Close to Home in San Francisco

I recently had the pleasure of visiting San Francisco to give a lecture on William Matthew Prior to the American Decorative Arts Forum. This is a great group of collectors and enthusiasts who invite scholars from across the country to come and speak to their members once a month. It really was an honor to be invited, especially given the calibre of the speakers who have presented there over the years.

While in San Francisco, I took the opportunity to visit the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. What a fantastic place! They have a great collection of American art, which is where I spent quite a bit of time. They also have a very good folk art collection, which included one piece that struck me as being very close to home.

It is James Bard's portrait of the Steamship Syracuse, representing the city just about two hours west of Cooperstown. A great Bard, like our own Steamship Niagara. The Syracuse, of course, celebrated the rise of a new industrial city in the wake of the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825. America was changing rapidly when this painting was completed in 1857. In a few short years a major war would be fought to resolve issues that had divided the country for decades.

Which is why the history behind this painting intrigued me. It turns out that the Syracuse was owned by the Schuyler Steam Towboat Company, which was founded in 1825 by the sons of Samuel Schuyler (1781-1842). You can read more about the company and this boat here. Why is this so interesting? Schuyler, despite his famous last name (from one of New York's oldest Dutch colonial families) was African American, listed in the census as a "free man of color." There is more detail on his life here. He went from dock worker to towboat operator to real estate developer and businessman, all while New York was debating whether to abolish slavery within its borders (which it did for those born before 1799 in 1827).

Quite a story, and quite a boat.

Hudson River Steamboat Portraits: The Majesty Masks the Mayhem

If you’ve been following this blog for awhile you already know that, beneath the placid surface of these beautiful works of art there lurk some strange and wonderful histories. What could be more lovely than a majestic steamboat gracefully making its way up the Hudson River, flags flapping in the breeze, verdant hills and fluffy clouds completing the scene? Who wouldn’t want to be on that boat, on that gorgeous day in 1845?

Me, for one, knowing what I do.

The steamer Niagara (oil on canvas, 34 ¼” x 56 ¼”) in the Fenimore Art Museum collection was painted in 1852 by James Bard, one of a pair of brothers who made their reputation in New York City by providing ships’ portraits to captains and ship owners from 1830 to 1890. We hosted a traveling exhibition of their work in 1998 (see photo at bottom). The Niagara was 265 feet long and was used as a day boat for the New York, Albany and Troy Line. It was launched in 1845 under the command of Albert DeGroot (pictured here), a self-made young man who grew up on Staten Island as a neighbor of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt was one of the great steamboat captains, builders, and ship owners of the day, and took a liking to the young Albert and nurture his career.

DeGroot, like many steamboat captains, wanted to succeed by attracting customers for his boat. At this time, one of the most effective ways to do this was to be able to advertise faster shipping times for people and goods. The most effective way to get faster shipping times was to add steam to already over-taxed boilers.

Can you tell where this is going?

In 1847, while racing a competitor, the Roger Williams, DeGroot directed his engineer to put in more steam. When told that this was impossible, he ordered the gears to be changed so as to double their velocity. The steam chimney exploded, killing two firemen and injuring seven passengers. That’s right, he was racing another steamboat while on his appointed route between New York and Albany.

The newspapers had a field day. The Ulster Republican called for the officers of the Niagara to be convicted of manslaughter, and laid on the sarcasm: “human life is cheap, and steamboat captains can sport with it as they please.” DeGroot, like many other captains of the era, was not removed from his post, and in fact went on to command another vessel, the Reindeer, that in 1851 broke the Albany-New York record with a time of seven hours and 27 minutes. In fact, there are many accounts of him that are glowing in their praise of his charm and concern for his passengers.

Fortunately for DeGroot, he had left the command of the Reindeer before she blew up in September of 1852, killing several passengers. This was about the time DeGroot commissioned our painting of his Niagara on its launch day, with its steam chimneys gently throwing sparks up into the air, and its passengers enjoying the scenery from the deck seemingly without a care in the world.

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