with the collections of several important lenders, our current exhibition, Fete Lafayette: A French Hero’s Tour of the American Republic, explores Lafayette’s farewell tour of the United States in 1824-1825, how it highlighted the Frenchman’s contributions to its creation and vision for its future and the tour’s role in highlighting the country’s revolutionary ideals for a new era. In this short video, Deputy Director and Curator Emily Parsons highlights the themes and selected objects of Fete Lafayette.