Published in association with Princeton University Press, the 195-page exhibition catalogue is handsomely illustrated with over eighty color plates and ninety-five halftones. 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.

An accessible text, illustrated generously throughout, includes an introduction that encourages the reader to engage with sign paintings from a variety of artistic and cultural perspectives — including those of vernacular art, commercial art, and visual and material culture. Other essays examine specific aspects of sign paintings: the creative processes of the individual makers, the distinctive techniques and materials used, the development of the profession, the iconography and sources, and the consequences of outdoor installation on aesthetic and cultural meanings. The volume also features a detailed catalogue of the sign paintings in the exhibition and brief biographies of those sign painters that have been documented in Connecticut.

Both building on and recasting the rich legacy of "folk art," Lions & Eagles & Bulls provides a wealth of new information about these highly significant and well-loved objects to scholars, collectors, and art lovers alike.

Contributors to the catalogue include Philip D. Zimmerman, Margaret C. Vincent, Sandra Webber, Alexander Carlisle, Nancy Finlay, Catherine Gudis, Kenneth L. Ames, and Bryan J. Wolf.

Available in hardcover ($49.50) from Princeton University Press and paperback ($29.50) from The Connecticut Historical Society Museum Shop.