Artist Illia Barger recreates the Battle of Trenton scenes in a 25-foot-long, 15-foot-high mural
TRENTON -- Revolutionary War re-enactors dressed in 18th-century garb took to the streets on Sunday to bring the Battles of Trenton to life as part of the city's annual Patriots Week.
But inside a makeshift studio downtown, history is coming to life with a paintbrush as artist Illia Barger recreates the battle scenes in a 25-foot-long, 15-foot-high mural that takes shape before your eyes.
The mural will be placed on a wall that overlooks the First Presbyterian Church's cemetery on East State Street when completed.
At the center of the mural is a colonial mirror in a gold frame depicting the surrender of the Hessians.
Surrounding it are four scenes: the troops marching into Trenton after their daring Christmas Day crossing of the Delaware River; cannons and artillery being set up at the heads of King and Queen streets; the Hessian commander, Col. Johann Rall, ordering his force to retreat into an apple orchard just outside the city; and a wounded Rall being taken back to Stacy Potts' house where he later died.
Barger was asked to do the work by Trenton Downtown Association, which sponsors Patriots Week. She spent the better part of the past two months researching and creating the mural, which consists of 5-foot-by-5-foot panels.
"It's interesting to get a project and say, 'OK, what is the death of Rall, what happened here?'" she said. "There's a lot to know and between the re-enactors and the historians, they have a lot of information."
The scope of the project grew as she researched the battles with the help of Hunter Research and the Old Barracks Museum. Once the design was chosen, Barger had re-enactors pose for photos to make sure she was drawing the outfits as historically accurate as possible.
"I know the re-enactors are very strict about their uniforms and how many buttons and what the colors are -- even the different regiments have different linings and different cuffs on their uniforms so I'm learning all about that," she said.
For the first three days, Barger painted inside 141 East State Street, a vacant storefront that was turned into a pop-up holiday market and now a pop-up coffeehouse for Patriots Week.
But for the next three days, Barger and the mural can be found at the New Jersey State Museum.
IF YOU GO:
New Jersey State Museum, 205 West State Street
Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Thursday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.