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

This view of the steamship Hartford leaving her East River pier documents an important aspect of the Gold Rush of 1849: the eager exodus of easterners to the fabled gold fields of California, where gold had been discovered in January 1848. Delayed communications kept the news from New Yorkers until the announcement appeared in the New York Herald on August 19, 1848. "Gold Rush fever" resulted almost instantaneously, and by March 1849 more than 140 ships from the East Coast had embarked on the rough, dangerous passage around Cape Horn to California.¹ After her first voyage, lasting nearly a year, the Hartford arrived safely in San Francisco harbor, only to be demolished in an accidental explosion on March 3, 1851.²

Although most New Yorkers failed to strike it rich in the California gold fields, evidence of their presence there is found in names of such places as New-York-of-the-Pacific, a promoter's town, and the New York Ranch; names of such mining companies as Manhattan Bar and Empire State Mining Company; names of such volunteer fire companies as the Knickerbocker and the Manhattan in San Francisco; and in the many mining town stores bearing the name "New York."³

The Hartford appears to carry no women, which was typical of California-bound vessels during the initial Gold Rush era. (Later, shiploads of women -wives joining husbands, mail-order brides, and prostitutes -would travel west to join the gold seekers.) Poignant vignettes enacted among the throng of figures on the pier suggest the significance of such departures in a period of difficult travel and sparse communications. On the left edge of the pier sits an elderly man with a younger man bending over him in a comforting manner, suggesting that the older man has bid farewell to someone aboard the ship -perhaps a son or younger brother -whom he does not expect to see again. To the right of the small dog at the center foreground, a man appears to be consoling a woman.

Attention to factual detail is characteristic of Joseph Smith's work as a cityscape painter, exemplified by the carefully delineated Brooklyn shoreline seen across the East River. He has depicted many of the steeples that gave mid-century Brooklyn the title "City of Churches," and the wharves and buildings of the Navy Yard underscore the city's ties to the sea and ships. The accurately rendered boats confirm Smith's competence as a marine artist as well.

Smith, who lived for a while in New York City, moved to Brooklyn in 1852 and remained there until at least 1862. During some of those years he worked with his son William. They listed themselves at different times as either marine artists or portrait painters. Four of their joint paintings -the Adelaide, Great Republic, Ocean Express, and Red Jacket -became the basis for an 1855 series of prints of clipper ships issued by Currier and Ives. Joseph's best-known works, executed early in his career, depict the John Street Methodist Chapel, the first Methodist church in America.⁴

Notes:

1 Demand for passage was so great that New York's boatyards could not supply ships fast enough. The Hartford was built in Philadelphia in November 1848.

2 Laura Retting White, "New York's Part in the Gold Rush," Bulletin of the Museum of the City of New York 1, no. 5 (April 1938): 56.

3 Ibid., p. 58.

4 Brooklyn Before the Bridge: American Paintings from the Long Island Historical Society (New York: Brooklyn Museum, 1982) p. 134.


Steamer "Hartford" Capt. LeFevre, Bound for California, Sailed from New York February 1849 1849 Joseph B. Smith (1798 -1876) Watercolor, 251/2 X 381/2 Signed lower left: J. B. S. Bequest of Mrs. J. Insley Blair in memory of Mr. and Mrs. J. Insley Blair, 52.100.3
This view of the steamship Hartford leaving her East River pier documents an important aspect of the Gold Rush of 1849: the eager exodus of easterners to the fabled gold fields of California, where gold had been discovered in January 1848. Delayed communications kept the news from New Yorkers until the announcement appeared in the New York Herald on August 19, 1848. "Gold Rush fever" resulted almost instantaneously, and by March 1849 more than 140 ships from the East Coast had embarked on the rough, dangerous passage around Cape Horn to California.¹ After her first voyage, lasting nearly a year, the Hartford arrived safely in San Francisco harbor, only to be demolished in an accidental explosion on March 3, 1851.² Although most New Yorkers failed to strike it rich in the California gold fields, evidence of their presence there is found in names of such places as New-York-of-the-Pacific, a promoter's town, and the New York Ranch; names of such mining companies as Manhattan Bar and Empire State Mining Company; names of such volunteer fire companies as the Knickerbocker and the Manhattan in San Francisco; and in the many mining town stores bearing the name "New York."³ The Hartford appears to carry no women, which was typical of California-bound vessels during the initial Gold Rush era. (Later, shiploads of women -wives joining husbands, mail-order brides, and prostitutes -would travel west to join the gold seekers.) Poignant vignettes enacted among the throng of figures on the pier suggest the significance of such departures in a period of difficult travel and sparse communications. On the left edge of the pier sits an elderly man with a younger man bending over him in a comforting manner, suggesting that the older man has bid farewell to someone aboard the ship -perhaps a son or younger brother -whom he does not expect to see again. To the right of the small dog at the center foreground, a man appears to be consoling a woman. Attention to factual detail is characteristic of Joseph Smith's work as a cityscape painter, exemplified by the carefully delineated Brooklyn shoreline seen across the East River. He has depicted many of the steeples that gave mid-century Brooklyn the title "City of Churches," and the wharves and buildings of the Navy Yard underscore the city's ties to the sea and ships. The accurately rendered boats confirm Smith's competence as a marine artist as well. Smith, who lived for a while in New York City, moved to Brooklyn in 1852 and remained there until at least 1862. During some of those years he worked with his son William. They listed themselves at different times as either marine artists or portrait painters. Four of their joint paintings -the Adelaide, Great Republic, Ocean Express, and Red Jacket -became the basis for an 1855 series of prints of clipper ships issued by Currier and Ives. Joseph's best-known works, executed early in his career, depict the John Street Methodist Chapel, the first Methodist church in America.⁴ Notes: 1 Demand for passage was so great that New York's boatyards could not supply ships fast enough. The Hartford was built in Philadelphia in November 1848. 2 Laura Retting White, "New York's Part in the Gold Rush," Bulletin of the Museum of the City of New York 1, no. 5 (April 1938): 56. 3 Ibid., p. 58. 4 Brooklyn Before the Bridge: American Paintings from the Long Island Historical Society (New York: Brooklyn Museum, 1982) p. 134.