Art

The National Museum of American History is not an art museum. But works of art fill its collections and testify to the vital place of art in everyday American life. The ceramics collections hold hundreds of examples of American and European art glass and pottery. Fashion sketches, illustrations, and prints are part of the costume collections. Donations from ethnic and cultural communities include many homemade religious ornaments, paintings, and figures. The Harry T Peters "America on Stone" collection alone comprises some 1,700 color prints of scenes from the 1800s. The National Quilt Collection is art on fabric. And the tools of artists and artisans are part of the Museum's collections, too, in the form of printing plates, woodblock tools, photographic equipment, and potters' stamps, kilns, and wheels.

Henrietta Shore (1880-1963) was an early pioneer of the Modernism movement of art on the West Coast. She discovered lithography while traveling in Mexico, and took inspiration from the southern landscape and indigenous traditions.
Description (Brief)
Henrietta Shore (1880-1963) was an early pioneer of the Modernism movement of art on the West Coast. She discovered lithography while traveling in Mexico, and took inspiration from the southern landscape and indigenous traditions. On returning to California in 1928, Shore began working in the Los Angeles lithography workshop of master printer Lynton Kistler making her one of the first women lithographers working in California. "Water Carrier" was one of the prints produced during her time there.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1928
original artist
Shore, Henrietta
graphic artist
Kistler, Lynton R.
ID Number
1978.0650.1746
accession number
1978.0650
catalog number
1978.0650.1746
Unsigned sheet; Gerome Ferris explores in pencil a possibility for the central group in his painting, San Salvador, 1492. Here Columbus flourishes his sword above his head whereas in the painting he gestures forward with it.
Description (Brief)
Unsigned sheet; Gerome Ferris explores in pencil a possibility for the central group in his painting, San Salvador, 1492. Here Columbus flourishes his sword above his head whereas in the painting he gestures forward with it. There is also a preliminary study for the crossbowman at left front in the painting.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1920s
original artist
Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
ID Number
1985.0650.007
accession number
1985.0650
catalog number
85.0650.007
"The Green Calash" is a soft ground color etching and aquatint by Ellen Day Hale (1855–1940), produced in 1925 after her 1904 painting. The print is a three-quarter-view portrait of a young woman seated with her hands resting together in her lap.
Description
"The Green Calash" is a soft ground color etching and aquatint by Ellen Day Hale (1855–1940), produced in 1925 after her 1904 painting. The print is a three-quarter-view portrait of a young woman seated with her hands resting together in her lap. She is wearing a large green bonnet or hood called a calash because of its resemblance to the folding top of an 18th-century carriage known as a calash.
"The Green Calash" was shown at the Smithsonian as part of a print exhibition in November 1936. Other exhibitors were Gabrielle DeVeaux Clements, Margaret Hoyt, and Lesley Jackson. Clements and Hale experimented extensively with color printmaking throughout their careers. They were especially inspired by French artist René Ligeron's 1924 treatise on color intaglio, which Hale translated into English for the Smithsonian exhibition. Clements wrote to curator R.P. Tolman that she and Hale had "been working on an interesting line of experiments in printing etchings in color" and that they had "lately gained better control of the medium, and greater simplicity."
The 1936 exhibition came near the end of Hale's and Clements's careers. By that time they had been producing prints for more than sixty years. Their work was included in the first exhibition of etchings exclusively by women at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1887. Curator Sylvester R. Koehler included more than 400 etchings by twenty-five artists in a very successful exhibition titled Women Etchers of America. In 1888 the Union League Club in New York exhibited the same works, plus about 100 more by eleven additional women. A traveling exhibition celebrating the centennial of these two ground-breaking shows, American Women of the Etching Revival, was organized by the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia in 1988. The NMAH lent works by Hale, Clements, and other women printmakers, and the Museum showed the exhibition in Washington in 1989.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1925
ID Number
GA.17165
catalog number
17165
accession number
142035
Unsigned sheet of pencil studies, showing swords and helmets, some of which can be linked to the figure of a crossbowman in Ferris’s painting in which Christopher Columbus takes possession of present-day San Salvador for Spain.Currently not on view
Description
Unsigned sheet of pencil studies, showing swords and helmets, some of which can be linked to the figure of a crossbowman in Ferris’s painting in which Christopher Columbus takes possession of present-day San Salvador for Spain.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1920s
original artist
Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
ID Number
1985.0650.005
accession number
1985.0650
catalog number
85.0650.005
The Girl on the Land Serves the Nation's Need. American World War I poster by artist Edward Penfield for the Y.W.C.A. Land Service Committee.
Description
The Girl on the Land Serves the Nation's Need. American World War I poster by artist Edward Penfield for the Y.W.C.A. Land Service Committee. Depicted are four women in uniform walking through a field, carrying tools and a basket of produce while leading a team of horses.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1917 - 1921
ID Number
1986.3051.01
catalog number
1986.3051.01
nonaccession number
1986.3051
This pen-and-ink comic art drawing by Rube Goldberg from 1924 features the concept of using “windy” political speeches as free energy.Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) was an engineer before he was a comic artist.
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink comic art drawing by Rube Goldberg from 1924 features the concept of using “windy” political speeches as free energy.
Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) was an engineer before he was a comic artist. After receiving an engineering degree, he started his career designing sewers for the City of San Francisco, but then followed his other interest and took a job as a sports cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle. After moving to New York in 1907 Goldberg worked for several newspapers, producing a number of short-lived strips and panels—many of which were inspired by his engineering background, including his renowned invention cartoons. In the late 1930s and 1940s he switched his focus to editorial and political cartoons and in 1945 founded the National Cartoonists Society. The Reuben, comic art’s most prestigious award, is named after him.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1924-10-31
original artist
Goldberg, Rube
ID Number
GA.23492
catalog number
23492
accession number
299186
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c. 1910-1925
ID Number
CE.73.143
catalog number
73.143
accession number
309646
China painting swept across America in the late nineteenth century as one of the most prevalent decorative pottery techniques, especially among young women.
Description
China painting swept across America in the late nineteenth century as one of the most prevalent decorative pottery techniques, especially among young women. Considered a respectable form of work and creative outlet for women, china painting incorporated the element of hand craft that helped elevate standards of design during a period of mass production and industrialism. The technique of china painting could be done conveniently at home or in large pottery settings. Also known as “mineral painting,” after its materials, a china painter used enamels, low firing colors produced from various mineral-oxides, as a “painting” medium on pre-fired porcelain white porcelain, also known as blanks. These blank porcelain pieces were often imported from European countries, France and Germany in particular, and came in a variety of dinner ware forms and vases. The china painting technique of decorating porcelain was popularized in America by the highly influential Englishman, Edward Lycett. Trained as a potter in the English tradition at Spode pottery in Staffordshire, England, Lycett moved to America in 1861, where he almost immediately gained prestigious commissions for the White House and Tiffany & Co. His devotion to experimenting with materials and teaching pottery techniques across the country established Edward Lycett as the “pioneer of china painting in America” during his own lifetime. Ultimately, the creativity fostered by the china painting movement and the influence of Edward Lycett launched the American ceramic industry towards new and exciting avenues of decorative pottery.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
made, 1903-1907
painted, 1908-1929
ID Number
CE.74.74D
catalog number
74.74D
accession number
314093
This lamp, from about 1900, is a compelling example of Louis Comfort Tiffany's ability to transform a design aesthetic inspired by nature into a fabulous decorative furnishing. The bamboo design is carried throughout the lamp.
Description
This lamp, from about 1900, is a compelling example of Louis Comfort Tiffany's ability to transform a design aesthetic inspired by nature into a fabulous decorative furnishing. The bamboo design is carried throughout the lamp. The dome-shaped 24" shade is constructed of green fibrillated glass with yellow mottling to create long tapering bamboo leaves and shoots against an opalescent geometric panel ground. The bamboo stalks appear to be growing against a wire trellis. The 62" integrated brown patinated bronze sectioned bamboo stem base is topped with a matching bamboo-inspired heat cap with a seedpod finial.
The lamp was a bequest from the estate of Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson, a generous Washington philanthropist. Following in the family tradition of supporting charitable, cultural, and preservation organizations, Mrs. Patterson was the source of numerous gifts and donations to the Smithsonian Institution and its museums and libraries. She was the daughter of Isabella Goodrich and attorney John Cabell Breckinridge. Her maternal grandfather was inventor and industrialist B. F. Goodrich. Her paternal great-grandfather was John C. Breckinridge, vice president of the United States and a military figure. She began her career as a freelance photojournalist and filmmaker. One of her first film subjects was the Frontier Nursing Service in Kentucky. During World War II, she was hired by Edward R. Murrow as a staff broadcaster for CBS in Berlin. Her photographs were published in National Geographic, Life and Harper's Bazaar. In 1940 she married American diplomat Jefferson Patterson and took on the role of diplomatic wife.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1889-1920
user
Patterson, Mary Marvin Breckinridge
manufacturer
Tiffany Studios
ID Number
2003.0276.01
catalog number
2003.0276.01
accession number
2003.0276
Unsigned sheet of pencil drawings listing names of men who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his first expedition to the New World and shows some armor they might have worn.
Description
Unsigned sheet of pencil drawings listing names of men who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his first expedition to the New World and shows some armor they might have worn. About 1930 Gerome Ferris painted San Salvador, 1492 in which Columbus claims the island of present-day San Salvador for Spain.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1920s
maker
Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
ID Number
1985.0650.004
accession number
1985.0650
catalog number
85.0650.004
Before becoming an international phenomenon, the Arts and Crafts movement began with the ideas of British artisan William Morris (1834-1896) and writer John Ruskin (1819-1900).
Description
Before becoming an international phenomenon, the Arts and Crafts movement began with the ideas of British artisan William Morris (1834-1896) and writer John Ruskin (1819-1900). Morris and Ruskin believed that the growth of cities isolated urban workers and that mass production negatively affected artisan crafts. They proposed to solve these issues by returning to a medieval-inspired village model where everybody participated in a community lifestyle. In the United States, artisans adapted these ideas into the studio art pottery movement. Unlike their British counterparts, who often focused predominantly on social issues and therefore made objects that incorporated Gothic and Renaissance motifs, American craftsmen developed a cohesive and novel aesthetic.
Opened in 1896 by the Robertson family in Dedham, Massachusetts, the Dedham Pottery succeeded an earlier venture called Chelsea Pottery. Like Mary Louise McLaughlin and Walter B. Stephen, Hugh Robertson was inspired by ceramics at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Robertson showed an early interest in Chinese ceramics, especially wares decorated in a distinct red glaze called Sang-de-boeuf, literally French for “oxblood.” The glaze, which had become popular in China during the Ming dynasty in the sixteenth century, was notoriously challenging to replicate. Robertson did successfully recreate a darker version with a distinct crackled appearance for Chelsea Keramic Art Works. With a tinge of Victorian humor, he called his ware “Sang de Chelses.” After Chelsea Keramic Art Works closed in 1889, Robertson opened Dedham pottery and adapted his crackle glaze into a translucent version that would become the pottery’s signature aesthetic.
The Dedham pottery company produced a distinct stoneware body with a tight crackle glaze, which its potters decorated with cobalt blue patterns of whimsical animal forms. The pottery’s most common design was the crouching rabbit, echoed in the company’s underglaze mark. This platter features a stylization of the company’s lion tapestry motif, with back-to-back lions hunting flying owls.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1896-1928
maker
Dedham Pottery
ID Number
CE.63.229
catalog number
63.229
accession number
248370
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1924
Artist
Miller, Benjamin
Associated Name
Bernard, Allen W.
maker
Miller, Benjamin
ID Number
2016.0084.014
accession number
2016.0084
catalog number
2016.0084.014
Gerome Ferris sketched these helmets in pencil for his 1930 historical painting of Christopher Columbus landing in the new world, San Salvador, 1492.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Gerome Ferris sketched these helmets in pencil for his 1930 historical painting of Christopher Columbus landing in the new world, San Salvador, 1492.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1920s
original artist
Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
ID Number
1985.0650.006
accession number
1985.0650
catalog number
85.0650.006
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1926
publisher
G. L. & Co.
original artist
Smith, M. Ferris
ID Number
2012.0093.20
accession number
2012.0093
catalog number
2012.0093.20
Physical DescriptionFour-color print on paper.Specific HistoryProduced by the United States Office of War Information, Washington, D.C. Printed by the United States Government Printing Office.
Description
Physical Description
Four-color print on paper.
Specific History
Produced by the United States Office of War Information, Washington, D.C. Printed by the United States Government Printing Office. Distributed by the Division of Public Inquiries, Office of War Information.
Series: Office of War Information Poster, No. 26
To control the form of war messages, the government created the U.S. Office of War Information in June 1942. OWI sought to review and approve the design and distribution of government posters. Posters and their messages were seen as "war graphics," combining the sophisticated style of contemporary graphic design with the promotion of war aims.
Over time, OWI developed six war-information themes for its own internal use, as well as to guide other issuing agencies and major producers of mass-media entertainment.
1. The Nature of the Enemy - general or detailed descriptions of this enemy, such as, he hates religion, persecutes labor, kills Jews and other minorities, smashes home life, debases women, etc.
2. The Nature of our Allies - the United Nations theme, our close ties with Britain, Russia, and China, Mexicans and Americans fighting side by side on Bataan and on the battlefronts.
3. The Need to Work - the countless ways in which Americans must work if we are to win the war, in factories, on ships, in mines, in fields, etc.
4. The Need to Fight - the need for fearless waging of war on land, sea, and skies, with bullets, bombs, bare hands, if we are to win.
5. The Need to Sacrifice - Americans are willing to give up all luxuries, devote all spare time to the war effort, etc., to help win the war.
6. The Americans - we are fighting for the four freedoms, the principles of the Atlantic Charter, Democracy, and no discrimination against races and religions, etc.
ref: Alan Cranston to Norman Ferguson, 17 November 1942, folder: California Trip, box 1078, entry E222, MC 148, RG 208, NACP. From Design for Victory: World War II Posters on the American Home Front, William L. Bird Jr. and Harry R. Rubenstein. Princeton Architectural Press, New York. 1998.
This particular poster fits neatly into theme six.
General History
The Division of Military History and Diplomacy has been collecting recruiting posters for more than fifty years. Recruiting as an activity of the military is important to the understanding of who serves in uniform, during both war and peace, and the visual materials used to market military service. The collection contains examples of early Civil War broadsides, World War I posters, including the original artwork for Uncle Sam as drawn by Montgomery Flagg, and World War II posters, which show the recruiting of men and women for all services and auxiliary organizations. The collection contains primarily Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II recruiting posters for the army, navy and some marines. More modern-day recruiting materials are also contained in the collection, and cover a broad range of army recruiting slogans.
Posters during World War II were designed to instill in people a positive outlook, a sense of patriotism, and confidence. They linked the war in trenches with the war at home. From a practical point, they were used to encourage all Americans to help with the war effort. The posters called on every man, woman, and child to endure the personal sacrifice and domestic adjustments to further the national agenda. They encouraged rationing, conservation, and sacrifice. In addition, the posters were used for recruitment, productivity, and motivation as well as for financing the war effort. The stark, colorful graphic designs elicited strong emotions. The posters played to the fears, frustrations, and faith in freedoms that lingered in people's minds during the war.
date made
1943
associated date
1941 - 1945
ID Number
AF.56184
catalog number
56184
accession number
199084
Physical DescriptionFour-color print on paper.Specific HistoryThe Division of Military History and Diplomacy has been collecting recruiting posters for more than fifty years.
Description
Physical Description
Four-color print on paper.
Specific History
The Division of Military History and Diplomacy has been collecting recruiting posters for more than fifty years. Recruiting as an activity of the military is important to the understanding of who serves in uniform during both war and peace and the visual materials used to market military service. The collection contains examples of early Civil War broadsides; World War I posters, including the original artwork for Uncle Sam as drawn by Montgomery Flagg; and World War II posters, which show the recruiting of men and women for all services and auxiliary organizations. The collection contains primarily Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II recruiting posters for the army, navy and some marines. More modern-day recruiting materials are also contained in the collection, and cover a broad range of army recruiting slogans.
General History
Posters during World War II were designed to instill in people a positive outlook, a sense of patriotism and confidence. They linked the war in trenches with the war at home. From a practical point, they were used to encourage all Americans to help with the war effort. The posters called on every man, woman, and child to endure the personal sacrifice and domestic adjustments to further the national agenda. They encouraged rationing, conservation, and sacrifice. In addition, the posters were used for recruitment, productivity, and motivation as well as for financing the war effort. The stark, colorful graphic designs elicited strong emotions. The posters played to the fears, frustrations, and faith in freedoms that lingered in people's minds during the war.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1942
associated dates
1942
distributor
United States. Office of War Information
printer
US Government Printing Office
issuing authority
U.S. Public Health Service
ID Number
1977.0020.041
catalog number
1977.0020.041
accession number
1977.0020
Gerome Ferris’s unsigned pencil sketch of a ship under full sail with pennant jauntily flying in the breeze may be related to his circa 1930 painting Henry Morgan’s Knight of the Double Cross, 1670 where there is a similar ship.Currently not on view
Description
Gerome Ferris’s unsigned pencil sketch of a ship under full sail with pennant jauntily flying in the breeze may be related to his circa 1930 painting Henry Morgan’s Knight of the Double Cross, 1670 where there is a similar ship.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1920s
original artist
Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
ID Number
1985.0650.008
accession number
1985.0650
catalog number
85.0650.008
Woodcut on cream wove paper, deckle along bottom edge of sheet.Berglandschaft (Landquart) 23 [in pencil, lower margin]Pencil signed ‘E. L. Kirchner’ at lower right; ‘Eigendruck’ in pencil at lower left.Marks on verso: NY-10.453 in pencil; inked fingerprint and other inky smears.
Description (Brief)
Woodcut on cream wove paper, deckle along bottom edge of sheet.
Berglandschaft (Landquart) 23 [in pencil, lower margin]
Pencil signed ‘E. L. Kirchner’ at lower right; ‘Eigendruck’ in pencil at lower left.
Marks on verso: NY-10.453 in pencil; inked fingerprint and other inky smears. ‘Nachlass E. L. Kirchner’ stamp within ruled border. This stamp resembles Lugt supplement 1570b, but it is printed in purple ink, rather than in black ink as Lugt described.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1923
maker
Kirchner, Ernst Ludwig
ID Number
GA.20278
catalog number
20278
accession number
194218
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1928
maker
Heller, Helen West
ID Number
GA.20058
accession number
20058
182887
"High Skies" is a color woodcut by Frances Gearhart (1869-1958) which probably dates to the 1920s.
Description
"High Skies" is a color woodcut by Frances Gearhart (1869-1958) which probably dates to the 1920s. She worked almost exclusively with landscape subjects in the woodcut medium, inspired by the nature surrounding her California home, which she shared with her artist sisters, May and Edna. "High Skies" has a vertical composition, with the sky occupying most of the print, and a very distinct foreground, middle ground, and background. Grassy fields and a small stream make up the foreground, giving way to a small cluster of trees casting a heavy shadow in the middle ground. More trees run across the horizon, silhouetted in blue against a brilliant green and blue sky full of swirling white clouds. The black outlines and black border are part of the key block, which she printed last. A technique commonly employed by Japanese masters, thus evidencing her influence from eastern aesthetics, a key block is meant to sharpen the appearance of the shapes and colors of a print. In "High Skies," it also gives the impression of late afternoon, creating dark and dramatic shadows.
Although she eventually worked full time on her printmaking, Gearhart, along with her sisters, taught in the Los Angeles public school system. As her career progressed, she became more involved in the local artistic community. In 1919 she joined the Print Makers of Los Angeles, later renamed the California Print Makers Society, which exhibited the work of U.S. and international artists. In 1923 the three sisters opened a small gallery in part of their home studio in Pasadena, where they showed primarily international artists' work, including many woodcut artists. Unfortunately, her failing eyesight forced Gearhart to give up printmaking in the 1940s.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1925
date made
ca 1922
maker
Gearhart, Frances H.
ID Number
GA.13360
catalog number
13360
accession number
70155
This aquatint, titled Market Plaza by Geoge O. "Pop" Hart, was printed about 1925, a period of peak migration for workers streaming to the United States seeking opportunity in the United States and escape from the chaos of the Mexican Revolution (1910 1921).
Description
This aquatint, titled Market Plaza by Geoge O. "Pop" Hart, was printed about 1925, a period of peak migration for workers streaming to the United States seeking opportunity in the United States and escape from the chaos of the Mexican Revolution (1910 1921). Many of the married men settled in the United States and brought their wives and families—from 1900 to 1932, the Mexican-born population of the United States grew from 103,000 to over 1,400,000. Other Mexican workers returned to their homes in Jalisco, Guanajuato, or Michoacán, and came north periodically in search of seasonal or temporary work. Replacing recently banned workers from Asia, these men provided cheap labor for the newly irrigated cotton fields of Texas and Arizona, the copper mines of Utah, the fruit processing plants of California, and the railroads that connected all points in between. An abundance of factory jobs also increasingly attracted Mexican migrants to cities like Chicago and Milwaukee. But many of these hard-earned economic opportunities in the United States came to an end during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Mexican workers in areas like California had to compete with economic refugees from across the country. Many were targets of discrimination and anti-immigrant violence. Thousands of American citizens were among the 500,000 men, women, and children forcibly and suddenly moved to Mexico on buses and trains from Texas and California during the Great Depression. This print is one of a series of images created by American artists traveling in Mexico.
Description (Spanish)
Esta aguatinta, titulada Plaza del Mercado de Geoge O. "Pop" Hart, fue grabada alrededor de 1925, un período migratorio pico de trabajadores mexicanos a los Estados Unidos en busca de oportunidades y escapando del caos de la Revolución Mexicana (1910-1921). Muchos hombres casados se establecieron en Estados Unidos y luego llevaron sus esposas y sus familias—desde 1900 hasta 1932 la población de los Estados Unidos nacida en México aumentó de 103.000 a más de 1.400.000. Otros trabajadores mexicanos regresaban a sus hogares en Jalisco, Guanajuato o Michoacán y volvían al norte periódicamente en busca de trabajos de temporada. Estos hombres, quienes reemplazaron a los trabajadores provenientes de Asia, recientemente proscriptos, proveían mano de obra barata a los campos de algodón de Texas y Arizona, que gozaban de sistemas nuevos de irrigación, así como a las minas de cobre de Utah, las plantas procesadoras de frutas de California y los ferrocarriles que conectaban todos los puntos entre sí. También la abundancia de trabajos fabriles, convirtió en más atractivas para los mexicanos inmigrantes ciudades como Chicago y Milwaukee. Sin embargo, muchas de estas oportunidades económicas en los Estados Unidos, ganadas con el sudor de la frente, llegaron a su fin durante la Gran Depresión de los años '30. Los trabajadores mexicanos en áreas como California debían competir con refugiados económicos de todo el país. Muchos fueron objeto de discriminación y violencia contra los inmigrantes. Miles de ciudadanos americanos se contaron entre los más de 500.000 hombres, mujeres y niños que durante la Gran Depresión se vieron repentinamente forzados a mudarse a México en ómnibus y trenes desde Texas y California. Este grabado pertenece a la serie de imágenes creadas por artistas americanos que viajaban a México.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1925
Associated Date
20th century
graphic artist
Hart, George O. "Pop"
ID Number
GA.14183
catalog number
14183
accession number
92987
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1928
maker
Heller, Helen West
ID Number
GA.20065
catalog number
20065
accession number
182887
Custer’s Last Fight is considered one of if not the most reproduced lithographs of the late 19th and most of the 20th Centuries with over a million copies distributed to saloons, dining establishments, barber shops, and eventually collectors.
Description
Custer’s Last Fight is considered one of if not the most reproduced lithographs of the late 19th and most of the 20th Centuries with over a million copies distributed to saloons, dining establishments, barber shops, and eventually collectors. This print was used as an advertising promotion for Budweiser Beer by Anheuser Busch. It is chromolithograph on paper mounted on cardboard that is based on the Cassilly Adams painting which in turn was inspired by the narrative of the battle by a scout named Curley, along with probably the success of the John Mulvany 1881 painting Custer’s Last Fight .
The Cassilly Adams painting that this print copied was started about 1885 and completed in 1888 in Adams studio using soldiers and Native Americans as models. The completed work toured the Midwest before being sold to John Ferber, who owned a saloon in St Louis, Missouri. Adolphus Busch acquired the painting along with a saloon when the owner couldn't pay his bills for the sum of $35,000 in 1892. Eager to have the original copied for advertising, he commissioned the Milwaukee Lithographic Engraving Company. The artist, F. Otto Becker, produced a 24X40 inch painting which was a modified copy of the Cassilly Adams painting. After the Becker copy was made, the original Adams painting was presented to the 7th Cavalry it was moved about until it was damaged. It was then sent to the WPA in Boston for restoration in the 1930's and when returned, it hung in the officer's club at Fort Bliss, Texas until it was destroyed by fire on June 13, 1946.
The 1892 Becker painting was created only to be divided into six sections and given to the lithographers to create the color plates used to produce the 1896 chromolithographic advertising prints. The Becker painting was then pieced back together and restored to hang in the St. Louis board room of Anheuser-Busch, Incorporated.
Based on photographs of the Adams original, the Becker version is more topographically correct but also more graphically explicit as an interpretation of the very violent event. The color print depicts the battle between General Custer's troops and Indian warriors at Little Big Horn. Custer is featured at center waving a saber and dressed in a fringed buckskin. The remaining cavalry officers, except for Custer's brother Tom, are dressed in military uniform. Indians are armed with scalping knives, tomahawks, clubs, spears, and rifles. The dead appear in foreground, with several identified in the bottom margin. The background depicts a peaceful landscape, though there is a hint of the thousands of Indians that significantly outnumbered Custer and his men. Custer's medals and banners are depicted in lower left margin. In the lower right margin is an image of a Native American on horseback posing beside the granite monument for the 7th US Cavalry that was erected in 1881 at the Little Bighorn Battlefield. Text below the image advertises the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Assn.
There have been numerous commentaries on the historic inaccuracies of the depiction which was designed for maximum emotional impact. These inaccuracies range from the length of Custer’s hair which is depicted as long and flowing, when he had days prior had it cut short, to the dress or undress of the depicted Indians and the types of weapons. The artist also included a long red cravat around Custer’s neck, which was mentioned by Libby Custer in her book on her husband. The visual impact of the print version has also been the subject of several notable comments, including this print’s collector, Harry T. Peters, who mentioned in America on Stone that “The detail is endless and extremely lurid, and anyone who saw this print when young will not forget it.” Clearly the artist was successful in gaining reactions to the piece, if not always favorable ones.
Versions of the advertising print vary according to margin size and legend content, but the first run edition resulted in 15,000 prints. According to America on Stone the museum’s copy should have a signature of "O. Becker" in the right lower corner, but it does not. Nor does it have the caption "Taken from the Artist's Sketches. The Original Painting by Cassilly Adams." Supposedly that would indicate it as the earliest edition. Other versions of this print also give a fuller list of those depicted on the image and some further advertise Anheuser Busch as "The World's Largest Brewery" and "Home of Budweiser." However, based on the collector’s purchasing and the condition of the print it would have been produced between 1896 and 1920. There have since been 18 subsequent editions totaling more than a million copies according to Anheuser-Busch. Copies continued to be issued until the 1970's when the cultural awareness of Native Americans began to affect the marketability of the print. New copies of the print are still mass produced and marketed.
Cassilly Adams (1843-1921) was an engraver and painter. He learned to paint at the Boston Academy of Arts and the Cincinnati Art School and later worked in Indiana, Ohio, and St. Louis, Missouri.
F. Otto Becker (1854-1945) was a German American Artist employed by the Milwaukee Lithographic and Engraving Company. He was active in Milwaukee and St. Louis from 1881 until his death, producing lithographs for board games as well as prints. He is best known for his work on Custer's Last Fight.
Milwaukee Lithographing was founded by German-American Henry Seifert in 1852. In the 1870's, he partnered with Henry and Julius Gugler to form the Milwaukee Lithographic & Engraving Company. Augustus Koenig, a friend of Adolphus Busch, became involved with the company in the late 1880's. The company continued to operate until 1920.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1896-1920
depicted
Custer, Thomas Ward
Rain In The Face
Cooke, William W.
Yates, George W.
Reed, Harry Armstrong
Reily, William Van W.
Smith, Algernon E.
Custer, George Armstrong
copyright holder
Busch, Adolphus
commissioned by
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Incorporated
originator
Adams, Cassily
maker
Milwaukee Lithographic & Engraving Company
artist
Becker, F. Otto
ID Number
DL.60.2600
catalog number
60.2600
accession number
228146
"Evening in the City, Synagogue at Eutaw Place, Baltimore" is a color etching by Gabrielle de Veaux Clements (1858–1948). The very small image, printed predominantly in blues and browns, depicts a view across the city at twilight.
Description
"Evening in the City, Synagogue at Eutaw Place, Baltimore" is a color etching by Gabrielle de Veaux Clements (1858–1948). The very small image, printed predominantly in blues and browns, depicts a view across the city at twilight. In the foreground, very faintly rendered with delicate lines, is the roof of a building, the moldings barely visible in the shadows. Two birds are perched on the right side of the rooftop. Along the horizon is a row of buildings. The largest, presumably the synagogue, has a dome and a spire. Several tiny windows are lit with a glowing, yellow light.
Between the years of 1896 and 1927 Clements created several etchings of Baltimore, later to be known as "The Baltimore Series." The series comprised five large plates of significant Baltimore landmarks, such as the Washington Monument and Mount Vernon Place. "Evening in the City," printed in 1920, could be a study for the series.
Toward the end of their careers in 1936 Clements and her partner and fellow printmaker Ellen Day Hale exhibited jointly at the Smithsonian. By that time they had been producing prints for more than sixty years. Their work was included in the first exhibition of etchings exclusively by women at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1887. As a response to the Etching Revival of the late 19th century, curator Sylvester R. Koehler included more than 400 etchings by twenty-five artists in the very successful exhibition titled Women Etchers of America. In 1888 the Union League Club in New York exhibited the same works, plus about 100 more by eleven additional women. A traveling exhibition celebrating the centennial of these two ground-breaking shows, American Women of the Etching Revival, was organized by the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia in 1988. The NMAH lent works by Hale, Clements and others, and the Museum showed the exhibition in Washington in 1989.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1920
ID Number
GA.10740
catalog number
10740
accession number
62397

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