Top picks from Americana Week, selected by our experts

‘It’s astoundingly rare for this important series of Eastman Johnson’s Nantucket paintings to come to market, as most of the series reside in museum collections, including a closely related work at Yale. This painting’s provenance from the Rockefeller family makes it even more special. Johnson began visiting Nantucket around 1870 and continued to go back every year, buying a home there. Cranberry Pickers is a study of the characters that formed the unique atmosphere of Nantucket, and it captures the light and air in a magical way. It represents the best of Johnson as a leading genre painter of the 19th century.’

‘Fifty years ago, in an apartment in Mountain View, California, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne signed an agreement establishing the Apple Computer Company. Wayne, a 41-year-old product designer at Atari, was enlisted by Jobs to help convince Wozniak to bring his prototype for a revolutionary new computer to market. The elder Wayne mediated between Jobs and Wozniak, then 21 and 25, and drafted the founding document. Just twelve days after signing, wary of the financial risk, Wayne sold his 10 per cent stake in the company for $800. This document marks an extraordinarily important moment in history: the birth of the information revolution.’

‘Jamie Wyeth was just 20 years old when, in the wake of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, he was approached by Jacqueline Kennedy and her family to create a portrait of the late president. Wyeth would not accept the commission unless he was allowed to keep the final painting. That final painting was later acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, about 10 years ago. This related work captures Kennedy striding to the podium to accept the Democratic nomination for president in 1960. To make it, Wyeth studied videos and sketches and accompanied Kennedy family members including Robert F. Kennedy on the campaign trail. Man from Boston combines these inspirations into a picture, which the artist has said is not just a portrait of Kennedy but of “all candidates, all people who want to make a difference.”’

‘At their peak, the Shaker community numbered around 5,000 members, but their simple, functional and beautifully crafted furniture and objects had a profound influence on architecture and design. This set of 20 oval utility boxes were made of bentwood and secured with distinctive swallowtail joints, a hallmark of Shaker craftsmanship. My favorite part, though, is a handwritten letter tucked inside one box, from a Shaker woman named Elizabeth. As you read it, you realize she’s writing to a man who left the community, and that she’s heartbroken. Her note is funny and deeply human. It makes these objects feel incredibly intimate.’

‘Alfred Jacob Miller was one of the first American artists to capture the unique atmosphere of the American West with a romantic sensibility. Miller was painting in the mid-19th century, when the buffalo that once roamed the landscape had become nearly extinct. Previously in the collection of the Amon Carter Museum, this painting depicts the coup de grâce in a confrontation between buffalo and man. A testament to the history of the West and its days gone by, the scene anticipates famous works by Albert Bierstadt and other artists of the American West who also celebrated the legacy of the buffalo. This work is a true historical gem from the legendary collection of William I. Koch, the most important Western collection to ever come to auction.’

‘The Emancipation Proclamation was President Abraham Lincoln’s most famous act and the first major step toward abolishing slavery in the United States. The Leland-Boker broadside is the only printing of the full text of this historic document to be signed by the President, a clear demonstration that he stood firmly behind this act. It’s a renewal, almost a rebirth, of American freedom, redefining who gets to benefit from the promises of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The signed broadsides were sold as souvenirs to raise money for Union troops. This copy, once part of the noted collection of Philip D. Sang, is one of just 27 surviving from the edition of 48.’

‘The Trooper hails from a pivotal moment in Frederic Remington’s career as he transforms from illustrator to fine art painter. In this painting, he adjusted the composition to embrace a new style, going from a dramatic narrative scene with multiple figures to a pared down version highlighting this lone trooper. In doing so, the work becomes incredibly powerful, making the viewer a participant in the drama. That directness is so unique. It also sits within a broader lineage of artists shaping the myth of the American West. Its overtly cinematic quality continues to influence a century of Western imagery, including film, and comes directly from Remington’s decision to strip the composition back and place the viewer inside the story as it unfolds.’

‘Painted in 1857, Delaware Water Gap by George Inness offers a window into the mid 19th century’s remarkable technological advancements, which changed the American landscape. This painting was probably commissioned by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company to advertise the views along their new rail line. We can appreciate now how the construction of railroads changed rural areas and at the same time brought pleasure to the people being transported right through them. This work is related to two major museum pictures depicting similar subjects in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Gallery in London, the latter of which is one of Inness’s most famous paintings.’

‘Robert Spear Dunning’s stunning still life Straw Hat with Cherries is a poignant commentary on the United States during the Reconstruction era. With striking contrasts of light and shadow, Dunning delights in capturing the smallest details of his subject, from the movement of the cherries to the delicately rendered weave of the straw hat. Painted in 1867, just two years after the end of the Civil War, the artist draws our eye to a folded coat in the background, likely a soldier’s jacket. The plentiful bounty of red fruit suggests the nation’s new hope for a bright and prosperous future.’

‘With this document, you get to sit in the Independence Hall with the delegates as the Constitution is taking its final form. It’s one of only two printed drafts produced for the delegates, so they could quite literally be on the same page during their deliberations. The first draft, known as the Committee of Detail draft, was published about two months into the deliberations on 6 August 1787. After another month of debate, the Committee of Style and Arrangement was appointed, including William Samuel Johnson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Governor Morris, and Rufus King. Morris is considered the penman of this draft, while King, who owned this copy, marked it up during the debates. Produced on 13 September, just five days before final approval, it is the first version to begin with the preamble “We the People of the United States”, signaling a decisive shift from a loose confederation to a national government.’