New-York Historical Society Luce Center Audio Tour STOP LIST 402 ULPIUS GLOBE 403 WASHINGTON's INAUGURAL CHAIR 404 FEDERAL HA
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New-York Historical Society Luce Center Audio Tour STOP LIST 402 ULPIUS GLOBE 403 WASHINGTON’S INAUGURAL CHAIR 404 FEDERAL HALL RAILING 405 CIVIL WAR DRAFT WHEEL 406 PEWTERER’S BANNER 407 LORD CORNBURY 408 CHIEF CORNPLANTER 409 BULLS AND BEARS IN THE MARKET 410 PEALE FAMILY PORTRAIT 411 AUDUBON NICHE PAINTINGS 412 TONTINE COFFEE HOUSE 413 FLAGS ON 57TH STREET, WINTER 1918 414 TIFFANY DRAGONFLY LAMP 415 LAFAYETTE PUNCH BOWL 416 THOMAS NAST JUG 417 TIFFANY ICE CREAM DISH 418 BEEKMAN COACH 419 PHYFE TOOL CHEST 420 THE INDIAN HUNTER 421 ABRAHAM LINCOLN MAQUETTE 422 JOHN RAMAGE MINIATURE DESK 423 LIVINGSTON DRESSING TABLE 424 CHECKERS UP AT THE FARM 425 DYING INDIAN CHIEF 426 NAPOLEON’S CHAIR 427 WASHINGTON’S CAMP BED 428 SLAVE SHACKLES 429 NOAH’S ARK TOY 402. ULPIUS TERRESTRIAL GLOBE This globe of the world is both beautiful and historical. It’s made of copper, and we know the maker’s name... Euphrosynus Ulpius. And we know he made it in Rome in 1542. The maps and names on it are based on the explorations of Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European known to have sailed into New York harbor. That was in 1524, only 18 years before Ulpius made this globe The globe is important to us because it’s the first to show where New York City could be found. Of course, the name New York is not on the globe. But if you look closely you can find where it would be. The names on the globe are in Latin and Italian, but you should be able to find the peninsula of Florida. It’s labeled clearly with the name “Florida.” Then follow the coastline north for a few inches. One of those inlets represents the New York harbor that Verrazzano sailed into. 403 WASHINGTON’S INAUGURAL CHAIR George Washington sat in this simple mahogany chair the day he took the oath of office as the first president of the United States. It was April 30, 1789 and New York was the capital of the young nation. At Federal Hall in lower Manhattan, Washington waited in the Senate chamber till it was time for the swearing in ceremony. He sat in this rather plain chair, and his Vice President John Adams sat with him in a similar chair. When it was time, both men walked out on to the balcony of Federal Hall for the inauguration. And then they returned to their chairs in the Senate chamber. No one that day bothered to save the chair as a historical relic. That didn’t occur to anyone till 1831 when a US Marshall named William Waddell identified it as the chair Washington had sat in. He took it home and his family guarded it for over fifty years. During that time they loaned it to two other presidents on their inauguration days...Ulysses S. Grant in 1873 and James Garfield in 1881. In 1916 the Waddell family donated the chair to the New York Historical Society. 404 FEDERAL HALL RAILING It’s a railing that held a famous hand. George Washington’s. New York City was the nation’s capital when Washington took the oath as the first president on April 30, 1789. The ceremony was at Federal Hall in lower Manhattan at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets. Federal Hall had been New York’s City Hall, and the government hired French architect Pierre Charles L’Enfant to redesign the building. L’Enfant went on to design an entire city – Washington, D.C. He added an elaborate wrought-iron balustrade to the façade. A balustrade is a decorative handrail. Behind it was a balcony twelve feet deep. That’s where Washington stood for his inauguration. The balustrade was painted, and you can still see remnants of gold paint on it. The most distinctive feature of the balustrade is in the center, the section of 13 arrows, one for each state in the new republic, each distinct, but all united. Federal Hall was demolished in 1812 and the balustrade was incorporated into the design of a building at Bellevue Hospital. In 1883, it was removed from that building. and this section was given to the New York Historical Society for safekeeping 405 CIVIL WAR DRAFT WHEEL This simple, well-designed drum of polished wood touched off a riot. It’s a Draft Wheel, used during the Civil War. By 1863 the Union Army was running out of volunteer soldiers. So the government announced the country’s first draft. The names of eligible men went into the wheel, and if your name was drawn you had to serve in the army for 3 years. Unless you were wealthy, because you could buy your way out by paying three hundred dollars, about a year’s wages for a working man. The draft began on July 13, 1863 with wheels like this all over the city. This wheel was used on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. At one office an angry mob hurled bricks, set fire to the building, and began one of the worst urban riots in the nation’s history. All over New York, thousands of men and women rampaged for four days, tearing up railroad tracks, cutting telegraph lines, torching churches and the homes of abolitionists, and then preventing firefighters from putting out the fires. Over 100 people died in the riots, including African Americans who were lynched. Many of the rioters were working class and poor people. They attacked the homes and churches of rich people, angry that they could escape the draft. And they attacked African Americans because they thought that white workers were being asked to fight for the freedom of blacks, who would inevitably compete with them for jobs. And because African-Americans were exempt from the draft. This Draft Wheel is the only one known to have survived the riots, unsmashed and unburned. It was donated to the Historical Society in 1865 with over a hundred handwritten cards still inside...each card representing a man whose name was never called for the draft. Look closely and you can read their names, addresses, and occupations. Many of the names show that the men were immigrants. 406 PEWTERER’S BANNER This is the Pewterer’s banner. It’s painted silk with fringe on the top, bottom, and right side. Try to imagine it being carried, proudly, in a parade by men in the Pewterer’s Guild. Pewter is an alloy of tin and metals like copper or zinc. Pewterers made things like plates and spoons and tankards. The Pewterers were in the crowd of 5,000 men who paraded in New York City on July 23, 1788....a parade to celebrate the new Constitution of the United States. The Constitution was being ratified, state by state, and it had just received the support of enough states to adopt it. But New York had not ratified it yet. While the New York assembly debated in Poughkeepsie, in New York City men of all classes and professions paraded. Besides the Pewterers, there were groups of bakers, woodcarvers, engravers, cartmen, farmers, brewers and many more. And groups of doctors and lawyers. There were many banners and floats in the parade, but this Pewterer’s banner is the only surviving artifact from that day. On the left side is an American flag with 13 stars, one for each state in the new union. And below it is the Pewterer’s coat of arms and their motto. On the right four workers are making pewter objects. Above them is an inscription that expresses the hopes of the Pewterers for the new nation. It says, “The Federal Plan most solid and secure/ Americans their freedom will ensure/ All arts shall flourish in Columbia’s Land/ and all her sons join as one social band.” The parade must have helped because the next day the New York assembly ratified the Constitution. 407 UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN (LORD CORNBURY) This is a very curious portrait. Is it a woman with a five o- clock shadow? Or a man in woman’s clothing? Scholars have different opinions, so you’re entitled to your own. But here’s the background on the painting. People used to think that it was Edward Hyde, also known as Lord Cornbury. He was a cousin of Queen Anne of Great Britain who appointed him governor of New York and New Jersey in the early 1700s. Popular history says that Lord Cornbury liked to dress in his wife’s clothes, not just in private, but strolling down Broadway, in the state assembly, and receiving official visitors. His explanation was that he should dress like a woman because he represented a woman, his cousin Queen Anne. His political enemies called him half-witted and a drunken fool. The public called him a tyrant and an embezzler and unfit to be governor. Eventually he was removed from office. For many years scholars said this was Lord Cornbury. But recent research raises doubts. It may be that Lord Cornbury’s enemies started the rumor that he was the subject of the painting, and it was spread by satirists who wanted to make fun of him. The painting might actually be Queen Anne herself, or some other unidentified member of the English aristocracy. What we do know is that sometimes what we think of as history can change, depending on who’s telling the story. 408 CHIEF CORNPLANTER (KI-ON-TWOG-KY) This is a portrait of Chief Ki-On-Twog-Ky, a proud leader of the Seneca tribe.