A song of praise to the nation, American Anthem celebrates the symbols of liberty, ingenuity, and refuge indelibly imbedded in American folk art from colonial days through the present. This glorious full-color volume highlights treasures from the important collection of the American Folk Art Museum -- works that will be on display from June through December 2002 as the second major exhibition at the museum's new building in New York City.From Log Cabin quilts and painted wood furniture to watercolors and oil paintings; from Hosea Hayden's idiosyncratic folding chairs to the drawings of the octogenarian street artist and former slave Bill Traylor; from Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog, the masterpiece of 19th-century ancestral portrait artist Ammi Phillips, to works by the noted contemporary self-taught artist Thornton Dial Sr., here are 293 remarkable examples of this vital yet still underexamined touchstone to American culture.