Alexander Hamilton Exhibition to Open at NY Public Library This Month

Alexander Hamilton has taken center stage on Broadway recently, and now the Founding Father will also be getting the spotlight at The New York Public Library's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, in a new free exhibition Alexander Hamilton: Striver, Statesman, Scoundrel, opening June 24 in the building's Wachenheim Gallery. On display through December 31, 2016, the exhibition invites visitors to delve deeper into Hamilton's complex life and relationship to his colleagues, family, and country.

"The Library's exhibition program exists to share our remarkable holdings with a wide audience," said exhibition curator Kailen Rogers. "We're eager to further the popular discussion of Hamilton and the early years of the United States by displaying historic materials that illuminate this complicated man and his era."

Alexander Hamilton: Striver, Statesman, Scoundrel features more than two dozen items on display from the Library's collections, focusing on his ambitious early life, work as a statesman and creation of the Federalist Papers, as well as the scandals that marred his legacy. The exhibition also explores Hamilton's volatile relationships with Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison.

Highlights from the exhibition include:

• Hamilton's draft of George Washington's farewell address alongside Washington's version
• The Federalist (commonly known as the Federalist Papers) as originally published in a historic newspaper
• Hamilton's proposed plan for a U.S. Constitution
• The Reynolds Pamphlet, in which Hamilton's admits to an affair with Maria Reynolds
• Letters from Hamilton to his wife Eliza, and her sister Angelica Schuyler Church; correspondence Hamilton sent on behalf of Washington, and a letter he sent to Washington about the Newburgh Conspiracy
• Letter introducing Burr to the Schuyler family
• Broadside of the letter that incited the duel that led to Hamilton's death

Support for The New York Public Library's Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos Exhibitions Fund, and Jonathan Altman. Additional support for this exhibition has been provided by the Bertha and Isaac Liberman Foundation, Inc., in memory of Ruth and Seymour Klein.