Art - Overview
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.
"Art - Overview" showing 3 items.
"Washington at the Battle of Trenton" Engine Panel Painting
- Description
- In the nineteenth century, volunteer fire companies often commissioned paintings to decorate their hand-pumped fire engines for parades, competitions, and community events. Sometimes framed with elaborate carvings, they adorned the tall air chamber located at the middle or rear of a pumper. The paintings would often feature patriotic, heroic, or allegorical images to associate the volunteer companies with these lofty ideals.
- This engine panel painting is attributed to the Washington Fire Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that was active from 1796 until 1871. John A. Woodside completed this oil painting in 1853, copying it from John Trumbull’s George Washington Before the Battle of Trenton that was made in 1792. The painting depicts Washington surveying the battleground, with Continental troops in the background. The volunteer company named itself after Washington and commissioned the painting to link itself with Washington’s prestige America’s foremost Founding Father.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1853
- referenced
- Trumbull, John
- Washington, George
- maker
- Woodside, John Archibald
- ID Number
- 2005.0233.0309
- accession number
- 2005.0233
- catalog number
- 2005.0233.0309
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
"We Lend a Helping Hand" Engine Panel Painting
- Description
- We Lend a Helping Hand was the motto of the Americus No.6 Company, which operated in New York, New York from 1848-1865. In addition to their motto, the Americus Company was also often represented by a tiger, or simply by its number, 6. The panel bears all of these representations, wreathed by golden garlands, but leaves out elaborate patriotic imagery or suggestive classical forms. We Lend a Helping Hand represents a more simply designed panel that plainly represented the fire company.
- This panel painting belonged to the Americus Company No. 6 of New York, New York which operated from 1848 to 1865. The panel is unsigned, but is attributed to Joseph Hoffman Johnson, a founding member of the Americus Company and artist who painted the company’s famous “Big Six” engine. We Lend a Helping Hand was the motto of the Americus Company, and the painting also bears the company’s number (6) and mascot (Tiger). The panel’s design is notable for the absence of patriotic or neoclassical imagery so prevalent in engine panel paintings. This painting and its companion (2005.0233.0317) would have adorned either side of the company’s engine.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1851
- referenced
- Johnson, Joseph Hoffman
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2005.0233.0316
- accession number
- 2005.0233
- catalog number
- 2005.0233.0316
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
"Tiger's Head" Engine Panel Painting
- Description
- In the nineteenth century, volunteer fire companies often commissioned paintings to decorate their hand-pumped fire engines for parades, competitions, and community events. Sometimes framed with elaborate carvings, they adorned the tall air chamber located at the middle or rear of a pumper. The paintings would often feature patriotic, heroic, or allegorical images to associate the volunteer companies with these lofty ideals.
- This panel painting belonged to the Americus Company No. 6 of New York, New York which operated from 1848 to 1865. The panel is unsigned, but it is attributed to Joseph Hoffman Johnson, a founding member of the Americus Company and artist who painted the company’s famous “Big Six” engine. This tiger was the Americus Company’s mascot. William Marcy “Boss” Tweed was elected foreman of the Americus Company, and his influence and connections in New York led to his position of power in Tammany Hall and control over New York’s political system. The Americus Company’s use of the tiger as a mascot eventually led to its use as a symbol for Tweed’s Tammany Hall. The panel’s design is notable for the absence of patriotic or neoclassical imagery so prevalent in engine panel paintings. This painting and its companion (2005.0233.0316) would have adorned either side of the company’s engine.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1851
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2005.0233.0317
- accession number
- 2005.0233
- catalog number
- 2005.0233.0317
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center