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

In 1866 a group of parishioners of St. John's Chapel on Varick Street (see plate 15) established St. John's Guild to help the city's impoverished and "to alleviate the squalor and inhumanity of their living conditions."¹ Guild volunteers carefully interviewed prospective recipients of their largesse. Reports of these interviews provide a glimpse of the era's tenement-house poverty. One interviewer cited "a widow with four children whom she is unable to provide with food or clothing; they are absolutely naked and crying with hunger," and described the case as one "of extreme destitution" demanding "immediate aid for all these wants."²

After eight winters of providing food, clothing, fuel, and similar necessities for poor families, the guild expanded its work to address the problems of New York's unbearably steamy summers. Speculating that fresh air, sunshine, and simple, healthy food would counteract the ill effects of the "noisome dens in which so many live,"³ in 1874 the guild chartered a barge for children's seagoing excursions.⁴Benefits of the trips proved so great that on May 19, 1875, the guild ordered from Lawrence and Foulks a ship to accommodate twenty-five hundred sick children and their mothers. The twenty-thousand-dollar vessel was underwritten by Emma Abbott (1850 - 1891), a singer noted for her role in popularizing opera in the United States. Exactly two months later, her namesake began its first season of three weekly trips along New York's rivers and harbors. Beginning in July 1881 the Emma Abbott carried sick children, deemed by the ship's doctor to require more prolonged treatment than a day at sea, to the guild's newly constructed Seaside Day Nursery in Staten Island. In 1887 the Floating Hospital added nurses to the staff in its Staten Island facility, changed its name to Seaside Hospital, and began to treat convalescing adults as well as children.

Having carried a total of 909,104 patients during a twenty-seven-year career, the Emma Abbott served until 1902, when it was replaced by the more modern Helen C. Julliard and subsequent ships. When St. John's Guild disbanded in 1980, their Floating Hospital incorporated independently, with its own board of trustees. Today, continuing its role of service to the poor, the Floating Hospital moors the Lila A. Wallace in the East River. Programs include free health clinics emphasizing preventive medical education, social services, and entertainment programs run by trained adult volunteers for the benefit of senior citizens and families. The Floating Hospital's earlier mission has been expanded to focus on such problems as AIDS, child abuse, and substance abuse.

Julian O. Davidson, who wrote of himself that at seventeen he "quite literally ran away to sea," was a painter, engraver, and illustrator of ship's portraits and marine battles that reflect the influence of earlier Dutch, French, and English marine painting styles in their adroitly depicted skies, accurately rendered water, and carefully delineated ships' details. He was born in Cumberland, Maryland, traveled extensively, and served a two-year apprenticeship in his father's New York civil engineering office. Renouncing an engineering career, in 1872 Davidson became a student of Mauritz F. H. DeHaas. By 1874 he had taken a studio of his own at 788 Broadway. Davidson exhibited frequently at the National Academy of Design from 1877 until the end of his life and provided many marine subjects for periodicals including Harper's, the Aldine, and Century. Responding to the ascendancy of steamships as the age of sail waned, Davidson captured the power and seeming invincibility of these mammoth new vessels.⁵ In his rendering of the Emma Abbott, the sheer size of both canvas and ship seems to suggest the bounteous nature of nineteenth-century munificence to the "deserving poor." No record has been located regarding the circumstances of his commission to paint this ship's portrait.⁶

Notes:

1 Richard B. Birrer, M.D., M.P.H., "Ship of Health: N.Y.'s Floating Hospital," Medical Times (May 1985): n.p.

2 Quoted in ibid.

3 Ibid.

4 According to "The Floating Hospital of St. John's Guild," Harper's Weekly (September 12, 1874), the summer work began that year. However, in The Origin of the Floating Hospital of St. John's Guild: The Retelling of a Story in Historical, Medical Perspective, Louis Joseph Tesoro gives 1873 as the date.

5 Lynn S. Beman, Julian O. Davidson, 1853 -1894: American Marine Artist (New City, N.Y.: Historical Society of Rockland County, 1986), p. 23.

6 Research has failed to discover whether the commission to paint the Emma Abbott was given by the guild itself or privately by another interested party. The title of the painting was assigned by the Museum in the absence of any known title assigned by the artist.


The "Emma Abbott," First Floating Hospital 1876 Julian O. Davidson (1853 -1894) Oil on canvas, 44 X 73 Signed lower right: Julian O. Davidson / 1876 Gift of St. John's Guild, M45.17
In 1866 a group of parishioners of St. John's Chapel on Varick Street (see plate 15) established St. John's Guild to help the city's impoverished and "to alleviate the squalor and inhumanity of their living conditions."¹ Guild volunteers carefully interviewed prospective recipients of their largesse. Reports of these interviews provide a glimpse of the era's tenement-house poverty. One interviewer cited "a widow with four children whom she is unable to provide with food or clothing; they are absolutely naked and crying with hunger," and described the case as one "of extreme destitution" demanding "immediate aid for all these wants."² After eight winters of providing food, clothing, fuel, and similar necessities for poor families, the guild expanded its work to address the problems of New York's unbearably steamy summers. Speculating that fresh air, sunshine, and simple, healthy food would counteract the ill effects of the "noisome dens in which so many live,"³ in 1874 the guild chartered a barge for children's seagoing excursions.⁴Benefits of the trips proved so great that on May 19, 1875, the guild ordered from Lawrence and Foulks a ship to accommodate twenty-five hundred sick children and their mothers. The twenty-thousand-dollar vessel was underwritten by Emma Abbott (1850 - 1891), a singer noted for her role in popularizing opera in the United States. Exactly two months later, her namesake began its first season of three weekly trips along New York's rivers and harbors. Beginning in July 1881 the Emma Abbott carried sick children, deemed by the ship's doctor to require more prolonged treatment than a day at sea, to the guild's newly constructed Seaside Day Nursery in Staten Island. In 1887 the Floating Hospital added nurses to the staff in its Staten Island facility, changed its name to Seaside Hospital, and began to treat convalescing adults as well as children. Having carried a total of 909,104 patients during a twenty-seven-year career, the Emma Abbott served until 1902, when it was replaced by the more modern Helen C. Julliard and subsequent ships. When St. John's Guild disbanded in 1980, their Floating Hospital incorporated independently, with its own board of trustees. Today, continuing its role of service to the poor, the Floating Hospital moors the Lila A. Wallace in the East River. Programs include free health clinics emphasizing preventive medical education, social services, and entertainment programs run by trained adult volunteers for the benefit of senior citizens and families. The Floating Hospital's earlier mission has been expanded to focus on such problems as AIDS, child abuse, and substance abuse. Julian O. Davidson, who wrote of himself that at seventeen he "quite literally ran away to sea," was a painter, engraver, and illustrator of ship's portraits and marine battles that reflect the influence of earlier Dutch, French, and English marine painting styles in their adroitly depicted skies, accurately rendered water, and carefully delineated ships' details. He was born in Cumberland, Maryland, traveled extensively, and served a two-year apprenticeship in his father's New York civil engineering office. Renouncing an engineering career, in 1872 Davidson became a student of Mauritz F. H. DeHaas. By 1874 he had taken a studio of his own at 788 Broadway. Davidson exhibited frequently at the National Academy of Design from 1877 until the end of his life and provided many marine subjects for periodicals including Harper's, the Aldine, and Century. Responding to the ascendancy of steamships as the age of sail waned, Davidson captured the power and seeming invincibility of these mammoth new vessels.⁵ In his rendering of the Emma Abbott, the sheer size of both canvas and ship seems to suggest the bounteous nature of nineteenth-century munificence to the "deserving poor." No record has been located regarding the circumstances of his commission to paint this ship's portrait.⁶ Notes: 1 Richard B. Birrer, M.D., M.P.H., "Ship of Health: N.Y.'s Floating Hospital," Medical Times (May 1985): n.p. 2 Quoted in ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 According to "The Floating Hospital of St. John's Guild," Harper's Weekly (September 12, 1874), the summer work began that year. However, in The Origin of the Floating Hospital of St. John's Guild: The Retelling of a Story in Historical, Medical Perspective, Louis Joseph Tesoro gives 1873 as the date. 5 Lynn S. Beman, Julian O. Davidson, 1853 -1894: American Marine Artist (New City, N.Y.: Historical Society of Rockland County, 1986), p. 23. 6 Research has failed to discover whether the commission to paint the Emma Abbott was given by the guild itself or privately by another interested party. The title of the painting was assigned by the Museum in the absence of any known title assigned by the artist.