Collectors' legacies

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 2005 by Ellen Paul Denker

The New-York Historical Society's museum collection, which numbers in excess of fifty thousand items, has grown steadily during the past two centuries through many donations and a few significant purchases. The collections from which these acquisitions were drawn range in purpose from antiquarian to aesthetic, and their topics vary widely. This article highlights a few of the collections that have come under the society's umbrella and shows how a wide range of collecting purposes has contributed to a significant accumulation of historical evidence.

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Each generation sees the past in its own terms, finding those elements relevant to the events and values of their own time. Historical collections and their interpretation reflect the same shifts. The society's collection is rich in artifacts of antiquarian interest. The New York City attorney Randall J. LeBoeuf Jr. (1897-1975) focused on objects and papers related to Robert Fulton and the development of the commercial steamship (see Pls. I-III), while the novelist and playwright Leonidas Westervelt (1879-1952) collected more than 125 objects pertaining to Swedish singer Jenny Lind (see Pls. VIII, VIIIa; and p. 145, Pl. IX). (1) Dr. John E. Stillwell (1853-1930) was interested in documenting his own family heritage in New York and New Jersey, while also acquiring objects of interest in the history of commerce. Material in the latter category includes the pots and manufacturing stamps made by the Crolius family of stoneware potters, who operated during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in New York City (see Pl. VI).

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The artifacts of antiquarian interest were complemented by objects collected for aesthetic purposes such as Elie Nadelman's (1882-1946) mammoth collection of European and American folk arts, which also included Crolius pots. The society's purchase of his collection in 1937 greatly expanded its scope in the vernacular arts (see Pl. VII). (2) Objects that were not previously considered worthy of preservation in a museum came under the scrutiny of historians. While many art historians today think of Nadelman's collection as having a profound impact on his sculpture, the inverse may be true. That is, Nadelman's sculpture helps us understand the aesthetic qualities of otherwise common objects. The beauty of a cast-iron mechanical bank (Pl. XIII) can be better appreciated after looking at Nadelman's human figures, which are often reduced to the same sort of simple geometry.

Generally speaking, objects of daily life were not considered important in the nineteenth century except by a few antiquarians interested in their associations--with George Washington, for example (see p. 162, Pl. I), or with a major event, or because they were historic documents of craftsmanship as, for example, a dining table by the renowned New York cabinetmaker Duncan Phyfe (1768-1854).

With the centennial celebrations in 1876, it became apparent that the United States was becoming more mechanized and more urban. Collecting domestic and farming tools as well as home furnishings could document a way of life that was passing. It was also a way of establishing the lineage of the country's first families, since the length of time one's family had occupied the land often became a measure of status. In short, collections of historical tools and furnishings recorded the history of the nation and of the nation builders.

The society began collecting tools and furnishings more actively during the early 1900s, roughly coinciding with the construction of its new and much larger headquarters on Central Park West, completed in 1908. One of the first gifts of domestic decorative arts was a silver cann (p. 156, Pls. I, Ia) donated in 1895 by George C. McWhorter (1822-1902). His gift also included a folding desk used by John Laurence (1750-1810), a United States senator from New York; a needlework picture; and a group of portrait paintings and drawings. In 1911 Catherine Augusta De Peyster (before 1856-c. 1911) bequeathed 118 miniatures and decorative arts objects that had accumulated in her family, and Philip Schuyler (1836-1906) included domestic silver with portraits of his ancestors in a bequest received in 1915.

In 1951 three period rooms were installed containing the collection of Katharine Prentis Murphy (1884-1967) (see p. 143, Fig. 2). (3) In 1925 Samuel Verplanck Hoffman (1866-1942), who was president and chairman of the board of the society for many years, began giving the George W. Nash Collection of Ulster County Household Artifacts (now the basis of the society's collection of farming and domestic tools) as well as his own collection of art and antiques. (4) These early acquisitions were followed by significant gifts and bequests of decorative arts from Mrs. J. Insley Blair (nee Natalie Knowlton; 1887-1952) (5) in the 1950s (see Pls. V, XI), Waldron Phoenix Belknap Jr. (1899-1949) also in the 1950s, Irving Sands Olds (1887-1963) in the 1960s, and Robert G. Goelet, starting in the 1960s, among many others.