The Missing Statue of DeWitt Clinton

According to Georgia Stamm Chamberlain, in The Ball-Hughes Statue of Alexander Hamilton in Antiques Journal March 1957, “Ball-Hughes had already demonstrated his ability to recreate a living portrait in sculpture in his larger than life marble statue of De Witt Clinton for the front of Clinton Hall in Theater Alley on the southwest corner of Beekman and Nassau Streets.” “Shortly after Clinton's death, Ball-Hughes had worked from prints and portraits to secure the satisfactory likeness.” This account was before Ball Hughes plaster model for the famous full-length marble statue of Hamilton was approved by the Merchants' Exchange committee in December 1830.

The Feb. 13, 1830 issue of the New York Mirror reported the following: "The directors of Clinton Hall Association, some time since, applied to Mr. Hughes, the sculptor, for the model of a projected statue of our late Governor, intended for the front of Clinton Hall. This model has been completed, and the exquisite accuracy of its execution has so fully satisfied the directors that they have ordered one of marble, larger than life." Now we know that a model was made by February 1830 and a marble statue was ordered, but was it ever executed?

A search for statues of Clinton did not reveal any record of one ever being completed by Ball Hughes. A pair of cast statues of Alexander Hamilton and DeWitt Clinton, by Adolph A. Weinman in 1941, adorn the front facade of the Museum of the City of New York. The statue of Hamilton is based on the famous marble statue by Robert Ball Hughes that was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1835. But what was the source of the design for companion statue of Clinton?

Microfilm records entitled “Adolph A. Weinman Papers, 1890-1959” have been digitized and are available on the Smithsonian Archives of Art website. They include an article from the New York Times, Tuesday, January 14, 1941 that states that “The De Witt Clinton statue is an original work resulting from an exhaustive study of numerous contemporary portraits on the part of the artist.” Absent is any reference to a statue of Clinton by Robert Ball Hughes.

Perhaps the reason we cannot find other references to a life size marble statue of Clinton is that it was never executed after the model was made and approved. In 1830, Ball Hughes was busy making the model for the larger than life statue of Alexander Hamilton for the rotunda of the Merchants Exchange on Wall Street. That 28” high plaster model of Hamilton was enthusiastically received and approved in December 1830. Ball Hughes would not have had enough time to procure such as large piece of marble for the statue of Clinton in 1830 before embarking on the Hamilton statue. The marble for the statue of Hamilton took some time to be procured from Italy. Ball Hughes worked on a full size model of the Hamilton, probably starting in 1831, and then on the marble statue in 1834 when the marble and carvers from England had arrived.

What about the references to a larger than life marble statue of Clinton by Georgia Stamm Chamberlain in 1957? Even Wayne Craven, writing in Sculpture in America (1968 & 1984), quoted the 1830 New York Mirror article and concluded that Ball Hughes was working on a statue of DeWitt Clinton for the Clinton Hall Association. A model was definitely made by Ball Hughes by February 1830 but I have not found any record of a life size marble statue ever being executed after it was ordered.

More information was found in the recently rediscovered Sketch of the Life of Robert Ball Hughes by Mrs. E. Ball Hughes, Robert's wife. Eliza states that about the time Ball Hughes had completed the Monument to Bishop Hobart (about October 1832 according to The Diary of Philip Hone) that Ball Hughes "made a very fine statuette of Governor Clinton." Perhaps Eliza recalled the order of events wrong as her account is not always chronological. The statuette she describes may have been the model that was approved in February 1830. If Ball Hughes had made a life size marble statue of Clinton, Eliza didn't mention it, only a statuette.

I reviewed all of the source material that I have accumulated so far and found a possible answer in American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vol. 1, A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born before 1865, edited by Thayer Tolles (1999). “... when he arrived in New York, he (Hughes) was perhaps the most talented and technically proficient sculptor in the United States. As such, he had access to New York's prominent citizens and he received some important commissions, but they were too few to sustain him and he had difficulty extracting payment. In 1829-30, for instance, he prepared a model for a statue of De Witt Clinton, a plum commission from the Clinton Hall Association that was never realized.”

Once again, more answers lead me to more questions. What ever happened to the statuette of DeWitt Clinton?

Census Records for Sunnyside

Thanks to an observant researcher, I have a copy of a census record for 1900 showing Georgina Ball Hughes. The record for Suffolk County, Massachusetts includes the residents on School St., in Dorchester. Robert and Eliza Ball Hughes eldest daughter, Georgina, lived in the family home, Sunnyside, on School Street until her death in 1911 at age 82.

The Ball Hughes family moved from Adams St. to School St. in 1851. Robert lived there for 17 years until his early death in 1868. We learned from the Sketch of the Life of Robert Ball Hughes by Mrs. E. Ball Hughes that the Ball Hughes apparently rented the home from several different owners over the years. In 1866, Mrs. Ball Hughes convinced her daughter, Georgina, who taught art in the public school for many years, that it would be a good investment to buy the house. Robert and Eliza continued to live there, probably with Georgina at times. She spent much of her time in London, England working as an accomplished artist.

What I didn't know was Georgina's birth date and city of birth. Several art biographies listed her birth year as 1828. This always bothered me since her parents, Robert and Eliza, where married in November 1828 and left for New York by packet ship shortly after they were married. Georgina would have been an infant on the stormy 10-week ocean voyage in the winter of 1828/29 if she was born in 1828. Eliza made no mention of Georgina's birth in the biography. Without knowing Georgina's city of birth, I had no way of verifying her birthdate, until I saw the 1900 census record.

I have no reason to doubt the census record as the information was provided to the census-taker by Georgina, the owner and resident of the house. The record lists the house number as 1 School St. (at the corner of Washington St.). The house number is now 3 School St., since the house was moved about 60 feet west from the corner. This tells me that the house may have been moved after the 1900 census but not what year. The census record for residents as of June 1, 1900 shows “Ball-Hughes Georgina” as the head of the house and no other residents or tenants at the time. A photograph of Sunnyside shows a “For Let” sign in front of the house in the late 1800's. The next house shown on the census record for School St. is No. 9.

The census record shows Georgina's color or race as “W” for white, sex as “F” for female, date of birth as Sept. 1829, age at last birthday as “70”, place of birth as “New York” (City), birth places of father and mother as “England”, and she was single as we already knew. The record also shows her occupation as “Artist”, and months not employed as “0”. The entry for attended school (in months) was blank and the entries for can read, can write, and can speak English were “Y” for yes. The owned or rented entry was “O” for owned, the entry for owned free or mortgaged was “M” for mortgaged, and the entry for farm or home was “H” for home.

This tells us quite a bit. Georgina was born in New York in September 1829, not 1828 as previously reported. She apparently was a honeymoon baby, conceived on the long ocean voyage since the Ball Hughes arrived in New York on January 19, 1829. September 1829 to June 1900 is 70 years, the same as Georgina's reported age as of June 1, 1900. Georgina probably completed public school in Philadelphia and Boston but nothing more is known about her education. Her obituary states that she was 83 when she died in October 1911. She would have been 82 years old if she was born in September 1829 instead of 1828. Perhaps the writer also had the wrong year of birth.

It's interesting that after owning the home for about 34 years since purchasing it in 1866, she still had a mortgage on it. Maybe long mortgage terms were common at the time to keep the payments low. It's also interesting that at age 70, Georgina did not consider herself unemployed. Retirement, as we know it today, is a relatively new phenomenon.

As I have learned, a one-line census record can reveal valuable information to confirm what is already known and add more details to it. I'd like to obtain more census records for the Ball Hughes from New York City for 1829-1830's, Philadelphia from the 1830's to 1840's, and Boston, from the 1840's to 1900's. I'd also like to get birth records for Georgina (born Sept. 1829) and her younger sister, Augusta (born Feb. 16, 1832), both in New York City. These birth certificates might list the parents birth date and city so I can track down Robert and Eliza's birth records.

I'm also looking for a passenger list for the packet ship, The Robert Edwards, that arrived in New York from London on Jan. 19, 1829. This list might also show Robert and Eliza Ball Hughes birth date and city. Please contact me if you have access to these records and can help me. Thank you.

Dave Brown
www.robertballhughes.com

The Panic of 1837

Cartoon showing the problems of a tradesman during the Panic of 1837
Library of Congress LC-USZC4-3240

You can't study the life of Robert Ball Hughes (1804-1868) and his family without studying the times in which they lived. Robert and his wife, Eliza (Wright) came to New York from London, England in early 1829. Many of his early customers for portrait busts were merchants and bankers who were becoming very rich as commerce in the young republic grew rapidly. In 1835, Ball Hughes completed the marble statue of Alexander Hamilton for the NY Merchants Exchange. It was the first life-size statue carved in marble in America. Ball Hughes became an artist of celebrity before the statue was sadly destroyed in the Great Fire of 1835.

In 1837 or 1838(?), Ball Hughes moved to Philadelphia to compete for an equestrian statue of George Washington. He was kindly received in Philadelphia and found plenty of work in the way of busts and medallions while waiting for an opportunity to make the Washington Monument, as it was to be called. Finally he was called upon to make a sketch and a model of the proposed statue. The committee for the equestrian statue approved his design in 1840(?) but the panic of 1837 was still having an impact on the economy after a brief rally from 1838 to 1839.

According to Eliza Ball Hughes, the committee "told the sculptor more important things demanded their immediate attention." That was an understatement. The Second Bank of the United States, located in Philadelphia, failed in 1841 and funding was lost for the statue. During the 5-year depression that followed the Panic of 1837, 40% of the country's banks failed. Confidence dropped and currency was devalued.

Businesses went bankrupt and many people lost their entire life savings. Unemployment at the time has been estimated to be about 30%. Mobs in New York raided warehouses for food and soup kitchens and bread lines sprouted up. This was Americas first major depression, second only to the Great Depression of the 1930's. Economists still argue about the cause: land speculation, easy credit, Specie Circular, government intervention, government inaction, etc.

Even with high unemployment, Ball Hughes still had work, though not always steady work. In 1839 he was hired by the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia to modify the Christian Gobrecht design of the Seated Liberty on U.S. coins. He apparently was paid $75 for his services. By 1842 (or 1840), Ball Hughes had given up hope of completing the Washington Monument and moved his family to Dorchester, MA, near Boston, where several orders awaited him. He was most kindly received in Boston and made it his final home.

By about 1843 the depression was over and the economy improved again. Ball Hughes continued to do colossal sculpture, including the Nathaniel Bowditch Monument in 1847. It was the first life-size statue cast in bronze in America. He also continued to work in clay, plaster, and marble, engrave medallions, and carve cameos.

In the 1850's Ball Hughes reinvented himself by creating "poker pictures" burnt in wood with a hot poker. He is credited with being the first person to popularize pyrography in America. He also supplemented his income in his later years by lecturing on art. Eliza taught art students to help support the family and their oldest daughter, Georgina, also an accomplished artist, taught drawing in the public school.

Note that reported dates are sometimes difficult to verify, even some of those recorded by Eliza Ball Hughes have been shown to be wrong. We can use historical events like the Great Fire of 1835 and the Panic of 1837 to place Ball Hughes at certain locations at the time. The year 1840, etched on the back of the First Poker Work, places Ball Hughes in Boston with his studio in Bromfield Hall. Eliza records that they moved to Boston in 1842. I'm leaning towards 1840. He was in Philadelphia in 1839 when he worked for the U.S. Mint. I estimate that funding was lost for the Washington Monument between 1839 and 1840 and not after the Second Bank of the United States failed in 1841.

Rev 5/1/2009