New-York Historical Society Luce Center Audio Tour

STOP LIST 402 ULPIUS GLOBE 403 WASHINGTON’S INAUGURAL CHAIR 404 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, 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 421 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 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 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 sat in this simple mahogany chair the day he took the oath of office as the first president of the . It was April 30, 1789 and New York was the capital of the young nation. At Federal Hall in lower , 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 . 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 , 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. Ki-On-Twog-Ky means Cornplanter. He was born in western New York State, the son of a Seneca mother and a European fur trader. In 1796 a European artist named Bartoli painted this portrait. The chief is showing off what he’s wearing, and there’s a story behind why. Ki-On-Twog-Ky was a mighty warrior. In the 1750s he led his tribe into battle against the French. Then during the American Revolution he fought with the British against the colonists. After the Revolution Ki-On-Twog-Ky wanted to live in peace. But he worried about the safety of his villages. Even after the Revolution, British settlers were still living just north of his lands. He knew that if the British and Americans started fighting again, his people could be drawn into war. So in 1786 he came to New York City, at that time the nation’s capital. He asked Congress two questions: did Americans want to live in peace with the Senecas? And would the United States respect the boundaries of the land his people lived on, land assigned to them by treaty. Congress assured the chief that he had nothing to worry about. And that’s where the portrait comes in.

409 BULLS AND BEARS IN THE MARKET This painting is titled Bulls and Bears in the Market. The artist William Holbrook Beard painted it in 1879. He’s poking fun at , especially the Stock Market. Today broadcasters often use the terms bulls and bears when they report on the Market. Bulls are investors who make money when prices go up, and bears make money when prices go down. Beard didn’t invent those terms, but he is satirizing the bullish and bearish investors by painting them as animals in a huge battle against the backdrop of New York City’s Financial Center. The scene is with the New York on the left. This building was later torn down and replaced by the current Stock Exchange on the same spot. The building on the right with the columns is Federal Hall today, but back then it was the U.S. Sub Treasury building. The bulls and bears are locked in a huge battle. And there’s fun in exploring the details, so look closely. On the ground are tufts of bear fur and bull hide, gouged and bitten out. A bull on the left is chasing a bear up the red pole. In front of the Stock Exchange, look for a bear being tossed in the air. In the front right, a examine the hide of a bull they’ve slaughtered. In the extreme lower right a bear takes a break from the battle to study his account book. Look above him and in the middle ground a bear is using a rope to try and lasso a bull. Beard may have been inspired by the stock market crash of 1873, which produced the worst depression in nineteenth-century

America. That was six years before he did this painting. Even in its satire, the painting captures the real energy and passion of the stock exchange that continue even today.

410 PEALE FAMILY PORTRAIT This is a family portrait that took 35 years to finish! The artist Charles Wilson Peale painted most of it in the 1770s. But he kept coming back to it throughout his life, repainting the background, changing how he looked, and adding his beloved dog Argus. Most portraits in the colonies before the American Revolution were of individuals. So this group painting was unusual; in fact, it was one of the most ambitious portraits by a colonial artist up to that time. Peale captures the and closeness of his family, and celebrates himself as an artist. He’s the man in black on the left, standing in front of an unfinished canvas and holding an artist’s palette. He’s looking down at a drawing his two brothers are doing of their mother, who’s sitting at the other end of the table. She holds one of his daughters on her lap. His wife sits in the center at the table, holding another daughter. One of Peale’s sisters sits next to the mother on the right; another sister stands in the back next to Peale. The other standing woman is housekeeper. The busts on a shelf in the upper right honor his painting teacher Benjamin West and an early patron, Edmund Jennings. The bust furthest in the background is Peale himself. On the table, a still life of fruit includes an apple peel, a deliberate pun by the artist on his name. Peale painting a peel. Peale also loved to study natural history. He organized scientific expeditions and started a museum in ...to house his collection of specimens, from birds to wooly mammoth bones...and to hang his beloved family portrait. In the painting, on at the right you’ll see a note from Peale. It says: “C.W. Peale painted these portraits of his family in 1773. Wishing to finish every work he has undertaken, completed this picture in 1809!

411 AUDUBON NICHE PAINTINGS ’s paintings of North American birds in the wild are some of the New-York Historical Society’s greatest treasures. . In fact, the Society holds all 435 of Audubon’s preparatory watercolors for his renowned prints series The Birds of America. Since too much light can destroy their delicate colors, we rotate the displays in this Niche every three months. From his early twenties, Audubon was obsessed by one idea: to observe, record, and publish images of all of the species of birds in North America. During his life, people recognized Audubon’s bird watercolors as both important documents of natural history and dazzling works of art. Audubon was one of America’s greatest watercolorists and he depicted birds in new ways. He was the first to show all the birds life size and interacting with each other. He also showed different sexes, ages, and seasonal plumages of the same species. Today, we also value his images because they include species that became extinct, and today they live only in his watercolors. Audubon and his wife Lucy hoped that his collection of watercolors would stay in the United States after his death in 1851. Both the New-York Historical Society and the British Museum wanted to buy the collection. But the $4,000 asking price for the collection was a large sum at the time, and too high for the Historical Society. For a while it seemed that the bird paintings might end up in the UK. But after a year of private fundraising, in 1863 the Society acquired the collection of 434 preparatory watercolors for The Birds of America , along with around 50 other works. Later in the 1960s, donors gave the Historical Society the final preparatory watercolor and a rare copy of what’s called the double-elephant folio edition of The Birds of America , printed on the largest size of paper available. And those gifts made this national treasure complete.

412 TONTINE COFFEE HOUSE Long before there was a , where do you think stockbrokers, traders, and merchants met to buy, sell, and trade? In buildings like the ones in this painting, done by Francis Guy in 1797. The painting’s title is The Tontine Coffee House, and that’s the building on the left with the flag on top and all those prosperous looking men standing on the porch. On the right side of the painting is the corner of the Merchant’s Coffee House. The street on the right is Wall Street. You’re looking east and you can see the masts of ships at wharves. It’s a busy scene of commerce as workers handle barrels and bales and boxes, unloading them or getting them ready for loading on those ships. Two of the workers in the center are African-American. They may be either slaves or free men, since New York’s population included both at that time. New Yorkers ran on coffee even back then. But in eighteenth century America coffee houses were also important meeting places. Politicians and military officers debated ideas. Merchants met to make business deals.

The Tontine Coffee house was famous in the city as a marketplace for all kinds of commodities... ships, horses, real estate, rum...even slaves. The street on the left is Water Street. Today the intersection of Water and Wall Streets is still the heart of New York’s financial district. And New Yorkers still fill coffee houses to conduct business and debate ideas.

413 FLAGS ON 57TH STREET, WINTER 1918 The title of this painting describes the scene very well. It’s called Flags on 57 th Street, Winter 1918. That’s 57 th Street in Manhattan, New York City. The artist Childe Hassam painted it, and this is a view from the window of his studio at 130 West 57 th Street. You’re looking west toward Sixth Avenue. At the top of the painting you can make out the structure of the Sixth Avenue elevated train station, now long gone. What dominates the painting is, of course, the American flags. They’re huge and colorful against the drab gray, black, white, and beige in most of the painting. They’re probably larger in the painting than they were in real life, because Hassam was declaring his support for America’s involvement in World War I. From 1916 to 1919, Hassam painted almost 30 canvasses highlighting the American flags that hung along New York streets, especially . His flag paintings are symbols of patriotic feelings in the US during World War I. And they are important examples of American Impressionism. Hassam had lived in Paris studying the work of the French Impressionists. Impressionists apply paint to the canvas in unblended colors using short broken strokes...to create an impression of people and objects, rather than painting them in realistic detail.

414 TIFFANY DRAGONFLY LAMP The New-York Historical Society is proud to have in its collection over 130 lamps by Louis Comfort Tiffany’s Tiffany Studios. This is one example, called a Dragonfly Lamp. It was designed between 1900 and 1906 by a woman named Clara Driscoll. For decades people thought that Tiffany himself designed all the lamps. But recently scholars found out that he employed a team of talented woman designers and artisans. Now we know that Clara Driscoll designed many of Tiffany Studios’ most beautiful creations, and this lamp was one of them. Tiffany began his artistic career as a landscape painter and you can see the love of nature in his work. The lamps often show fruits and flowers and sometimes creatures like bats and insects. Look closely at the edge of this lampshade and you’ll see why it’s called a Dragonfly lamp. A row of nine dragonflies surrounds the shade, their heads pointing downward and jutting below the edge of the shade. Each has two round green eyes. Their extend horizontally, and their bodies extend about halfway up the shade. The blue and green glass is the water they are flitting above, and the upper third is the sky. The base of the lamp is bronze. Notice...all the glass pieces are not the same thickness, so there’s a dramatic play of light as you move around the lamp and tilt your head up and down. In 1906 Tiffany Studios priced it at $175. Think that was expensive? Well, in that same year, the average hourly wage was 17 1/2 cents, so these lamps were out of the price range for all but the wealthy. Be sure and see the full collection of Tiffany lamps on display in another section of the Luce Center. You can check the orientation map behind you to find out where they are.

415 LAFAYETTE PUNCH BOWL This is an enormous punch bowl. Look inside... you can see a pale stain left from the punch. Now, you probably have two questions: how much does it hold? And what are the pictures on the outside about? The first answer’s easy... twenty-two gallons. The decoration is more complicated. They recall a key event in American history that few people remember today...the Marquis de Lafayette’s visit to the United States in 1824. Two scenes show Lafayette’s ship, a steamboat, arriving at the tip of Manhattan, escorted by other ships with flags flying, while cannons fire salutes from the shore. Two hundred thousand people lined lower Broadway for a parade to honor him. hy the celebration? Well, you may recall from high school history that Lafayette was a hero of the American Revolution, a general wounded in battle, and George Washington thought of him like a son. After the war Lafayette returned to France. In 1824 President James Monroe invited him back for a visit. And the country went nuts for him! For over a year he toured large cities and small towns in all 24 states of the young nation. And everywhere he went there were parades, banquets, fireworks, and concerts in his honor. Lafayette’s visit reminded Americans about how their nation began and what it stood for. His visit sparked a huge rise in patriotism. The New York City celebration included a banquet inside Castle Garden, today called . That’s the round building that you see on the punch bowl. So you might think this bowl was used at that banquet. Not possible. There are architectural details about Castle Garden in the punch bowl’s decoration that didn’t exist till years later. So this bowl was probably made in the 1840s or ‘50s, and used by the owners of Castle Garden to commemorate the visit and promote their establishment.

416 THOMAS NAST JUG The swirling mass of snakes and heads on this jug represent an important cast of characters in New York City’s political history...the Boss Tweed gang. The coiled snake on top is the handle for the jug’s stopper. The Anna Pottery Company of Illinois made this as a thank you gift for Thomas Nast, a famous political cartoonist of the 1860s and ‘70s. Nast had used his to attack the massive misappropriation of public funds by Boss Tweed and his henchmen, who controlled the known as . Tweed is the bearded head without glasses, and most of the other heads are his associates. Also notice the behinds of all the Tammany Hall members trying to climb into the pot of money and power. A lot of people knew about Tweed’s corruption, but it was Nast’s cartoons in Harper’s Weekly that finally aroused the public, the newspapers, and government officials to arrest Tweed and send him to prison. The pottery makers also added their hero Nast to the jug. He’s the highest head on the jug, the one not attached to a snake’s body. Today political cartoonists still see Thomas Nast’s cartoons as the gold standard for their profession. And this stands as a testament to the power of artistic expression.

417 TIFFANY ICE CREAM DISH Would your favorite ice cream taste better served from a silver bowl like this? John and Marie Louise Mackay [pronounced “MACK-ee”] must have thought so The bowl is part of their silver dinner service made by Tiffany and Company. The service even had a title: "Dinner and Dessert Service for Twenty-Four Persons." Mackay was an Irish immigrant who struck it rich in 1873 when he discovered the Comstock Lode, the largest silver deposit ever found in Nevada. His wife asked if she could have enough silver to make something, quote, memorable. Well, enough silver turned out to be nearly a ton. That’s what Tiffany used to make the twelve hundred and fifty pieces in the service. Two hundred men worked two years to produce it. Each piece features his Mrs. Mackay’s initials...M L M...and her family’s coat of arms. On this ice cream dish you can see them on opposite sides of the rim. The feet of the dish are elephant trunks. By the way, the inside is gilded with a thin layer of gold. This was one of two ice cream serving dishes in the set. Then there were 24 individual ice cream plates. The luxurious set also included such pieces as celery vases, separate dishes for olives, cheese, and grapes, a chocolate pot, crumb trays, candelabras, and of course knives, forks, and spoons for 24 guests. The Mackays made their home in Paris, and Mrs. Mackay became famous in European high society for her sumptuous banquets and parties.

418 BEEKMAN COACH This coach belonged to the Beekman family of New York City. James Beekman was a merchant, and he was wealthy enough to have ordered it from England and shipped to the colonies in 1771. And he had his family’s coat of arms painted prominently on the doors, probably once it arrived in New York. Walk around it and take a look. If you watch movies set in the 1700s, you might get the impression that everyone rode in carriages like this one. Absolutely not. Painted carriages like this with beveled glass windows and a place at the back for a footman were rare, even among the elite of the colonies. For instance, we know that in 1766 there were only 26 coaches like this in all of New York City. Probably the Beekmans only used it for special occasions, like going to balls and banquets and other formal events, since they had simpler carriages for daily use. . This coach stayed in the Beekman family till they donated it to the Historical Society in 1911. And today it’s a rarity...it was hidden during the Revolutionary War so that it wouldn’t be destroyed. And now it’s one of only 3 coaches to survive in its original condition from 18 th century America.

419 PHYFE TOOL CHEST This is a very famous set of tools. The tools and chest belonged to Duncan Phyfe, one of New York’s most important cabinet makers between 1790 and 1854. Phyfe was born in Scotland, came to America as a teenager, learned to work with wood, and had a thriving business for four decades. At one time he employed 100 workers. Phyfe built this tool chest, a simple yet beautiful pine box, and amassed this collection of almost 300 woodworking tools for carving, veneering, and inlaying furniture. It includes 60 planes and a variety of chisels, gouges, templates, and squares all in pristine condition. You don’t have to be a carpenter to appreciate the collection, especially the beautiful handles that he crafted out of mahogany, rosewood, and ebony. Note especially the saw handles mounted in the top of the chest. You may be curious about the small white envelope tied with string inside the box. The handwriting on the envelope tells the story. It says: “Mother’s hair, taken off the morning she died, August 24, 1899,” and it marks the the death of Julia Matilda Pinkney, Phyfe’s daughter-in-law.

420 THE INDIAN HUNTER Does this bronze sculpture look familiar? Then maybe you’ve seen the life-sized version in . It’s called The Indian Hunter by Ward. He made it in 1866 and it established his reputation as an artist. It was so popular that in 1869 he was commissioned to do a version for the Park. It was the first work by an American sculptor to be installed in Central Park. If you want to find it, it’s on a between the Mall and the , at approximately 66 th Street. Ward’s , like The Indian Hunter, were popular with the general public and respected by critics. Notice all the details, like the concerned look on the hunter’s face and the ribs showing through the dog’s side. And see how the figures are in realistic poses, alert and ready to face whatever they’ve just seen. The careful detail and the natural poses were unusual for nineteenth-century sculptures, which were mostly classical works like marble portrait busts and statues of famous men. Ward showed that you could combine classical composition with realistic details and natural subject matter. He chose an American theme, but he modeled the young Indian’s pose after the

Borghese Warrior, an ancient Greek sculpture in the Louvre.He sold many small reproductions like this one. During his life he had it cast 4 times to meet the demand. By the way, you can see other important sculptures by in New York City. He did the statue of George Washington that stands in front of Federal Hall. And he designed the frieze of sculptures high above the entrance to the New York Stock Exchange.

421 ABRAHAM LINCOLN MAQUETTE Abraham Lincoln...as you see him in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, But this is not a copy of that sculpture...this statue came first. It’s called a maquette. And it reveals the creative process of the sculptor Daniel Chester French. French made this maquette in 1916. It’s plaster, painted to look like bronze. French wasn’t sure how big the final version would have to be to fit the great pillared hall of the Memorial. So he started with this 3-foot tall model, and from it made another version 12 feet tall which he actually placed in the Memorial. He and Memorial architect Henry Bacon saw right away that 12 feet was way too small. They agreed that it had to be twenty feet tall. And that’s what you see in the Memorial today. The marble sculpture was completed in 1919 and dedicated in 1922. Look around in this display area of sculpture and you’ll see French’s plaster model of the head that’s on the colossal statue. It’s the actual size of the finished sculpture of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial.

422 JOHN RAMAGE MINIATURE DESK

This owner of this mahogany slant top desk really got around in the 1700s. He had to. I’ll explain why in a minute, but first I’ll tell you about the desk. It belonged to John Ramage, an artist who specialized in miniatures, tiny paintings done on small pieces of ivory. You can see tiny samples of his miniatures in the two oval containers inside the desk. But Ramage didn’t just make the paintings. He also built little frames and cases to hold the miniatures, often crafting the cases in gold with elaborate designs, and engraving the backs of the cases. This little desk held all of his tools for that work. So it was the ideal piece of furniture for a man who moved around from place to place. And move he did. Here’s why. He was living in with this wife when the Revolution began in 1775. But he was born in Ireland and felt loyal to the British crown. So he moved to Nova Scotia. Without his wife. He also married in Canada, but two years later he was exposed as a bigamist and fled to New York City to escape public disgrace. He stayed there after the war, married again, and changed addresses, often. Eventually he had to leave New York in a hurry because he was going to be arrested for bad debts. He took off for Montreal this time. Leaving behind another wife. The Historical Society has nearly 800 miniatures in its collection, including 16 by Ramage..

423 LIVINGSTON DRESSING TABLE This is a lady’s dressing table that probably belonged to Margaret Maria Livingston. It was built in New York sometime around 1800. And it’s a good example of the fact that after the United States won its independence, it still looked back to Europe for inspiration in art and design. This piece was probably built by following a pattern in a book written by Thomas Sheraton, a famous English furniture designer. The book is known as the “Cabinet Maker’s and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book.” Customers in the young nation felt that English furniture makers did the best work, and they wanted furniture built in America to have the high English quality and latest English designs. This table is mostly mahogany, with white pine and poplar used on the interior and other light woods for the inlay. Sheraton described the table as a piece of furniture that "contains every requisite for a lady to dress at." There are seven drawers you can easily see, and inside the cabinets are banks of smaller drawers and pigeonholes. Above the large center drawer you can slide out a flat leather- covered writing surface. And when you pull out the center drawer, it contains a round cutout to fit a washbasin. The rounded bottom sections of the dressing table have sliding doors revealing storage space. e only know of two dressing tables of this design built in America. The Historical Society is fortunate to have acquired this one from Mrs. Livingston’s descendants.

424 CHECKERS UP AT THE FARM At the end of the nineteenth century, if you were middle class and you loved art, you probably had a sculpture like this decorating your parlor. This group is titled Checkers Up at the Farm, and the sculptor was John Rogers. Rogers was a railroad mechanic, and he taught himself how to model with clay as a hobby. People loved his first sculptures so much that he decided to turn his hobby into a profession. His subjects were amusing and warm, and captured poignant scenes of American life that everyone could relate to. In this scene, a farmer sits on an upturned basket, hoe still in his right hand. Opposite him is a well- dressed visitor from the city, with his wife and child. The men are playing a game of checkers, and the farmer is laughing as he points to a successful move. Notice the realistic detail of the clothes and the facial expressions. Rogers liked his sculptures to tell simple stories. But the stories had psychological depth and touched people emotionally. Rogers was also a savvy businessman. He patented his sculptures and mass-produced them in inexpensive plaster. He sold them for about fifteen dollars each in his own shop, in general stores and art galleries throughout the East and the Midwest, and eventually directly to customers through a mail-order catalogue. By the end of the nineteenth century, he had sold more than 80,000 sculptures. Today most people have never heard of him, but his works mark the start of popular, accessible art in the U.S. The Historical Society has almost 150 sculptures by John Rogers. The sculptures he sold to the public are in plaster, but this one is a bronze master model that he used to make the plasters. Look around in this case and you’ll see many of them.

425 DYING INDIAN CHIEF This sculpture is one of the largest works in the Luce Center. And it has an impressively long name too: Dying Indian Chief Contemplating the Progress of American Civilization. The sculptor was Thomas Crawford. The poignant title tells you why the chief looks the way he does. As the sculptor himself wrote, the chief is “broken and bowed before the progress of the civilized white man.” Walk around the sculpture to see its details. The chief’s long hair down his back, and his headdress of feathers...his decorated moccasins...his tomahawk on the ground at his left side...the animal skin that he sits on. And of course look closely at his face, the eyes open, but staring blankly into an uncertain future. Crawford did not originally design this sculpture in three-dimensions as you see it here. He first designed the Dying Indian Chief in 1853 for the triangular pediment above the entrance to the Senate wing of the U.S. Capitol in Washington. You can see how his pose would fit in a corner of the triangle. If you visit Washington today you can see the entire group of figures. Taken all together, the Senate sculptures tell the story of America’s discovery, settlement, and development as a nation through western expansion. Of course, often at the expense of Native Americans. The Senate sculptures are carved in relief, which means they’re attached to the wall behind them. Crawford made this freestanding version later In Rome, in 1856.

426 NAPOLEON’S CHAIR This chair belonged to the most powerful man in Europe during the early 19 th century …. Napoleon Bonaparte. It was made in Paris of carved and gilded beech wood, and upholstered with regal red wool trimmed with gilded silver thread. So how did it get to the New-York Historical Society? It’s story with many characters. Napoleon used it in his council chamber at Malmaison, where it remained until at least 1814. It was brought to America by Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte, who fled France after Napoleon’s ultimate defeat in 1815. Joseph came to America and settled in Bordentown, New Jersey at a lavish estate known as Point Breeze. When Joseph returned to Europe he gave the chair to his business associate Felix Lacoste, the Consul General of France in

New York City. When LaCoste died, Vice-Consul Louis Borg purchased it from his estate. Borg eventually presented it the New York Historical Society in 1867. Miraculously, the chair retains its original upholstery and much of its original finish. The seat is faded and worn, so it was probably used often by its owners over the years. Who could resist the temptation to sit in such a seat of power?

427 WASHINGTON’S CAMP BED George Washington slept here. Really. We believe that Washington slept on this camp bed at Valley Forge during the brutally cold winter of 1777. It’s made from three simple folding stools that can be joined together, and it has a canvas top stretched on a folding wooden frame. The boards you see on three sides held mattress padding in place. The whole thing was easy to fold up and transport from camp to camp. It’s 6 and a half feet long, so it just barely fit General Washington, who was 6 feet 2 inches tall. And it probably wasn’t very comfortable. But it was luxurious compared to his troops, who often had to sleep on the ground. This simple bed is probably the most personal object used by George Washington that the Historical Society owns. It reminds us of the realities of his military career, rather than the elegant images we see of him in uniform, or the distinguished portraits of him as President. After the war, Washington entrusted this bed to his secretary, Richard Varick, who was later elected mayor of New York. Varick passed it on through his family until it was presented to the Historical Society in 1871.

428 SLAVE SHACKLES It’s rare to find artifacts related to the history of slavery in this country. So these steel ankle shackles are unusual. And the fact that we know who wore them makes them especially valuable to us. These were presented to the Historical Society with a card that explained their history. We’re told that they were around the ankles of a seventeen-year old girl named Mary Horn. She had been a slave of a man in Georgia named Judge Horn. The Civil War freed Mary, but she still lived and worked on Horn’s plantation. Then in 1866, a year after the war was over, Judge Horn placed these shackles on Mary to keep her from going to see her lover George, who lived on nearby plantation. George turned for help to some Union soldiers still stationed in Georgia led by Colonel William W. Badger of the 176th Regiment New York Volunteers. George begged Colonel Badger to free Mary from her shackles, and as the story goes he held her over an anvil while Badger cut them off. See the two round circles of steel? Notice there are open spaces in the circles. That’s where the shackles were riveted together. Colonel Badger then married George and Mary, and he told George to protect Mary, by force if necessary. Prophetic advice. Judge Horn went to jail for a year for re-enslaving Mary. But when he came home and tried to once again treat people like slaves, a riot broke out on his plantation. And George killed Judge Horn.

429 NOAH’S ARK TOY Here’s a 19 th century toy that gave kids a message: you can only play with toys on the Sabbath that have a moral or religious theme. Like this Noah’s Ark, built of wood and painted. It’s an example of what were called Sunday Toys. If you were a kid in a strict religious family in late nineteenth century America, you might have some toys for weekdays, and special toys like this that you only played with on the Sabbath. Toys with a morally uplifting message. Most Noah’s Arks were made in , like this one, built between 1850 and 1900. German wood carvers also specialized in making all the tiny animals to go inside the ark. See how the side wall of the ark slides so you can get the animals in and out? The Noah’s Ark toys came with hundreds of animals, like in this set. They aren’t action figures, or transformers, or Barbie dolls...but they were probably an answer to the prayers of bored nineteenth century American kids.