The Presidential Inauguration of 1829

Robert Ball Hughes and his wife, Eliza, witnessed the Inauguration of Andrew Jackson as the 7th President of the United States on March 4, 1829. Ball Hughes had arrived in New York from London only two months before and was staying in Baltimore. The inauguration of the first populist president was attended by over 15,000 people. Jackson was the first President to take the oath of office on the east front portico of the U.S. Capitol.

See http://www.americanpresidents.org/inaugural/07a.asp for the text of Jackson's First Inaugural Address.

The Wikipedia entry for Andrew Jackson says: "Jackson was the first President to invite the public to attend the White House ball honoring his first inauguration. Many poor people came to the inaugural ball in their homemade clothes. The crowd became so large that Jackson's guards could not hold them out of the White House. The White House became so crowded with people that dishes and decorative pieces in the White House began to break. Some people stood on good chairs in muddied boots just to get a look at the President. The crowd had become so wild that the attendants poured punch in tubs and put it on the White House lawn to lure people out of the White House.”

President's Levee, or all Creation going to the White House, Washington, [March 4, 1829]

See http://www.thesmartset.com/article/article09300801.aspx from Drexel University for an account of the day and http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/jacksoninauguration.htm for an eyewitness account of the inauguration.

Ball Hughes was truly a witness of history! He later called on President Jackson at the White House and after that carved a bust of Jackson. I'll have more about that first meeting later.

The images above are from the Library of Congress at: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pihtml/pi011.html.

Who Was Barnaby Rudge?

Hints:

He was a comfort to Robert Ball Hughes for 17 years
He was white
He had a unique hair style
He was named after a Dickens character who had a pet Raven named Grip

For the answer see: http://robertballhughes.googlepages.com/silhouettes

Statue of Hamilton Revisited

Thanks to a recent comment from a good Friend of Robert Ball Hughes in England, I was able clarify why the Statue of Alexander Hamilton was wearing a toga in the woodblock images from 1835 and not in the plaster models. I knew why from my research but had forgotten to include the reason on the webpage.

The Statute of Hamilton, the first marble statue in America, was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1835 in New York. Since this was before the development of photography, the only images that we have are woodblock prints that were published in newspapers and magazines at the time.

Three plaster models of the statue survive in museums today but show Hamilton wearing contemporary clothing and not a toga. According to Wayne Craven, author of “Sculpture in America,” Ball Hughes added a Roman toga to his original conception to conceal a flaw that was revealed during the carving of the Carrara marble. That's one mystery solved, now for the next:

While revising the webpage account of the Statue of Hamilton, I investigated a copy of a contract for multiple casts that Fred Brown sent to me. From my research, I believe it may be the contract to cast additional copies of the plaster model for the famous Statue of Hamilton for the New York Merchants Exchange. You'll have to read the details on the Alexander Hamilton Statue webpage.

Final Thought:
I'm learning that every detail can be a valuable clue in research. As I reread the material I've accumulated so far, I keep finding new clues. Names, dates, and places that at first are not significant take on new importance when combined with information already known. In researching the document mentioned above, I discovered that Mrs. Ball Hughes enjoyed participating in parties given by the former Mayor of New York, Philip Hone. The Ball Hughes' apparently liked being part of New York's high society in the 1830's.