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

Magazine Antiques, March, 2002 by Felice Fischer

Thanks to his foresight, the many examples of the wares Tyndale so admired are still available for the present generation.

In the course of my research for this article I have accumulated many debts of gratitude. First and foremost I would like to acknowledge the generous assistance of two Tyndale descendants, Arthur J. Costigan Sr., and Nancy Ewing. Thanks also to Michael Cavanaugh of the Civil War Museum in Philadelphia, and Mary Ann Piechoski of the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

A related exhibition entitled West Meets East: China and Japan at the Philadelphia Centennial is on view through June 30 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

FELICE FISCHER is the Luther W. Brady Curator of Japanese art and curator of East Asian art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

(1.) John W. Forney, A Centennial Commissioner in Europe, 1874-1876 (Philadelphia, 1876), p. 11.

(2.) Ibid., p. 67.

(3.) Japanese names are given here in the Japanese form of surname first.

(4.) For the Japanese preparations, see Dallas Finn, "Japan at the Centennial," Nineteenth Century, vol. 2, nos. 3-4 (Autumn 1976), pp. 33-40.

(5.) Ernest Francisco Fenollosa, "Notes on Visit to Centennial, September-October, 1876" (Ernest Francisco Fenollosa papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts).

(6.) Cited in a letter to the Chester, Pennsylvania, Republican, June 2, 1876.

(7.) Hector Tyndale, "Group II: Pottery, Porcelains, Bricks, Clays, Cements, and Their Materials, Etc.," in United States Centennial Commission, International Exhibition, 1876. Reports and Awards, Group II, ed. Francis A. Walker (Philadelphia, 1877-1878), p.7.

(8.) Illustrated London News, Supplement, vol. 67 (November 25, 1875), p. 539.

(9.) Accession book, vol. 1, 1876 (Philadelphia Museum of Art archives).

(10.) Tyndale, "Group II: Pottery" p. 276, no. 257.

(11.) Handbook of the Pennsylvania Museum (Philadelphia, 1915), p. 43.

(12.) Pennsylvania Museum Bulletin, no. 10 (April 1, 1905), pp. 1, 19.

(13.) Receipt from Hector Tyndale to Charles I. du Pont, June 3, 1841, accession 500 (Charles I. du Pont Papers, box 21. Receipts from Tyndale and Mitchell to Samuel Francis Du Pont, December 11, 1849, and July 1, 1850, Winterthur manuscripts group 9, papers of Samuel Francis Du Pont, box. 19, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Delaware). My thanks to Marjorie G. McNinch, reference archivist of manuscripts and archives at the library, for copies of this material.

(14.) Tyndale to Samuel Francis Du Pont, May 24, 1860, (Winterthur manuscripts group 9, papers of Samuel Francis Du Pont, box 19).

(15.) Forney, A Centennial Commissioner in Europe, p. 20.

(16.) Letter dated February 23, 1852. The letters between Hector Tyndale and John Tyndall are among the personal papers of John Tyndall in the archives of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, London. The papers are indexed in James R. Friday, Roy M. MacCleod, and Philippa Shepherd, John Tyndall, Natural Philosopher, 1820-1893: Catalogue of Correspondence, Journals and Collected Papers (Mansell, London, 1974). I would like to thank Ivone Martins, the assistant archivist at the Royal Institution for her assistance in locating and providing relevant correspondence in typescript copies. Sharon Tyndale later became active in the Illinois Republican Party, and in 1861 was appointed postmaster by President Abraham Lincoln. In 1865 he was elected to a four-year term as secretary of state of Illinois on the same Republican ticket as Lincoln. While in that office, Sharon redesigned the Illinois state seal, which is still in use today.