There is a fascinating passage in historian David Hackett Fischer’s recent book Liberty and Freedom that discusses John Locke. In particular, Fischer discusses the prevalence of a certain kind of pediment bust used to decorate chests, secretaries, bookcases, and other furniture during the Revolutionary period. It seems that in Philadelphia and elsewhere, John Locke was among the most commonly depicted person in this bust work:
Historians have challenged the primary of Locke?s books in the philosophy of the American Revolution, but Philadelphia’s furniture makers had no doubt of his central role. The same pattern of Locke’s primacy also appeared in the books that filled these cases. In libraries and book lists throughout the colonies, the writings of John Locke appeared more often that the work of any other modern author. Locke dominated the book collections of eighteenth-century America, just as his image dominated the finial busts on the bookcases themselves.?
My, how things have changed.
