"This catalogue - published in conjunction with a major traveling exhibition - features works from The Connecticut Historical Society, which houses the nation's preeminent collection of early American painted tavern signs. Eight essays, written by prominent scholars of American art and cultural history, explore the medium and discuss why these signs are much more than picturesque relics of bygone times. Indeed, this volume reconnects sign paintings to the broad continuum of artistic genres and practices within which they were produced, displayed, and viewed."--Jacket.