Thursday, May 1 – Sunday, August 31, 2014

No family in American history has made as significant a contribution to the development of the thinking and legislation of the country as that of the Adamses. From the second President of the United States, John Adams (1735-1826), to the sixth, his son John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), and several before and since, members of the family made profound contributions to the shaping of American thought and policy.

John Adams, Vice-President during both of George Washington’s terms as President before attaining that office himself in 1797, was important as a diplomat and political theorist whose writings were influential from the earliest days of the emerging nation. Documents on display at the museum include significant material on his aid to Thomas Jefferson in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and,, as a representative of Congress in Europe, his negotiations of the eventual peace treaty with Great Britain.

John Adams’ son John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the U.S. (1825-29), was a brilliant diplomat who also served as Minister to Prussia (1797-1801), Minister to Great Britain (1814-17), Secretary of State (1817-25), and, for many years after his presidency, in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. Documents in the exhibition reveal his important contribution to the formulation of the Monroe Doctrine.

Samuel Adams (1722-1803), a second cousin of John Quincy Adams, was a successful lawyer, a brewer in colonial Massachusetts, and a later governor of that colony. A second cousin of John Quincy Adams, he was a leader of the protest movement that brought on the Revolutionary War and a vitally active political philosopher.

Also included in this exhibition are manuscripts of Abigail Adams (1744-1818), wife and close personal advisor of John Adams, and of Louisa Catherine Adams (1775-1852), wife of John Quincy Adams, both important contributors to the emerging American philosophy of equal rights.

 The Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum is located at 94 Broadway, across from City Hall,

in the City of Newburgh. The Karpeles Museums are a national chain with nine in the U.S., specializing in the preservation and display of original, historically significant documents and

manuscripts. Museum Hours: Thu.-Sat., 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and , Sunday, 12 to 4 p.m.

Admission is always free.

Visit us online: WWW.KARPELES.COM