Lincoln’s Peekskill

06 Sunday Dec 2015

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Heritage tourism, Monuments and Statuary, Museums

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Sculptor Richard Masloski created this Lincoln and other works one will see in the Lincoln Depot Museum.

Sculptor Richard Masloski created this Lincoln piece and other works one will see in the Lincoln Depot Museum.

A friend and I took a day trip to Peekskill, New York yesterday to visit the Lincoln Depot Museum. The LDP opened about fifteen months ago and, though small, is a testament to what can be done through good decision-making and a strong sense of purpose. The founders of the museum created something special. We did not quite plan it this way but it proved a good 1,2 punch with the Transit Museum’s satellite space inside Grand Central Station displaying its annual holiday train display. Trains were the theme of the day. And yes it was like Grand Central: packed with holiday-goers. The timing was not entirely coincidental; I was determined to get there in 2015 while the Civil War sesquicentennial is still technically on.

One can only imagine what Lincoln was thinking as he watched the Hudson Valley roll by on his way to Washington during the secession crisis in winter 1861.

Lincoln was in Peekskill for a whistle stop in February 1861 on his way to Washington City and his inaugural. Four years and two months later his body passed through and stopped in the town once again on its way back to Illinois. I believe the Lincoln Depot Museum is about to close for the season but if one is in New York and has a few hours it is well worth the trek. It is a five minute walk from the Metro North train station with a good bakery and restaurants right there.

Bearing Lincoln

09 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Museums, National Park Service

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Late last week I went to the CUNY Graduate Center to hear Martha Hodes discuss her new book Mourning Lincoln. Dr. Hodes, a professor at New York University, explained that while writing her book she used the events of 9/11 as a springboard to analyze the Lincoln assassination and especially its aftermath. What she meant was that today, fourteen years after the World Trade Center attacks, the tendency is to think that there was a universal quality to Americans’–and even New Yorkers’–responses to that event. Old photographs she dug up of people congregating at Washington Square reminded her that the immediate response was more complicated than her fading memory. Such is the nature of these types of events.

The ultimate example of this phenomenon is the murder of Lincoln. Today the tendency is to believe that all Americans responded with universal grief and solemnity when nothing could have been further from the truth. Many–and not just below the Mason-Dixon line–were euphoric. This was especially true here in New York City, where Copperhead sympathies predominated throughout the war. No photographs exist of Lincoln’s assassination or the scene at his deathbed. The closest thing we have is artist Carl Bersch’s painting Lincoln Borne by Loving Hands. As far as is known this is the only rendering to have been done by an eyewitness. The provenance is unclear, but Bersch seems to have painted the work sometime later in 1865. It’s what we have.

A friend sent me an article about the ongoing restoration of the painting, which is in the care of the National Park Service. The painting has not been seen by too many people over the past century and a half, though it did go to Russian four years ago as part of an exhibit to mark the parallel lives of Lincoln and Czar Alexander II. The czar had freed the serfs in 1861 and would himself later be assassinated. I would not put too fine a point on it, but in a way Lincoln’s killing can be seen as part of the wave of political assassinations that were so common between his killing in 1865 and Archduke Ferdinand’s in 1914. Bomb-throwing revolutionaries killed Alexander II in 1881, and it was Leon Czolgosz’s shooting of President McKinley twenty years after that that brought Theodore Roosevelt to power. And those are just a few of the most prominent examples. Anyways, here is that piece from the Washington Post about the painting’s restoration. The restoration work began in August and should conclude in early 2016 with the painting going on display at Ford’s Theater.

Thomas Sully’s Jonathan WIlliams

22 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Governors Island, Museums

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Though born in Boston, Jonathan Williams was very much part of Philadelphia society. He rests today in Laurel Hill Cemetery.

I was at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Museum yesterday. Imagine my shock when I turned a corner and came across this large portrait of Jonathan Williams. The name may not be familiar to everyone, but Colonel Williams was the engineer who modernized Governors Island’s Fort Jay and built Castle Williams. And those were just a few of his many accomplishments. I have never understood why Williams is not a better known figure in American history. He was a grand-nephew of Benjamin Franklin and a good friend of Thomas Jefferson. President Jefferson appointed Williams first superintendent of West Point in 1801. Williams codified many of the Military Academy’s early practices and incorporated a curriculum strong on science and engineering. This should not be a surprise; Williams and his great-uncle shared a fascination with science and technology.

At West Point Williams founded the United States Military Philosophical Society to promote science and engineering among the cadets. In this pursuit he was encouraged by President Jefferson. The MPS only lasted a decade or so, eventually giving way to the intense preparations for the War of 1812; Williams was in New York by Jefferson’s second term helping to fortify New York Harbor.

It is fitting that the painting above is in Philadelphia. Williams had returned there and spent the remainder of his life in the city of Brotherly Love. Among other things he was active in the American Philosophical Society, which is probably what led to this portrait. The APS provided studio space for artist Thomas Sully, who executed this portrait in 1815. Williams died that same year. Alexander Biddle gifted the painting to the museum in 1964.

Francis in Philadelphia

10 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Gettysburg, Museums, Union League Club

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Gettysburg National Cemetery

I read with interest that when Pope Francis appears next month at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall he will be speaking from the lecturn used by Abraham Lincoln when the president gave the Gettysburg Address. The podium, originally part of Wert Collection, is currently on longterm loan to the Union League Club of Philadelphia. I have never visited the Union Club in Philadelphia, but I have been inside the one here in New York. Both institutions date to winter 1863 and have vast collections of Civil War and Gilded Age memorabilia.

I was a little surprised to read that the podium had ever even belonged to the Wert Collection. I have been in many of the shops along Steinwehr Avenue and have seen many Gettysburg relics for sale. Locals such as John Rosensteel and J. Howard Wert began collecting the battle’s detritus within hours of the fighting’s end. (I have been to Belgium and north France, where I have seen the same phenomenon relating to Ypres, the Battle of the Marne, and elsewhere.) The Rosensteel Collection today forms the base of the Park Service’s vast holdings. If Wert is to believed, some of the bullets and shrapnel pieces were still hot when he gathered them in the days immediately after the battle.

What surprised me was that Wert had even acquired the lecturn to begin with. He apparently obtained it right there and then just after Lincoln’s speech on November 19, 1863, adding it to his already extensive collection of Gettysburg relics.

The Roebling Museum

27 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Museums

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The Roebling Museum opened in 2009 and is easily reachable by public transit.

I had an enjoyable and productive meeting in downtown Brooklyn early this afternoon with the director of the Roebling Museum. As its name indicates, the museum honors the legacy of the family who built the Brooklyn Bridge. I have always known how important John A. Roebling and his son Washington were. However, it was not until visiting the museum a few weeks ago that I grasped the family’s true significance. At one time their factory outside Trenton, New Jersey manufactured 80% of the wire used in the United States. That wire was strung on telegraph and telephone poles, elevators (Otis was a huge customer), electric cords & cables, bridges, and just about anything else one can imagine that required wire.

Today’s meeting was the product of that visit to the museum. A friend and I had a tour with a very engaging and knowledgeable docent. In the course of the conversation I mentioned the possibility of myself volunteering in some capacity. It seems I will now be writing a little content for the museum’s social media platforms and perhaps eventually work my way up to a walking tour. The Roeblings are fascinating and played key roles in many of the nation’s most important event. Washington himself was an officer in the Union Army. There are additional Interpretation opportunities regarding immigration, labor, the World Wars, and the eventual collapse of the manufacturing sector within the United States, to name just a few things. These are some of the stories I hope to tell.

Volunteering with the museum is a good fir for me because I can contribute in a modest way without taking away from the many other projects I am involved with at the moment. I would like to learn more about science and engineering as well.

As for the museum itself, I should note how easy it is to reach via mass transportation. One can get there very easily from New York or Philadelphia Penn Station to Trenton, followed by a fifteen minute train ride on the River Line. For those who drive, it is near the turnpike. It is definitely worth the time.

The Great Fair turns 75

19 Sunday Oct 2014

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Memory, Museums, New York City

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I recently began researching a small piece for the World War I Centennial Commission social media page when I came across these remarkable photographs taken during the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair. If you do the math you will note that we are currently in the middle of the fair’s 75th anniversary. It was a fascinating historical moment because the Depression was finally starting to lift, while at the same time the clouds of war were gathering in Europe. The fair began on April 30 and the German invasion of Poland was on September 1. Needless to say, these and other events wreaked havoc on the fair and its hope for a batter world of tomorrow. The Second World War also had immediate concerns for event planners from the dozens of participating nations. For instance, which constituency would represent this or that recently conquered nation in the fair’s pavilions? Would it be the resistance leaders or the representatives of the new regime? Or neither? Perhaps a country’s organizers would be better off shutting down their nation’s pavilion and washing one’s hands of the entire matter. How does one celebrate knowing the news of such death and destruction back home? These are the issues they dealt with.

The photos here are of American Civil War veterans at the fair. I wish I could date the images more precisely but as of yet cannot. I hope to do more with this in the future. In some cursory digging I discovered that Civil War veterans went to the 1939-1940 World’s Fair on several occasions. Helen D. Longstreet, Pete Longstreet’s widow, was at the fair at least twice. In June 1939 she was there to dedicate an exhibit of Confederate artifacts at the Florida Pavilion. A month later–on 2 July 1939, the 76th anniversary of the second day’s fighting at Gettysburg–she appeared again. Her appearance came one year after Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke at the unveiling of the Peace Light Memorial.

The very week the Germans and Soviets were dividing Poland Civil War vets inspected the tanks of the Seventh Cavalry Brigade at the fairgrounds in Queens. Again, it is not clear when these photographs were taken. The one of the soldiers standing in front of the Lincoln statue says it was taken on Lincoln’s Birthday. The heavy coats would seem to corroborate that. I would guess the photograph was taken in 1940 but it could have been 1939 when the final touches were being made in preparation for the opening that spring. Note the photo of Robert E. Lee. This was quite consciously a reconciliationist effort on the part of the organizers.

A young girl admires the medals of a Civil War veteran. One can imagine that Americans found comfort in the presence of these aging soldiers as war was getting underway yet again. The Second World War’s role in the reconciliation process is often overlooked.

Here are our friends in blue and grey yet again. I am not sure of the building in front of which they are standing.

This past August I took this photo of the rear of the New York City Building. This is today the Queens Museum of Art.

Here is a mosaic commemorating the fair. This area today is Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. I took these two photos on my way to a Mets game.

(images of Civil War veterans, NYPL)

Textiles and the Civil War

26 Saturday Jul 2014

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Governors Island, Museums, Theodore Roosevelt Jr (President)

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Yesterday a friend and I visited the New-York Historical Society to see the exhibit about textiles and the Civil War. Textiles, in this case cotton, obviously were a major cause of the secession crisis and the war. The exhibit though went beyond cotton’s role in the conflict. Included were quilts, flags, housewives (hand stitched sewing kits), clothes, and other items. Among the most touching artifacts were swatches from the Jordan Marsh catalog in various textures and shades of black from which to make mourning clothes. Jordan Marsh is yet one more thing from my past that no longer exists but that is another story.

I do not know if this is true or not, but the exhibit states that there were no hidden messages within quilts for fugitives on the Underground Railroad. It’s funny how these types of stories get propagated and then never entirely go away. More than once I myself have readjusted what I say in tours and public talks after discovering a long-held assumption is false. One that comes to mind off the top of my head was that there was once a tax on having closets in one’s home.

It is an extraordinarily thoughtful show and runs through August 24.

One thing that caught my eye was this little Zouave uniform made for a little boy. The reason it stuck out, besides the fact that it is beautiful is because little Theodore Roosevelt had one that was similar. (See it here.)

similar Zouave uniform on display at the New-York Historical Society

a girl’s dress and little boy’s Zouave uniform on display at the New-York Historical Society

Speaking of the New-York Historical Society keep in mind that the museum has an exhibit about New York City and the Civil War running through September 28 in Building 18 on Governors Island. I still have yet to check this out. There is still two months to go in the Governors Island season.

WW1 Centennial Trade Show report

15 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Memory, Monuments and Statuary, Museums, WW1

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Yesterday I attended the WW1 Centennial Commission Trade Show. I met a lot of people who are doing some interesting things for the commemoration of the Great War. Here are a few pics from the show.

The trade show brought together museum officials, authors, and others to discuss their projects for the Centennial. Jones Day, theWashington white shoe law firm, hosted the event.

The acting chairman of the Commission spoke first and discussed the group’s strategic plan. They have obviously put a great deal of thought and energy into the enterprise. He and the other commissioners are all volunteers.

Before the trade show presentations there was a fifteen minute musical interlude by Benjamin Sears and Bradford Conner. They set a nice tone for the afternoon.

Sergeant York’s son (black shirt and glasses on right) was there with his own son and granddaughter (seated to his left).

Here are a few of the exhibits. As with the Civil War Sesquicentennial, the Great War Centennial will incorporate the changes that have taken place in historiographically in recent decades.

This is a sampling of some of the literature I gathered. I do not want to give away too much right now but I spoke to various folks about working on some projects over the next 4-5 years. I think the next few years will be fun and productive in a number of ways.

Rainy Sunday Morning Coffee

30 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Jazz, Museums

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It was a big week for John Coltrane. His son Ravi donated one of his father’s saxophones to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History on Wednesday. At the same ceremony photographer Chuck Stewart donated twenty-five previously unseen Coltrane photographs to the Institution. The ceremony kicked off Jazz Appreciation Month. Stewart’s photographs are from the A Love Supreme sessions. Supreme was recorded fifty years ago this December. The saxophone and original score will soon be on display in the “American Stories” exhibition.

A preservation group has been working for a few years now to save the musician’s Huntington, Long Island home. When we think of jazz musicians living in New York City we think Harlem, but really many of them lived in Queens or farther out on the island. Coltrane died in 1967 and is buried in Pinelawn Memorial Park. Pinelawn is one of several cemeteries along a stretch of Long Island. When a friend of mine visits this summer we may go out there to see her grandparents interred there. If/when we do, I am going to try to visit the Coltrane site as well.

The origins of the monuments men

14 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Dwight D. Eisenhower, Monuments and Statuary, Museums, WW2

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I was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Watson Library doing some research today when I passed this display case.

I did a double-take when I noticed this image of none other than Dwight Eisenhower himself. This is he and Mamie walking down the Met Museum steps familiar to New Yorkers for generations.

The date was 2 April 1946. That day the Met made Eisenhower an Honorary Fellow for Life for his role in saving European artworks during the Second World War. This is the first page of the address he gave that April day:

Here is the order he gave in May 1944, just a few weeks before D-Day. It is revealing that he would issue such an order even before the Normandy Invasion. He always said there was no contingency for failure. Thus, there were preparations for saving artworks even before a beachhead had been secured. Think about it.

Here are Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley. The photo was taken by a U.S. Army lieutenant in a German salt mine on 12 April 1945, a month before the war ended and a year before Ike spoke at the Met.

In a nice touch, the museum has a gallery itinerary in which one cane find artworks now in the Met that were saved by the Monuments Men. I had seen a few of these a number of times over the years without knowing their provenance.

Here is one of those works.

Guardroom with the Deliverance of Saint Peter
David Teniers the Younger, ca. 1645–47

The painting was donated to the Met in 1964, half a century ago and only nineteen years after the war’s end.

(images/Ike et al, National Archives; Guardroom, Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The Strawfoot

~ a New Yorker's American History blog

Category Archives: Museums