The Centennial Exhibition, the Philadelphia museum of art, and Hector Tyndale

Magazine Antiques, March, 2002 by Felice Fischer

Hector Tyndale's first business trip to Europe to study and purchase ceramics seems to have been in 1851. He was in London, most likely to see the display at the Crystal Palace, which ran from May 1 to October 11 of that year. During the same trip Tyndale visited his ancestral home, Augheroo, in Leighlinbridge, Ireland, where his father and his uncle William were born and raised. Hector Tyndale later wrote to his English cousin the scientist John Tyndall (1820-1893) of this sojourn and said that it was his eldest brother, Sharon (1816-1871), who had sent him to Leighlinbridge as he sought "to climb the genealogical tree as high as possible." In 1852 Sharon Tyndale was employed as a civil engineer and surveyor in Belleville, Illinois. (16) The youngest Tyndale brother, Harold (1826-1892), was a partner in Tyndale and Mitchell from 1871 to 1881. After the death of Edward P. Mitchell, the firm was taken over by Joseph H. Perot (1799-1876), and Harold moved to Florida, where he died.

Hector Tyndale was active in the business, cultural, and civic life of Philadelphia. He was a member of the Mercantile Beneficial Association of Philadelphia, founded in 1842, which provided financial assistance to members in need. The association also served as a meeting place for members, as Tyndale put it:

to awaken within them an ambition or a strong desire for self-improvement, and to give them a place where they can interchange their ideas upon business, and of its relation to life....Commerce is now the ruling power, and where there is power there should be an enlightened understanding. (17)

Hector Tyndale's letters to John Tyndall are among the best sources of information about his activities, although he does not dwell on his ceramic collecting or business. Most of his correspondence deals with his interests in science, philosophy literature, and the fine arts. Tyndale counted several artists among his acquaintances, including Peter Frederick Rothermel (1812-1895), who painted his portrait. (18) He gave Rothermel a letter of introduction to John Tyndall when the painter went to Europe in 1856.

Hector Tyndale's strong sense of duty made him something of a celebrity in 1859, when, despite fears for his safety, he volunteered to accompany Mrs. John Brown [nee Mary Ann Day; 1815-1884] to Harper's Ferry to see her husband one last time before his execution for treason and conspiracy to incite a slave insurrection in Virginia. Tyndale then rode back with Mrs. Brown on the train that carried her husband's coffin to Philadelphia.

Tyndale was in Europe in the spring of 1861 when the Civil War started. He returned to Philadelphia and was commissioned a major in the Twenty-eighth Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers. He was severely wounded at Antietam on September 17, 1862, but returned to action after his recovery. (19) In poor health, Tyndale resigned his commission in 1864 and returned to the family business from which he retired in 1868. In June of that year he was nominated the Republican candidate for mayor of Philadelphia. Although he lost the contest by a narrow margin, he remained active in the Republican Party, which he had helped found.