New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Fraunces Tavern Museum

The Rise and Fall of Charles Willson Peale’s Museum

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Behind the Crimson CurtainCharles Willson Peale was an American painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician and naturalist. He is best remembered for his portrait paintings of leading figures of the American Revolution, and for establishing one of the first museums in the United States.

In 1786, Charles Willson Peale created what is considered the most important — and most famous — museum in Revolutionary era America. A fusion of natural history and art, Peale’s Philadelphia Museum was meant to be an embodiment of the Enlightenment. [Read more…] about The Rise and Fall of Charles Willson Peale’s Museum

Landmarks of the American Revolution

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In the Founders' FootstepsThe book In the Founders’ Footsteps: Landmarks of the American Revolution (David R. Godine, 2022) by Adam Van Doren takes a look at the original thirteen colonies in search of historical sites and their stories in America’s founding. [Read more…] about Landmarks of the American Revolution

Poor Richard’s Women: An Intimate Portrait of Benjamin Franklin

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Poor Richard's WomenEveryone knows Benjamin Franklin — the thrifty inventor-statesman of the Revolutionary era — but not about his love life. The most prominent among them was Deborah Read Franklin, his common-law wife and partner for 44 years.

Long dismissed by historians, she was an independent, politically savvy woman and devoted wife who raised their children, managed his finances, and fought off angry mobs at gunpoint while he traipsed about England. [Read more…] about Poor Richard’s Women: An Intimate Portrait of Benjamin Franklin

August 23, 1775: The British Bombard the City of New York

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cast iron cannonball from the Fraunces Tavern Museum CollectionOn the night of August 23, 1775, during what is now remembered as the Raid on the Battery, the HMS Asia, a 64-gun British battleship, bombarded the city of New York’s shoreline with cannonballs and grapeshot.

The melee was started by Captain John Lamb’s company of Patriots, who attempted to steal British cannons from The Battery, at the tip of Manhattan Island. [Read more…] about August 23, 1775: The British Bombard the City of New York

Cloaked Crusader: George Washington in Comics and Pop Culture

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cloaked crusader george washington in comics and pop cultureGeorge Washington’s persona has been showcased in comics and pop culture; in traditional reenactments of famous events; and in appearances in modern times with the likes of Superman, Captain America and other famous heroes.

A new exhibit at Fraunces Tavern in Manhattan explores how Washington has become a mythical figure and superhero in his own right — a metaphor for good and justice. [Read more…] about Cloaked Crusader: George Washington in Comics and Pop Culture

Governing the Nation from Fraunces Tavern

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Craig Hamilton Weaver, Co-Chairman of the Museum and Art Committee (left), and Scott Michael Dwyer, Director of Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York, Inc. and its Fraunces Tavern Museum (right), "Governing the Nation from Fraunces Tavern" ribbon cutting ceremonyFrom 1785 to 1788, between the end of the American Revolution and the ratification of the United States Constitution, the Congress of the Confederation rented rooms at Fraunces Tavern for three government departments.

During this time, George Washington’s compatriots in the Revolution, John Jay and Henry Knox, headed the Departments of Foreign Affairs and War respectively. Offices of the Board of Treasury were also located in the same building. [Read more…] about Governing the Nation from Fraunces Tavern

American Experience in the West Indies, 1740-1742

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disaster on the spanish mainThirty-five years before the battles of Lexington  and Concord, the British colonies in North America raised a regiment to serve in the British Army for an expedition to seize control of the Spanish West Indies.

Colonial volunteers, 4,000 strong, joined 9,000 British soldiers and 15,000 British sailors in a bold amphibious campaign against the key port of Cartagena de Indias.  The expedition marked the first time American soldiers deployed overseas.

[Read more…] about American Experience in the West Indies, 1740-1742

Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington

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female geniusFraunces Tavern Museum will host “Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution,” a free program by Mary Sarah Bilder on Thursday, May 19th.

In this lecture, Mary Sarah Bilder looks to the 1780s, the Age of the Constitution, to investigate the rise of a radical new idea in the English-speaking world: female genius. [Read more…] about Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington