"Williams College, established in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1793, is remarkable as the source of several generations of leading museum professionals, and its fine museum has been a crucial part of their education. It holds an exceptional collection of American art - nearly 3,000 objects in all - filled with masterpieces by major artists as well as such special treasures as large holdings of work by Thomas Nast, Rube Goldberg, and Charles and Maurice Prendergast.

The paintings, sculpture, furniture, prints, and drawings highlighted in this volume range from about 1769 to 1950.".

"The first recorded call for an art collection at Williams came in 1858, but the earliest objects were a curious amalgam of fine art and study aids helpful in teaching. However, by 1890 Williams had acquired a "real" art collection, a fine setting for its display (Lawrence Hall, the elegant college library), and a professor dedicated to the history of art and culture (Richard Austin Rice).".

"American Dreams is published on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the collection's current home, the Williams College Museum of Art (substantially expanded in the 1980s).

It included eighteenth-century works by Copley and West; nineteenth-century examples by Kensett, Inness, Homer, Harnett, Peto, Whistler, Remington, and Eakins; and twentieth-century works by Saint-Gaudens, Twachtman, Bellows, Demuth, Hartley, O'Keeffe, Marin, Man Ray, Shahn, Feininger, Wood, Hofmann, Avery, Cadmus, Burchfield, and Lawrence."--BOOK JACKET.