The New Jersey Historical Society

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What's in Our Museum Collections?

Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture
More than 240 portraits represent notable figures of New Jersey’s past, many depicted by famous artists. These include Aaron Burr attributed to artist Gilbert Stuart and Theodore Frelinghuysen (Henry Clay’s vice-presidential candidate in 1844) by Rembrandt Peale. Additional portraits include other works by Peale, portraits by Asher B. Durand (founder of the Hudson River School) and Oliver Tarbell Eddy (a Newark portraitist whose works are also at the Metropolitan Museum of Art). Forty miniatures and 30 pastel portraits include works attributed to folk portraitist Micah Williams and 15 pencil drawings by John Watson, an artist active in New Jersey in the early 18th century. Other works depict New Jersey’s changing landscape – rural and urban scenes featuring the Passaic Falls, Point Breeze, Watsessing Park, and steamboats on rivers. Over 360 watercolors by Anna Lindner offer a glimpse into home and family life in Bayonne and Bloomfield from 1892 to 1908. Original works by artist-illustrator A.B. Frost include illustrations for Br’er Rabbit. The Society’s sculpture collection includes busts of Civil War general Philip Kearny (1872), women’s rights champion Susan B. Anthony (1862), and Dr. James Henry Clark, one-time president of the Academy of Medicine of New Jersey and resident of Newark.

"Christmas 1900" by Anna Lindner, 1900.

"Sarah Rebecca Canfield Alling," attributed to Oliver Tarbell Eddy, about 1840.

"Christmas 1900" by Anna Lindner, 1900.
Watercolor.
Gift of Mrs. Axel Westerdahl.1974.59.19

Anna Lindner lacked formal artistic training but exhibited an inherent flair for color and talent for exquisite detailing. She lived her adult life with her brother and his family in Bayonne and then Bloomfield, New Jersey. She recorded in watercolor many of the Linder family Christmases, including this one of the festively decked alcove in their Bayonne home.

"Sarah Rebecca Canfield Alling," attributed to Oliver Tarbell Eddy, about 1840.
Oil on panel.
Gift of Nancy Child Bucher. 1965.42

A Vermont native, the portrait artist Oliver Tarbell Eddy resided in Elizabeth and then Newark, New Jersey, in the 1830s and 1840s. While in Newark, he painted members of many of Newark's prominent families, including Mrs. Albert (Sarah) Alling.

"Passaic Falls, Autumn" by Thomas W. Whitley, about 1839.

"Boy with rabbit" by Margery Austen Ryerson, about 1960

"Passaic Falls, Autumn" by Thomas W. Whitley, about 1839.
Oil on panel.
Gift of Dr. W.B. Graves. 1923.4

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, before Niagara Falls became more accessible, the Great Falls of the Passaic at Paterson, New Jersey, were considered one of America's premiere natural wonders and attracted travelers from throughout America and Europe.

"Boy with rabbit" by Margery Austen Ryerson, about 1960
Oil on canvas.
Museum purchase. 1970.9

Bernard Murray was only five when portrait artist Margery Ryerson painted him holding a little rabbit. Ryerson specialized in paintings, etchings, and lithographs of small children.

What else is in our collections?