Domestic Furnishings

Washboards, armchairs, lamps, and pots and pans may not seem to be museum pieces. But they are invaluable evidence of how most people lived day to day, last week or three centuries ago. The Museum's collections of domestic furnishings comprise more than 40,000 artifacts from American households. Large and small, they include four houses, roughly 800 pieces of furniture, fireplace equipment, spinning wheels, ceramics and glass, family portraits, and much more.

The Arthur and Edna Greenwood Collection contains more than 2,000 objects from New England households from colonial times to mid-1800s. From kitchens of the past, the collections hold some 3,300 artifacts, ranging from refrigerators to spatulas. The lighting devices alone number roughly 3,000 lamps, candleholders, and lanterns.

Black & white print; full length portrait of a black man in elaborate robes and crown, standing in front of a throne. (Faustin 1st, Emperor of Haiti).Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black & white print; full length portrait of a black man in elaborate robes and crown, standing in front of a throne. (Faustin 1st, Emperor of Haiti).
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1852
depicted
Soulouque, Faustin-Elie
maker
Lacombe, Theodore
Grozelier, Leopold
original artist
Hartmann, Adam
ID Number
DL.60.3119
catalog number
60.3119
accession number
228146
Colored print of George Washington and five friends with hunting dogs, resting beside their catch: deer, rabbit, quail and duck. Figures and rowboat in background.
Description (Brief)
Colored print of George Washington and five friends with hunting dogs, resting beside their catch: deer, rabbit, quail and duck. Figures and rowboat in background. The other men are identified as Anthony Wayne, the Marquis de Lafayette, Nathaniel Green, Count Casimir Pulaski, and (John?) Lagrange.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1868
depicted
Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier Marquis de Lafayette
Washington, George
Wayne, Anthony
Greene, Nathanael
graphic artist; lithographer
Tholey
publisher
Smith, John
printer
Spohni, G.
ID Number
DL.60.2573
catalog number
60.2573
accession number
228146
Colored print of two hunters, a black companion, and two dogs surprised by a skunk while hunting in the snow.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Colored print of two hunters, a black companion, and two dogs surprised by a skunk while hunting in the snow.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1883
maker
Bruns, William
ID Number
DL.60.2683
catalog number
60.2683
accession number
228146
On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves living in areas of the nation under rebellion.
Description
On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves living in areas of the nation under rebellion. This freedom ultimately relied on a Northern military victory and the Proclamation did not affect the millions of slaves living in the Border States that had not seceded. It did, however, recognize the abolition of American slavery as a stated objective of the war and allowed Africa-American men to serve as soldiers in the Union Army. This calligraphic portrait of Lincoln is composed from the words of the Proclamation arranged in an oval. Bolded words from the document form the features of the President’s visage. After Lincoln’s assassination, calligraphic portraits such as this one and other works containing reference to the proclamation were in high demand. This 1865 portrait was designed by Augustus Hageboeck and William H. Pratt. Hageboeck, probably a German immigrant, operated a lithographic shop with his brother in Davenport, Iowa, where they specialized in panoramic views of Midwest cities. W. H. Pratt was born in Massachusetts in 1822, but in 1857, moved with his family to Davenport, Iowa. He headed the Davenport Commercial College, where he taught penmanship, a skill he demonstrated in his execution of this work. In 1867, he helped organize the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, often including his own engravings in his scientific publications.

To view the original text of the Emancipation Proclamation Click Here.

Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1865
depicted
Lincoln, Abraham
maker
Hageboeck, A
Pratt, W. H.
ID Number
DL.60.2624
catalog number
60.2624
accession number
228146
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
maker
unknown
ID Number
DL.60.3452
catalog number
60.3452
This 1850 print offers a defense of slavery in America by satirically comparing it with a perceived system of “wage slavery” in England.
Description
This 1850 print offers a defense of slavery in America by satirically comparing it with a perceived system of “wage slavery” in England. In the top panel, two Northern men and two Southern men look upon a group of seemingly content slaves who are shown dancing, playing music, and smiling. The Northerners are surprised at this scene, amazed to find that popular assumptions at home about slavery were unfounded. The Southerners hope that the Northerners will return home with a new perspective on slavery, but demonstrate their readiness to fight for their rights if necessary. The lower panel shows a gathering of people outside of a cloth factory in England. On the side of the factory, a sign reads, “Sale / A Wife to be Sold.” On the left, a young farmer talks to his childhood friend, who appears as an old man. The older figure explains that life in a British factory producing cloth ages one more quickly, and that the workers die of old age at 40. To their right, a mother looks down upon her three children, lamenting “What wretched slaves, this factory life makes me & my children. Continuing right, two factory workers contemplate running away to the coal mines, where they would only work for 14 hours instead of their current 17. On the far right, two rotund men, a priest and a tax collector, approach the workers with books labeled “Tythes” and “Taxes.” In the right corner, a man thanks God that he will soon die and be free of his “factory slavery.” Below the panels is included a portrait of the bust of George Thompson, a Scottish abolitionist. An accompanying quote from Thompson reads, “I am proud to boast that Slavery does not breathe in England,” although the creators of this print would argue otherwise. It was printed by British born John Haven ( born ca 1817), who was active in New York City at 3 Broad Street 1846-1848. He then moved to 86 State Street, Boston where he was active 1848-1850. He is known for designing maps as well as for prints on Manifest Destiny and prints with political commentary.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1850
depicted
Thompson, George
maker
Haven, Joshua P.
ID Number
DL.60.3490
catalog number
60.3490
Colored print; market scene with a black man sitting on a bench before two women, one white and holding up a rabbit for examination, the other black and holding a basket of fruit and two fowl. In front of him is a table with fowl that he is selling.
Description (Brief)
Colored print; market scene with a black man sitting on a bench before two women, one white and holding up a rabbit for examination, the other black and holding a basket of fruit and two fowl. In front of him is a table with fowl that he is selling. Two baskets of fruit are beside him. More fowl and meat are on hooks on the wall behind him. Conversation between the white woman and the man is contained in dialogue bubbles over their heads (see inscriptions).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1848
lithographer
Baillie, James S.
artist
Bucholzer, H.
ID Number
DL.60.2295
catalog number
60.2295
accession number
228146
Color print of the Battle of Lake Erie, Sept 10th 1813, depicting a large row boat flying an American flag, contains eight sailors and a uniform officer standing and pointing to the right. American and British men of war fire on each other in the background.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Color print of the Battle of Lake Erie, Sept 10th 1813, depicting a large row boat flying an American flag, contains eight sailors and a uniform officer standing and pointing to the right. American and British men of war fire on each other in the background.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
maker
Kurz & Allison-Art Studio
ID Number
DL.60.3286
catalog number
60.3286
A sequel to Kimmel and Forster’s earlier “The Outbreak of the Rebellion in the United States,” this 1866 print features a symbolic representation of the downfall of the Confederacy and the end of the Civil War.
Description
A sequel to Kimmel and Forster’s earlier “The Outbreak of the Rebellion in the United States,” this 1866 print features a symbolic representation of the downfall of the Confederacy and the end of the Civil War. Upon an altar carved with relief portraits of Washington and Lincoln, stand two robed females figures, Liberty, who wears a Phrygian cap and holds an American flag, and Columbia, who is adorned with a crown of stars. Below them to the left, Lady Justice triumphantly raises her sword and balance. In the foreground of the scene, a black soldier and a freedman kneel before the central pedestal. Behind Liberty stand President Andrew Johnson and the Union generals, Grant, Sherman, and Butler. In the background, behind these officers, an outfit of solemn, well-postured Union troops face opposite a disorganized grouping of defeated Southern fighters. A selection of notable Confederates are gathered in the right of the scene, including Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and John Wilkes Booth. An eagle grasping thunderbolts flies above all these figures and in the background, an American flag waves over Fort Sumter.
Christopher Kimmel was born in Germany around 1850 and after immigrating to the United States, was active in New York City from 1850 to 1876. He was part of Capewell & Kimmel from 1853 to 1860, and then partnered with Thomas Forster in 1865, forming the lithography firm of Kimmel & Forster, which was active until 1871.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1856
1865
date made
1866
depicted
Washington, George
Lincoln, Abraham
Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson)
Davis, Jefferson
Lee, Robert E.
Butler, Benjamin Franklin
Sherman, William Tecumseh
Johnson, Andrew
Booth, John Wilkes
maker
Kimmel and Forster
ID Number
DL.60.2620
catalog number
60.2620
accession number
228146
Black and white print of a man sampling an oyster at the back of a covered four-wheeled wagon. He is accompanied by his black serving girl. The oysterman is serving him and a horse is tied to the wagon.
Description (Brief)
Black and white print of a man sampling an oyster at the back of a covered four-wheeled wagon. He is accompanied by his black serving girl. The oysterman is serving him and a horse is tied to the wagon. The print was originally pasted on a sheet of manilla paper with several smaller prints cut out and pasted on the other side and on the front and is thought to have come from a child's scrapbook.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
maker
Kollner, August
ID Number
DL.60.2995
catalog number
60.2995
accession number
228146
This print, designed by E.W. Clay, a Northern opponent of the anti-slavery movement plays upon antebellum fears of miscegenation, or interracial mixing, to satirize abolitionism.
Description
This print, designed by E.W. Clay, a Northern opponent of the anti-slavery movement plays upon antebellum fears of miscegenation, or interracial mixing, to satirize abolitionism. Part of series of miscegenation prints done by Clay during 1839, the print depicts a dance in an elegantly furnished ballroom. In the middle of the scene, fashionably dressed, interracial couples are shown dancing. Each consists of a black man and white woman. Along the right wall, several black men ask seated white women to dance. On the left, members of a mixed race couple clasp hands and prepare to kiss. Above these proceedings, music is performed by an orchestra composed solely of white musicians.
Edward Williams Clay was born in Philadelphia in 1799. He originally found employment as an attorney and became a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association in 1825, but he later abandoned law for a career in art. He moved to New York City in 1837 but shortly after was forced to end his artistic career when his eyesight began to fail.
The work’s publisher, John Childs, was a New York lithographer, artist, and print colorist active between the years 1836 to 1844. For a brief period, he published a quantity of political cartoons, especially in 1840, when he published 34, of which 26 were drawn by Clay.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1839
maker
Childs, John
artist
Clay, Edward Williams
ID Number
DL.60.3340
catalog number
60.3340
This print, designed by E.W. Clay, a Northern opponent of the abolition and anti-slavery movement plays upon antebellum fears of miscegenation, or interracial mixing, to satirize abolitionism.
Description
This print, designed by E.W. Clay, a Northern opponent of the abolition and anti-slavery movement plays upon antebellum fears of miscegenation, or interracial mixing, to satirize abolitionism. Part of series of miscegenation prints done by Clay during 1839, the print depicts a formal dinner party during which the black host of the party addresses his guests - six interracial couples who are seated on either side of the table. The host’s white wife sits across from him. Above the host’s head hang portraits of himself and his wife, and to the far right, one of their multiracial children. From the head of the table, the host toasts “De Union ob colors,” which “gibs a wholesome odour to fashionable siety.” Meanwhile, six white servants attend to the guests and serve drinks.
Edward Williams Clay was born in Philadelphia in 1799. He originally found employment as an attorney and became a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association in 1825, but he later abandoned law for a career in art. He moved to New York City in 1837 but shortly after was forced to end his artistic career when his eyesight began to fail.
The work’s publisher, John Childs, was a New York lithographer, artist, and print colorist active between the years 1836 to 1844. For a brief period, he published a quantity of political cartoons, especially in 1840, when he published 34, of which 26 were drawn by Clay.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1839
maker
Childs, John
artist
Clay, Edward Williams
ID Number
DL.60.3337
catalog number
60.3337
Although the importation of slaves was outlawed in 1807, the domestic slave trade remained a major economic establishment in America until the Civil War.
Description
Although the importation of slaves was outlawed in 1807, the domestic slave trade remained a major economic establishment in America until the Civil War. Before its retrocession to Virginia, the city of Alexandria had been part of the District of Columbia and served as one of the largest slave markets in the U.S. Towards the middle of the 19th century, a number of abolitionists moved to the capital and began calling for the end of the slave trade there.
This 1836 broadside published by the American Anti-Slavery Society names D.C. the “Slave Market of America … The Residence of 7000 Slaves.” It begins by listing several passages on equality and freedom from the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, several state constitutions, and the Bible, which the reader would find incongruent with the visible reality of the ongoing slave trade in the capital. In the first row of vignettes, a scene on the left depicts the signing of the Declaration of Independence, entitled “The Land of the Free,” and is contrasted with another on the right, “The Home of the Oppressed,” which features a group of slaves being led past the Capitol Building. A map of Washington is included between these two scenes, and contains two insets of slaves, one in a kneeling, suppliant position, and the other running from slavery, accompanied by an inscription, “$200 Reward.” The next row contains three images of prisons in Washington, built to detain unsold slaves and runaways. The broadside claims that many of these prisoners are actually free men and women, falsely accused of being slaves. The final row contains three illustrations of chained slaves leaving the slave house of J.W. Neal & Co., slaves being loaded onto a ship in Alexandria harbor, and the private slave prison of Franklin and Armfield, an Alexandria firm that was one of the largest slave traders in the antebellum South. The broadside concludes with a list of names of Congressmen and their voting record on the issue of slavery in the District of Columbia.
The broadside was issued by the American Anti-Slavery Society, an abolitionist activist group founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan in 1833. By 1840, the Society had gained between 150,000 and 200,000 members. It held public meetings, printed vast quantities of anti-slavery propaganda (such as this piece), petitioned Congress, and sponsored lecturers to further the cause of the Abolition Movement in the North. Its membership was composed of white Northerners with religious and/or philanthropic convictions, but also free black citizens, including Frederick Douglass, who often delivered first-hand accounts of his life as a slave during the Society’s public meetings. This particular broadside was printed by William S. Dorr, who was based in New York City.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1836
publisher
American Anti-Slavery Society
maker
Dorr, William S.
ID Number
DL.60.2397
catalog number
60.2397
accession number
228146
This 1852 satirical print employs 19th century skepticism surrounding mesmerism, or animal magnetism, an early form of hypnosis, to attack women abolitionists and miscegenation – interracial coupling.
Description
This 1852 satirical print employs 19th century skepticism surrounding mesmerism, or animal magnetism, an early form of hypnosis, to attack women abolitionists and miscegenation – interracial coupling. A seated female abolitionist is mesmerized by the black Professor Pompey figure, who touches her breast and face, asking how she feels. Her answer reveals that she has begun to fall under his sexual control during the exercise: “Oh, I seem to be carried away into a dark wood where I inhale a perfume much like that of a skunk.” This print uses her dream to propose that whites should naturally find black people repugnant, yet the women abolitionists do not. The piece therefore presents a satirical depiction of women belonging to the abolitionist cause, suggesting their true motive to be interracial mixing. Other formally dressed black characters offer sexually suggestive commentary. A white minister standing behind Professor Pompey laments, “These are the days foretold by the prophet.” This is most likely an allusion to Acts 2:16-17: “But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” This Biblical passage not only speaks directly to the activity of mesmerism, but its reference to “the last days” mockingly adds apocalyptic undertones to the print and the prospect of abolition.
Thomas W. Strong was a New York-based printer and wood engraver who began his career around 1840. His shop specialized in comic literature and he employed many talented cartoonists and draftsmen who would go on to work for Harper’s Weekly and Vanity Fair.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1852
maker
Strong, Thomas W.
ID Number
DL.60.2290
catalog number
60.2290
accession number
228146
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in 1852, quickly becoming the nation’s bestselling book.
Description
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in 1852, quickly becoming the nation’s bestselling book. It features a spirited, religious-minded enslaved man named Tom, who is sold downriver by his financially-strapped owner in Kentucky to a plantation in Louisiana. There, his Christian beliefs spread hope to his fellow slaves and enable him to endure the harsh beatings of his cruel master. He is ultimately whipped to death after refusing to reveal the location of two runaway slaves. Published after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, the novel targeted Northern audiences, arguing against the injustice of slavery and spurring the abolition movement into action. Although the bestselling novel of the 19th century, many American were exposed to Uncle Tom’s Cabin through play adaptations known as Tom shows. The immense popularity of both the novel and plays transformed Uncle Tom into a cultural phenomenon in America and Europe, and manufacturers quickly capitalized on the production of “Tomitudes,” everyday commodities that referenced scenes and characters from the novel. These included card games, jigsaw puzzles, chinaware, jars and vases, snuffboxes, ceramic figurines, and decorative prints. Although some of these Tomitudes employed racial stereotypes and the imagery of blackface minstrelsy, most chose to depict the enslaved characters of Beecher’s novel in a sympathetic light, often carrying an anti-slavery message.
The most popular depictions of Uncle Tom were those in which he was accompanied by the young white girl, Eva St. Clare. Representations of their companionship conveyed a message of racial bonding, and celebrated the characters’ shared Christian faith, though undoubtly grabbed the attention of Victorian audiences viewing a very young white girl alone in the company of a mature black man. This print around 1853 depicts Tom sitting with Eva, whom he had had previously saved from drowning when she fell off the deck of a riverboat on the Mississippi. In return for saving his daughter, Eva’s father had purchases the enslaved Tom, and he moves with the St. Clare family into their New Orleans home as a house slave. In this illustration, from Chapter 22 of the novel, Eva reads to Tom from her Bible. Eva sits on a rock under an arbor and supposedly first points to the Bible in her lap, and then as depicted, she points up to the sky. Tom follows her gesture upwards with his eyes. They are having a conversation about Heaven, foreshadowing the untimely death of the terminally ill girl. Although Tom had gained much responsibility in the St. Clare household, even handling the family’s finances, he is portrayed in this print wearing the outfit of a field hand. In the 1852 illustrated Jon P. Jewett and Company edition of the book, with engravings by Hammett Billings, Eva is in a similar position with her hand pointing to the sky, but in that black and white engraving Uncle Tom is demicted in fancier attire of a house slave.
The lithograph was created by firm of E.C. Kellogg & Company, established in 1850, by Elijah Chapman Kellogg (1811–1881), after the dissolution of Kelloggs & Comstock. The business operated until Elijah again partnered with his brother, Edmund Burke Kellogg (1809-1872), changing the company name back to E.B. & E.C. Kellogg. The work was co-published by Thayer & Company, a lithography firm operated by Horace Thayer, who was born in 1811, in Hartwick, New York. Between 1846 and 1847, he was a partner in Kelloggs & Thayer in New York City. The partnership dissolved in 1847 and Thayer moved to Buffalo, New York, and became a map publisher. In Buffalo, he was involved in a variety of partnerships, most of which co-published Kelloggs prints. By 1859, he returned to New York City, remaining there until 1864, when he moved back to upstate New York.
Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) rose to fame in 1851 with the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which highlighted the evils of slavery, angered the slaveholding South, and inspired pro-slavery copy-cat works in defense of the institution of slavery. Stowe’s father was the famed Congregational minister Lyman Beecher and her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, was also a famous preacher and reformer. In 1824, she attended her sister Catherine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary, which exposed young women to many of the same courses available in men’s academies. Stowe became a teacher, working from 1829 to 1832 at the Seminary.
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote numerous articles, some of which were published in the renowned women’s magazine of the times, Godey’s Lady’s Book. She also wrote 30 books, covering a wide range of topics from homemaking to religion, as well as several novels. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which legally compelled Northerners to return runaway slaves, infuriated Stowe, and many in the North. She subsequently authored her most famous work, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Originally serialized in the National Era, Stowe saw her tale as a call to arms for Northerners to defy the Fugitive Slave Act. It was released as a book in 1852 and later performed on stage and translated into dozens of languages. Stowe used her fame to petition to end slavery. She toured nationally and internationally, speaking about her book, and donating some of what she earned to help the antislavery cause.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1852-1856
date made
1852
distributor
Horace Thayer & Co.
originator of scene
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
maker
E.C. Kellogg and Company
ID Number
DL.60.2332
catalog number
60.2332
accession number
228146
Black and white print, 3/4 length portrait of a man (Henry Bibb) standing in front of drapery. Beneath the main image is a vignette of a runaway slave (Henry Bibb) being pursued by another man (Daniel Lane).
Description (Brief)
Black and white print, 3/4 length portrait of a man (Henry Bibb) standing in front of drapery. Beneath the main image is a vignette of a runaway slave (Henry Bibb) being pursued by another man (Daniel Lane). The caption below reads "Daniel Lane after Henry Bibb in Louisville, Kentucky June 1838..."
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1847
depicted; copyright holder
Bibb, Henry
maker
unknown
ID Number
DL.60.3218
catalog number
60.3218
This black and white print depicts four rows of men facing four rows of women dancing inside a Shaker meeting room.
Description
This black and white print depicts four rows of men facing four rows of women dancing inside a Shaker meeting room. Their arms are bent at waist height with hands extended as they advance towards each other and appear to be “shaking with fervor” and dancing, which was common with the group and how they got their nickname. They are all dressed simply and alike and are wearing caps, but the women on the end of each row have a small hand towel draped across their right forearms, perhaps to wipe their brows after the vigorous shakey dancing. The last row of men contains two African Americans and the people are of all shapes and sizes even if dressed alike. Cloaks and hats hang on pegs in the background. A women is seated in profile on a benchdepicted on the lower left. She appears to be wearing a cloak and large bonnet. On the lower right of the print is a bench holding a top hat and either a narrow cane or a rinding crop.
The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, commonly known as the Shakers, was a Protestant sect founded in England in 1747. Ann Lee (1736-1784) was the founder and leader of the American Shakers. The Shakers practiced communal living, where all property was shared. Simplicity in dress, speech, and manner were encouraged, as was living in rural colonies away from the corrupting influences of the cities. At their height, between 1830 -1860, about 6,000 Shaker brothers and sisters lived in more than 20 communities in the Northeast, Ohio, and Kentucky.
This print is identical to an earlier print by Anthony Imbert (circa 1826-1836) titled Shakers Near Lebanon, New York State and was based on an image by John Warner Barber. This print was published by the lithographic firm of D. W. Kellogg and Company. A later copy was produced by Nathaniel Currier. Daniel Wright Kellogg (1807-1874) founded the company in Hartford, Connecticut in 1830. Even before its first retail store opened in 1834, the D.W. Kellogg & Co. lithography firm was well established and popular in United States, particularly in the South and the Southwest. As the founding member of the family company, Daniel Wright Kellogg was responsible for the initial growth and popularity of the firm. After he left the company, it continued to flourish for decades under his younger brothers and other family members.
Date made
ca 1838
maker
D.W. Kellogg and Company
ID Number
DL.60.2965
catalog number
60.2965
accession number
228146
This black and white print contains twenty-nine small oval portraits of leaders of American Methodists and five vignettes.
Description
This black and white print contains twenty-nine small oval portraits of leaders of American Methodists and five vignettes. The vignettes are of John Wesley rescued from a burning building; Wesley preaching on the tombstone of his father; Old John Street Church, New York; Tremont Street Methodist Church, Boston; and Pioneer Preacher (the central vignette).
John Wesley (1703-1791) was the founding founder of the Methodist faith. One of England's greatest spiritual leaders, he played a major role in the revival of religion in 18th Century English and Scottish life. He graduated from Christ Church College, Oxford University, in 1720 and later became a fellow. While at Oxford, he became active in a religious club nicknamed the “methodists” by its critics because of their methodical study and devotion. Finding the Anglican bishops unsympathetic and unwilling to open their churches to him, Wesley began an itinerant ministry that lasted more than 50 years. Methodism had a significant impact on society. It brought religion to masses of people who, through the shifts of population brought about by the industrial revolution, were not being reached by the Anglican Church.
John Wesley, along with his brother Charles, first brought an evangelical brand of Anglicanism to colonial Georgia from 1735 to 1737. Years later, in February 1784, he chartered the first Methodist Church in the United States. Despite the fact that he was an Anglican, Wesley saw the need to provide church structure for his followers after the Anglican Church abandoned its American believers during the American Revolution. The Methodist church expanded rapidly across the American continent. The traditions of open-air services and circuit-riding preachers fit perfectly with the American frontier. By 1830, Methodists formed the largest denomination in the U.S.
This print was produced by the artist L. Hollis and lithographer John Chester Buttre. John Chester Buttre (1821-1893) was an American steel-plate engraver, lithographer and publisher. He was first studied drawing in his hometown of Auburn, New York, and moved to New York City in 1841. He produced thousands of engraved portraits of American political and military figures, which he published in a three-volume work entitled The American Portrait Gallery.
Nothing is known about artist L. Hollis.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1872
depicted
Wesley, John
engraver
Buttre, John Chester
artist
Hollis, L.
ID Number
DL.60.2958
catalog number
60.2958
accession number
228146
The tradition of shaping human likenesses on ceramic vessels is thousands of years old. Face vessels held different meanings in different cultures around the world.
Description
The tradition of shaping human likenesses on ceramic vessels is thousands of years old. Face vessels held different meanings in different cultures around the world. Some were probably used in burial rituals, others satirized the person whose features were captured in clay, and still others were made just for fun.
Potters rarely signed their face vessels before the the 1920s, making attribution difficult. The maker of this face vessel, on the right, is not known. It features rough white clay to represent the teeth and eyes, much as the slave-made pieces used kaolin pieces.
This piece came to the Museum as part of the Van Alstyne Collection of American Folk Art. Eleanor and Mabel Van Alstyne collected more than 300 examples of American folk art over a period of about 40 years.
Location
Currently not on view (base)
Currently not on view
date made
late 1800s-early 1900s
Date made
c. 1850-1860
maker
unknown
ID Number
CE.65.1066
catalog number
65.1066
accession number
256396
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1868
maker
Godfrey, Joseph
ID Number
DL.60.3394
catalog number
60.3394
Color print of a farmyard scene depicting a house with dormer windows in the backround. Picket fence seperates the house from the yard containing several small out-buildings and farm animals.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Color print of a farmyard scene depicting a house with dormer windows in the backround. Picket fence seperates the house from the yard containing several small out-buildings and farm animals.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
Associated Name
Clay, Henry
distributor
Needham, D.
Kelloggs & Thayer
maker
E.B. and E.C. Kellogg
ID Number
DL.60.3656
catalog number
60.3656
This color print depicts the 37th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry at camp in an open field near Brandy Station, Virginia. On the right, some men are being drilled while those on the left have time to relax.
Description
This color print depicts the 37th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry at camp in an open field near Brandy Station, Virginia. On the right, some men are being drilled while those on the left have time to relax. They are shown playing cards, smoking, conversing, playing leapfrog, and taking part in a ball game, possibly cricket. In the background are seventeen rows of log cabins and in the far right background is a plantation house set in a grove of trees.
Although this print makes camp life away from the fighting seem idyllic, an 1884 history of the 37th Massachusetts reveals that the men were actually uncomfortable during their time at Brandy Station, since they were exposed to the cold winds of early winter and firewood was difficult to obtain.
This print was published by the lithographer John Henry Bufford. The son of a sign painter and gilder, Bufford trained with Pendleton's Lithography in Boston, 1829-1831. He worked in New York with George Endicott and Nathaniel Currier (1835-1839) before returning to Boston where he had a good reputation for printing and publishing popular framing prints, commercial work, labels, and trade cards. The company went through several iterations and name changes until about 1865. He became the chief artist for Benjamin Thayer until buying out the firm to found J. H. Bufford & Co. (1844-1851). He continued to work in the lithography and publishing business for the remainder of his life. In 1865, his sons Frank and Henry John became partners in Bufford & Sons or J.H. Bufford’s Sons Litho. Co. After his death they continued the family business as Bufford Brothers and as Bufford Sons Engraving & Lithographing Company until 1911.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
maker
J. H. Bufford and Company
ID Number
DL.60.3322
catalog number
60.3322
The subtitle, “A Scene on the Morning of the Fourth Day of July 1876,” dates the image to Centennial celebrations in Washington D.C.
Description
The subtitle, “A Scene on the Morning of the Fourth Day of July 1876,” dates the image to Centennial celebrations in Washington D.C. This inclusive chromolithograph depicts a black man, a white man, two women, and a child raising an American flag on a rooftop or terrace overlooking the U.S .Capitol. This chromolithograph was drawn by immigrant artist Dominique C. Fabronius and produced by E. P. & L. Restein. Its idealized view of America would have been popular as a Centennial commemorative.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1876
copyright holder
Munyon, J. M.
maker
E.P. & L. Restein
publisher
National Chromo Company
graphic artist
Fabronius, Dominique C.
ID Number
DL.60.2586
catalog number
60.2586
accession number
228146
Colored print of Washington and Lafayette shaking hands on the piazza (veranda) at Mount Vernon. Martha and her grandchildren stand behind Washington. A view of the Potomac River is in the background. A coach waits in the background.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Colored print of Washington and Lafayette shaking hands on the piazza (veranda) at Mount Vernon. Martha and her grandchildren stand behind Washington. A view of the Potomac River is in the background. A coach waits in the background.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1868
depicted
Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier Marquis de Lafayette
Custis, George Washington Parke
Washington, George
Washington, Martha
Custis, Eleanor Parke
maker
Tholey, Charles P.
Smith, John
ID Number
DL.60.2588
catalog number
60.2588
accession number
228146

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