By Stephen Appezzato
From battlefield to brushstroke, the countdown to America 250 has begun. While the county’s official kickoff began last week, one local artist has spent decades memorializing America’s history through his art.
Lloyd Garrison has made a career of painting America’s Revolutionary and Colonial past and portraying accurate details of historic events, particularly the history that happened in his own backyard.
“There’s so much history in New Jersey,” he said.
Garrison, who has been painting professionally since 1966, is now approaching his 60th year as an artist. He’s dedicated much of that time to depicting Revolutionary and Civil War scenes, creating historically accurate artwork that corrects common misconceptions.
“The one thing about history is the fact that when you look at a history book, what you see is not really what happened. And I ran into that a few times when I did paintings of historical sites; the building that’s there wasn’t there during the battle or it was altered,” Garrison said.
Garrison’s realistic paintings of significant events depict details that are often overlooked. In his painting of General George Washington crossing the Delaware River in December 1776, which is located at the Washington Crossing Historic Park in Pennsylvania, Garrison accurately depicted cables spanning the river to guide the large Durham and ferry boats that were used to usher soldiers, horses, artillery and supplies across the river to launch a surprise attack on a Hessian garrison located around Trenton.
“It’s not like the famous painting that you remember seeing of Washington standing up in a rowboat – that didn’t (exactly) happen,” he said. “He actually crossed on a barge, a ferry,” using a cable that spanned the river, Garrison said. Another of Garrison’s works is presented at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Garrison traces his roots back 11 generations in Rahway, where he opened his first gallery, and his interest in history has deepened with time.
“I started exploring the fact that my ancestors actually went back to that period, and that got me a little more into it and the history of Rahway, and it just seemed like it kept going and going and going,” he said.
“I started making drawings in kindergarten,” Garrison said. Encouraged by his teachers, he continued developing his skills. After joining the Army, he quickly found a way to put those skills to use.
“Two days into the Army, the sergeant asked, ‘Does anybody have any special skills, anything interesting that the Army could possibly use?’… I raised my hand. I said, ‘I’m an artist.’ ”
“From that point on, I was basically doing signs, decorations, murals, etc. and I actually became an Army artist. I was doing great until I got my orders to go to Korea, and that’s when it all ended,” he said.
After returning home, he opened his first gallery in Rahway in 1966. “At that time, in 1966, it wasn’t that expensive, although we weren’t making that much money either. And from 1966 on, I discovered that you could make money painting,” Garrison recalled.
“I thought of doing Revolutionary War and Colonial (style paintings), that was in the ’70s.”
At that time, “nobody thought to do that,” he said. In 1994, Garrison opened a gallery in Red Bank on the corner of Broad Street and Mechanic Street, where he sold works for 13 years. Currently, he works out of Millstone.
Garrison’s paintings range from accurate depictions of Shrewsbury’s Christ Church during the Revolutionary War to a painting of Molly Pitcher aiding a cannon crew during the Battle of Monmouth.
Now, Garrison is considering a new piece in anticipation of America’s 250th anniversary next July. His goal remains – to bring his- tory to life through accurate depictions, especially for younger generations.
“There’s so much history in New Jersey that, unfortunately, right now, they’re not being taught,” he said.
Some “have no idea who George Washington was, what Army he fought in, what country he fought, the Revolution.”
“A lot of people, they don’t think about our history,” especially in New Jersey, where the “whole (Revolutionary) War could have ended,” he said. New Jersey is known as the “crossroads of the American Revolution” due to the major battles that were fought here. Washington and his army spent more time in New Jersey than in any other state.
As Monmouth County begins its yearlong celebration of the nation’s birth, voices like Garrison’s help remind residents of the history that surrounds them every day.
The article originally appeared in the July 31 – August 6, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
