PSA for 2022: Art historians are also historians. Art in all its forms is as "primary" a source as any text, and requires equally careful analysis. Use and discuss images responsibly and with respect to their historical context. That's it. That's the tweet.

He appears as a sort of artisan-aristocrat, casually wrapped in a silk dressing gown and wearing a velvet turban atop his shaved head. A striking likeness.

A Boston silversmith and engraver, Hurd sits with clasped hands beside two books, one identified as A Display of Heraldry, first published by John Guillim (circa 1565-1621) in London in 1610.

Nathaniel Hurd (1730-1777), painted by John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) in the mid-1760s, seen at @ClevelandArt. #VastEarlyAmerica #AmericanArt

In terms of sheer numbers, gravestones are perhaps the most representative early American art form and survive in greater quantities than basically anything else from the same era. How’s that for a statistic?

*This* is the sculpture that is missing from the American art history canon (and art history more generally!).

One of just a few American artists still cutting stones by hand, she is carving a soul effigy with closed, perhaps sleeping eyes, inspired by that seen on a gravestone made for Robert Ogden (1687-1733) of Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Loved watching Karin Sprague in action at @HistDeerfield! #VastEarlyAmerica #AmericanArt

The last known Revolutionary War veterans died shortly after the Civil War, still many had their photograph taken. Come face-to-face with this generation with the Museum's Revolutionary Generation wall this #VeteransDay. 📸: https://t.co/PkvCCIqYjH

“Drink Round” at @HistDeerfield's Barnard Tavern (operated 1796-1804) / 📷 / English pearlware punch bowl with fish in “Prattware” colors, Staffordshire or Yorkshire, circa 1780. #VastEarlyAmerica #CeramicsinAmerica

Page publicly professed his faith as a Christian in 1814 and became an evangelical missionary. Posthumously published in 1835 and subtitled The Power of Prayer and Personal Effort for the Souls of Individuals, Page’s memoir proved an influential text of the 2nd Great Awakening.

A striking #VastEarlyAmerica[n] likeness, perhaps a self-portrait, completed by Harlan Page (1791-1834) of Coventry, Connecticut, around the time of his 1813 marriage to Mary Kingsbury (1793-1838). On view at @GriswoldMuseum #AmericanArt

Other the figures wear red and blue wool broadcloth acquired through colonial trade or as diplomatic gifts.

Seen using a tumpline or forehead strap to carry a basket of corn in from the field, one of the women wears a lavish cape or mantle fashioned from turkey and wood duck feathers. An armed guard dons a painted buffalo robe.

An older man places some of the corn crop on a drying rack, while the rest is shucked or braided together for storage in a raised corn crib.

This early 18th-century vignette depicts the harvest season and activities including rivercane basket-making.

Evocative recreation at the @Choctaw_CC of Shomo Takali (Hanging Moss), a Choctaw town that stood in present-day Kemper County, Mississippi. Founded in the wake of European contact, the village appears on French colonial maps by the 1740s. #VastEarlyAmerica #NativeAmerica

Pour l'Halloween, Joseph fouille nos archives à la recherche du loup-garou de Kamouraska. Frissons garantis! 🐺 ☠

The browband is embellished with porcupine quillwork and projecting rawhide triangles. Other embellishments include metal cones, what is probably deer hair, and trimmed raven, jay, and turkey feathers. Incredible!

Similar to that seen in a 1735 watercolor by French colonial engineer Alexandre de Batz (1685-1759) of Choctaw warriors now at the @Harvard @PeabodyMuseum .

18th-century feathered headdress, also from the Versailles collection of the comte d’Artois, one of the oldest surviving examples from North America, on view at @Choctaw_CC, lent by @QuaiBranly. #VastEarlyAmerica #NativeAmerica #AmericanArt