Painting the Town -- Museum of the City of New York

Angry flames, courageous volunteers, marvelous machinery, and theatrically smoldering ruins dominate the popular imagery of nineteenth-century urban fires. This scene takes a more unusual approach by dramatizing the economic catastrophe suffered by citizens as a consequence of the Great Fire of December 16, 1835, which devastated the heart of Lower Manhattan's business district and caused more than 15 million dollars' worth of property damage. The setting is Hanover Square, ground zero for the blaze. The artist, detouring predictable formulas for pictorializing disasters, focuses on the pragmatic pluck shown by New York merchants and their employees who gathered at their former workplaces the morning after the fire to assess their losses and confirm the survival of metal company safes containing ledgers, valuables, and, for the truly fortunate firms, fire insurance contracts.

A boy atop a safe, hat held high, appears to offer a jubilant signal of discovery to his companions, probably fellow messengers in companies located in the area. On the charred grounds of their former shops and counting houses, gentlemen owners and agents are seen examining the contents of strongboxes and conducting solemn conversations, presumably already planning for the restoration of their businesses. The vignette confirms contemporary press reports of the remarkable resiliency shown by New Yorkers in the face of this calamity: "Our merchants and others who have suffered are in good spirits and fully determined to promptly redeem their loss," reassured the pamphleteer of the quickly issued Account of the Conflagration of the Principal Part of the First Ward of the City of New York. "All despondency if it ever existed, is at an end. Smiling faces and cheerful countenances meet us at every corner, and demonstrate that there is an elasticity in the character of our people which always enables them to rise above the most overwhelming evils."¹

This estimate of the city's mettle may seem immoderate, but within two years of the Great Fire, the burned district had been largely reconstructed, investors having evidently seen virtue in the destruction of the older commercial buildings and profit in the opportunities to modernize in the fire's aftermath. A number of affected businesses had even expanded, despite the setbacks of property and inventory losses and the financial "panic" that was rocking the city and nation in 1837.

This large panel painting, acquired by J. Clarence Davies, arrived at the Museum of the City of New York with crudely mended splits and heavy dirt discoloration, suggesting its previous exposure to weather stresses. Repeated efforts to disguise damaged areas through retouching and overpainting were also evident. Its physical condition may be at least part of the reason for the work's attribution to New York lithographer James Ackerman, which dates to its cataloguing in 1929 as part of the extensive gift of urban-scene paintings that Davies presented to the Museum that year. Signed prints and book illustrations by Ackerman confirm his activity as a lithographer during the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Periodically, examples of his hand-colored lithographs were exhibited at local venues, such as the American Institute. Between 1838 and 1865, however, he was also in partnership with Edward A. Miller, operating a sign- and banner-painting business that also produced block letters.² The speculation arises whether Hanover Square might have been a signboard painted as a demonstration of Ackerman and Miller's skills as topical illustrators, or as a promotion for a vendor of safe-deposit boxes.

Notes:

1 C. Foster, An Account of the Conflagration of the Principal Part of the First Ward of the City of New-York, Illustrated with Numerous Etchings, and a Plan Showing the State of Ruins . . . (New York: C. Foster, 1836), pp. 26 -27.

2 See listing for James Ackerman, and for Ackerman and Miller, in George C. Groce and David H. Wallace, The New-York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957), p. 1. No other evidence has been found to substantiate the attribution to Ackerman or the circumstances under which this painting was produced.


Hanover Square c. 1835 Attributed to J. Ackerman (possibly James Ackerman [b. 1813; active 1848]) Oil on wood panel, 591/5 X 731/5 The J. Clarence Davies Collection, 29.100.1334
Angry flames, courageous volunteers, marvelous machinery, and theatrically smoldering ruins dominate the popular imagery of nineteenth-century urban fires. This scene takes a more unusual approach by dramatizing the economic catastrophe suffered by citizens as a consequence of the Great Fire of December 16, 1835, which devastated the heart of Lower Manhattan's business district and caused more than 15 million dollars' worth of property damage. The setting is Hanover Square, ground zero for the blaze. The artist, detouring predictable formulas for pictorializing disasters, focuses on the pragmatic pluck shown by New York merchants and their employees who gathered at their former workplaces the morning after the fire to assess their losses and confirm the survival of metal company safes containing ledgers, valuables, and, for the truly fortunate firms, fire insurance contracts. A boy atop a safe, hat held high, appears to offer a jubilant signal of discovery to his companions, probably fellow messengers in companies located in the area. On the charred grounds of their former shops and counting houses, gentlemen owners and agents are seen examining the contents of strongboxes and conducting solemn conversations, presumably already planning for the restoration of their businesses. The vignette confirms contemporary press reports of the remarkable resiliency shown by New Yorkers in the face of this calamity: "Our merchants and others who have suffered are in good spirits and fully determined to promptly redeem their loss," reassured the pamphleteer of the quickly issued Account of the Conflagration of the Principal Part of the First Ward of the City of New York. "All despondency if it ever existed, is at an end. Smiling faces and cheerful countenances meet us at every corner, and demonstrate that there is an elasticity in the character of our people which always enables them to rise above the most overwhelming evils."¹ This estimate of the city's mettle may seem immoderate, but within two years of the Great Fire, the burned district had been largely reconstructed, investors having evidently seen virtue in the destruction of the older commercial buildings and profit in the opportunities to modernize in the fire's aftermath. A number of affected businesses had even expanded, despite the setbacks of property and inventory losses and the financial "panic" that was rocking the city and nation in 1837. This large panel painting, acquired by J. Clarence Davies, arrived at the Museum of the City of New York with crudely mended splits and heavy dirt discoloration, suggesting its previous exposure to weather stresses. Repeated efforts to disguise damaged areas through retouching and overpainting were also evident. Its physical condition may be at least part of the reason for the work's attribution to New York lithographer James Ackerman, which dates to its cataloguing in 1929 as part of the extensive gift of urban-scene paintings that Davies presented to the Museum that year. Signed prints and book illustrations by Ackerman confirm his activity as a lithographer during the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Periodically, examples of his hand-colored lithographs were exhibited at local venues, such as the American Institute. Between 1838 and 1865, however, he was also in partnership with Edward A. Miller, operating a sign- and banner-painting business that also produced block letters.² The speculation arises whether Hanover Square might have been a signboard painted as a demonstration of Ackerman and Miller's skills as topical illustrators, or as a promotion for a vendor of safe-deposit boxes. Notes: 1 C. Foster, An Account of the Conflagration of the Principal Part of the First Ward of the City of New-York, Illustrated with Numerous Etchings, and a Plan Showing the State of Ruins . . . (New York: C. Foster, 1836), pp. 26 -27. 2 See listing for James Ackerman, and for Ackerman and Miller, in George C. Groce and David H. Wallace, The New-York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957), p. 1. No other evidence has been found to substantiate the attribution to Ackerman or the circumstances under which this painting was produced.