Mrs. Collins

I've been studying the life and works of a man who lived in the middle half of the seventeenth century. He was sufficiently well known to have been written up by a succession of biographers, but their sources of information are paltry and all their accounts are necessarily brief. This late example can stand for all: Collins, John (1625-1683) by Agnes Mary Clerke in the Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 11.

Collins rarely wrote about himself and his family. This paragraph in the draft of a lengthy letter on mathematical topics is one of only a few brief accounts.

{Extract from a letter of John Collins to Dr. John Beale, August 20, 1672. Beale was one of the earliest fellows elected to the Royal Society in the early 1660s. Transcription: "I married the younger daughter of two only children of Mr. Wm. Austin, who, being one of his Majesty's cooks, when P. of Wales, was, by Dr. Wilkins' means, made and continued master cook of Wadham college in Oxford, during the late troubles, and is now master cook, to his Majesty, of the Lord s k[itchen]. I live at my said father-in-law's house in Petty [France], W[estminster], over against the Adam and Eve. He is now in Cheshire with his other daughter, and may return, if God please, a little after Michaelmas. Whilst in Oxford he was much esteemed for his great skill in simpling, gardening, planting trees, flowers, &c. which I mention, as understanding your good knowledge and delight therein."}

He fathered seven children, about whom nothing is known. He numbered them only once, in a letter dated May 23, 1677, to a parish priest whose skill in mathematics he admired. Five years later he said that even in 1672 he had "a great family to maintain," meaning wife and children.[1]

This latter statement was a report of a request he made that the government pay him arrears in salary and pension that were owed. Here's the relevant section in the clerk's "secretary" hand.

{Source: Manuscripts of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu at Beaulieu House. Transcription: "In June 1670 Collins was employed as chief Clerke in the Councill of Plantations under Mr Slingesby as Secretary, who promised to procure the said Collins a Salary of 200£ per annum, but a Committee of the Councill would agree to allow no more than 150£, and was so ill paid that at Michaelmas 1672 there was about 300£ due to him, he having a great family to maintain, was necessitated to coame that and seeke other employments for obtaining a livelyhood, and happy it was he then lost it, in regard others so employed, have been so ill paid, and Collins hath yet owing to him on that account 150£. Moreover whilst Collins was there employed he kept most of the Bookes, which are many, his hand Writing being better liked that others."}

We don't know the date of his wedding, but if Collins had a great family to maintain in 1672 he must have been married some years before then. He can't have married while serving on shipboard in the Mediterranean (1642-49) so it's reasonable to suppose the event took place in the 1650s. Still, I think the early 1660s are a better guess.

We know for sure that the event took place before April 23, 1663, because on that date a mathematical practitioner wrote to Collins and in closing he sent his "respects to yourself and Mrs. Collins." I think it would have taken place after the summer of 1660. That was when her father was appointed a chief cook to the King. That job brought him and his family to London from Oxford and Collins was then in London and had been for some time.

Regardless of their wedding date, we can be sure that Collins and his wife were happily married because the correspondent goes on to style her as his "second self." The phrase suggests that the author, Michael Dary, perceived an unusually close relationship between man and wife. It was used by others in Collins' time (and later) but as between friends not marriage partners. You can see this in the examples given in the Oxford English Dictionary. And you guess how infrequently such closeness was apparent between man and wife in reading the forceful admonition of William Penn, speaking out against the usual practices of his time: "But in Marriage do thou be wise; prefer the Person before Money, Vertue before Beauty, the Mind before the Body: Then thou hast a Wife, a Friend, a Companion, a Second Self; one that bears an equal Share with thee in all thy Toyls and Troubles."[2]

At the time Collins married, both he and his fiancée were modestly well off, "middling" in the terminology of the time. Afterwards his personal finances advanced and declined in a pattern similar to the fluctuations of the finances of the royal court and, at the time of his death in 1683, he was owed quite a bit in suspended pension and other deferred government payments.[3]

His wife's name was Bellona. As he says in the letter quoted above, she was the younger of two daughters, born into a small family that was headed by a master chef, William Austin. During her youth William Austin was, first, the chief cook in the kitchen of the Prince of Wales — Charles, eldest son of king Charles I — and then, during the years of the Civil War and Commonwealth, chief cook in the kitchen at Oxford's Wadham College.[4] When Charles became King Charles II, Austin was appointed his chief cook of the "household" kitchen. The household kitchen was "below stairs" and it fed not the King and those who dined at his table, but rather all others who ate at the king's expense: staff, courtiers, hangers-on, and even members of the House of Lords when they gathered in Parliament.[5]

By the time of her father's appointment to serve the king Bellona was probably of an age at which she have been expected to seek a husband and start a family. We don't know when she met John Collins. It's likely they encountered one another in the late 1630s, during her father's service to the Prince of Wales. Then in his teens, Collins was employed as a "servant's servant" to help John Marr, who was clerk in the kitchen where Bellona's father was master cook. If not Bellona herself, Collins certainly was acquainted with William Austin at that time. Whether or not they met when young, they're likely, as I say, to have bonded sometime after August 1660 when Austin returned from Oxford to London on his appointment as head of the new King's household kitchen.[6]

Not long after the time I suppose the two to have begun courting, Bellona sought and received appointment as a laundress for the intended wife of King Charles. The treaty of marriage was signed June 23, 1661, but the royal wedding did not take place (in three ceremonies) until the following spring. Bellona received her appointment in between, on November 14, 1661. It was no menial position. She was "laundress of the board" and her job was both to supervise and to some degree carry out the cleaning and pressing of the queen's table linen. There were two other laundresses of the board: one of the king's "privy" table and another of the household. The three had help from at least four pages, probably more, as well as a yeoman and a couple of grooms. Since meals consumed at the queen's table were smaller than at the household table and both smaller and less elaborate than at the king's table, Bellona would have needed less of this help than the other two.[7]

Not surprisingly, the salary of the laundress of the queen's board was a few pounds lower than that of the two others. It does not seem like very much money at all — £18 5s a year — but it was supplemented by "board wages," or money paid out in lieu of room and board and these board wages may have enhanced her income quite a bit. The amount of her board wages isn't recorded, but when in 1685 the board wages of the laundress to the household table were stopped, her salary was increased to £120. If Bellona's total income from her job was even approaching £100 a year she was doing quite well by standards of the time. In fact she would be doing very well whether she was then a single woman living at home or a newly married one setting up her own household.[8]

Competition for the position was intense. After Charles was crowned he and his court officers were inundated with requests from people who had suffered by their adherence to the royal cause during the Civil War and Commonwealth period. This extract from the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, for May 1662, shows three formal requests for the job.[9]


The three were occasioned by the wedding of Charles and Catherine in Lisbon by proxy in April 1662. The petitioners evidently did not know (or did not care) that Bellona had received her appointment half a year before. The record of her appointment is laconic.[10]


As a child of the royal household Bellona would have grown up with many of the people with whom she now served. However she would not have been personally known to any of the high officers of the court, and their reference to her as "Mary, jun." shows that they did not know her given name (presumably in their ignorance they used her mother's name — hence the "jun.").

Although most single women were in the workforce, few had jobs as well paying as Bellona's. No matter how much her family connection may have helped her, she herself must have both vigorously pursued the job and shown herself worthy of holding it.[11]

We don't know what Bellona looked like, but this Dutch painting probably gives a reasonably good idea of her clothing and the work she performed.

{Washerwoman by Gabriel Metsu, ca. 1660s; source: wikipedia (National Museum, Warsaw)}

In Bellona's time one laundered table linen by boiling and washing with soap. The laundresses used lye to remove stains and sunlight or bluing to whiten. They hung or spread linens to dry and then used either "smoothers" or heated irons to flatten the fabric and give it a pleasant sheen. Once smoothed, the linens would be placed in a press such as the one shown below. The press would impart attractive folds.

{This press is in collections of the Wawel Royal Castle, Cracow.}

Not an ordinary meal, this shows the coronation banquet for James II, the successor of Charles II. You can see the folds in the linen at table ends.

{source: The history of the coronation of James II and of his royal consort Queen Mary: solemnized in the Collegiate church of St. Peter in the city of Westminster, on Thursday the 23 of April 1685 by Francis Sandford (London: In the Savoy: printed by T. Newcomb, 1687)}

This enlarged detail shows the folds more plainly.


Here are, at left, a glass English linen smoother and, at right, a detail from a medieval painting showing linen folds in a more ordinary meal at the king's table.[12]

{The right hand image is a detail from a medieval painting (Histoire d'Olivier de Castille et d'Artus d'Algarbe, Paris, BnF). I couldn't find an example from Bellona's time. Source of both images: oldandinteresting.com}

These two images also give a general idea of Bellona's appearance. The first shows an English housewife in the time of Bellona's childhood and the second shows a Dutch servant of the time when she'd become an adult. She may have looked something like the first when she dressed at her best and something like the second when at work.

{On the left: Drawing of an Englishwoman by Wenceslaus Hollar, circa 1645; source: English Costume Painted & Described by Dion Clayton Calthrop (Adam & Charles, London, 1907). On the right: Detail from A Woman Reading a Letter by Gabriel Metsu, ca. 1662 (Dutch); source: Nicole Kipar's Late 17th Century Clothing History}

Of the clothes worn by working women in the reign of Charles II, one source says: "The poorer classes were not, of course, dressed in hooped skirts, but the bodice and gown over the petticoat, the apron, and the turned back cuff to the short sleeve were worn by all. The orange wench laced her gown neatly, and wore a white cloth tied over her head; about her shoulders she wore a kerchief of white, and often a plain frill of linen at her elbows."

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Some sources:

An introduction to merchants accounts : containing five distinct questions or accounts by John Collins (London, Printed by James Flesher for Nicholas Bourn, 1653, 2d ed 1664)

Report on the manuscripts of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (Printed for H. M. Stationary off., by Mackie & co. ld., 1900) and the MSS original from Beaulieu

The Personal Rule of Charles I by Kevin Sharpe (Yale University Press, 1996)

The Later Stuart Royal Household 1660–1714 in 'Chronological Survey 1660-1837: The Later Stuart Household, 1660-1714', Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 11 (revised): Court Officers, 1660-1837 (2006), pp. LXXVI-XCVIII. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43757 Date accessed: 09 December 2011

'Introduction: Administrative structure and work', Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 11 (revised): Court Officers, 1660-1837 (2006), pp. XX-XXXVII. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43751 Date accessed: 09 December 2011.

The King's Servants: the Civil Service of Charles I, 1625–1642, by G.E. Aylmer (London, 1961)

The Database of Court Officers 1660-1837 R. O. Bucholz, Project Director. The Database of Court Officers is an online computer database providing the career histories of every remunerated officer and servant of the English royal household from the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 to the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837.

Calendar of state papers / Domestic series / Reign of Charles II, 1661-1662 ed. by Mary Anne Everett Green (Longman, Green, Longman, & Roberts, 1861)

Some fruits of solitude by William Penn (London, Printed for Thomas Northcott, 1693, reprinted: S. T. Freemantle, 1900)

The Life and Times of John Wilkins Warden of Wadham College, Oxford; Master of Trinity College, Cambridge; and Bishop of Chester by P. A. Wright Henderson (William Blackwood and Sons
Edinburgh and London, 1910)

Calendar of State Papers, domestic series, of the reign of Charles II 1660-1685 (Longman, Green, Longman, & Roberts, 1861)

Calendar of state papers, domestic series, of the reign of Charles II: preserved in the state paper department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office, Volume 1 (Longman, Green, Longman & Roberts, 1860)

Correspondence of scientific men of the seventeenth century: including letters of Barrow, Flamsteed, Wallis, and Newton, printed from the originals in the collection of the Right Honourable the Earl of Macclesfield, Vol. 1, compiled by Stephen Jordan Rigaud (Oxford, the University Press, 1841)

Correspondence of scientific men of the seventeenth century, including letters of Barrow [&c.] in the collection of the earl of Macclesfield, Vol. 2, compiled by Stephen Jordan Rigaud (Oxford, the University Press, 1841)

Some fruits of solitude by William Penn (London, Printed for Thomas Northcott, 1693, reprinted: S. T. Freemantle, 1900)

English Costume Painted & Described by Dion Clayton Calthrop (Adam & Charles, London, 1907)

History of laundry on oldandinteresting.com

Prospects and preliminary work on female occupational structure in England from
1500 to the national census by Jacob Field and Amy Erickson (University of Cambridge). Extract: "The assessments for the 1666 Hearth Tax for the City of London, abstracted by Jacob Field for his doctoral thesis on the Great Fire, illustrates this approach but also show its difficulties. This listing was drawn up by a number of different assessors, not all of whom recorded occupations. The total sample of householders was 11,195, 1,661 of whom were female. Around ten per cent of females had their occupation recorded, representing 177 individuals, compared to around 20 per cent of males, representing 1,888 individuals. As table 1 shows, the data is slightly skewed towards the upper end of the socio-economic spectrum – particularly vastly underestimating the proportion of females engaged in service." (See table p.6)

Identifying women's occupations in early modern London by Amy Erickson. Abstract: "This paper is a preliminary survey of three sources for women's occupations in eighteenth-century London: apprenticeships in the city livery companies; the registers of Christ's Hospital showing apprenticeships; and the records of testimony in the Old Bailey. There is currently only one article in print on the female occupational geography of London in this period (P. Earle, 1989), based on testimony in church court records. In the sources examined here, women worked largely in public, trading and production occupations. This profile is substantially different from the preponderance of domestic service and making/mending textiles which appears in the church court records."

"Never Married: Singlewomen in Early Modern England Never Married: Singlewomen in Early Modern England by Amy M Froide; review by: Retha M Warnicke" Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 2 (Summer 2006), pp. 622-623 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Renaissance Society of America; Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1353/ren.2008.0342
Froide says that about a third of English women were single during the middle years of the seventeenth century. Many stayed unmarried, but most eventually, like Bellona Austin, did marry. Social norms made it difficult for them to support themselves, but many did nonetheless. Excerpt: "singlewomen, like all women at this time, were considered physically and emotionally inferior to men in a patriarchal society that disadvantaged them in comparison to men of their class or status, especially in regard to wealth, earning power and access to high status public office."

"Singlewomen in the European past, 1250-1800 by Judith Bennett; Amy Froide; review by June Purvis" The English Historical Review, Vol. 115, No. 461 (Apr., 2000), pp. 443-444Published by: Oxford University Press; Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/579115

"Hilda L. Smith. All Men and Both Sexes: Gender, Politics, and the False Universal in England, 1640-1832, review by: Deborah Valenze" The American Historical Review, Vol. 109, No. 1 (February 2004), pp. 251-252 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the American Historical Association; Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/530280

Catherine of Braganza (Queen) in the Diary of Samuel Pepys

Catherine of Braganza

Catherine of Braganca (1638 - 1705) on h2g2 by Not Panicking Ltd

Catherine of Braganza, in Wikipedia

Queen Catherine of Braganza Website of the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment

C17th England: Catherine of Braganza on themakeupgallery

Portrait of Catherine of Braganza by Mary Ellyn Kunz on the web site of Pennsbury Manor Volunteers

Catherine of Braganza on Tea at Trianon by Elena Maria Vidal.

Catherine of Braganza (1638-1705) by Heidi Murphy on Britannia.com

Catherine of Braganza by Thomas Frederick Tout in the Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 09
Catherine of Braganza

Early modern England 1485-1714 by R. O. Bucholz and Newton Key (John Wiley and Sons, 2009)

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Notes:

[1] The priest was Thomas Baker who held the living at Bishop's Nympton, Devon, and, as an avocation of course, was an excellent mathematician. On May 23 1677 Collins wrote him this. "I have yours of the 23d of April, and have been dilatory in answering. The truth of it is, it hath been my misfortune to be concerned in public employments, as in the Council of Plantations, &c., wherein I have not been paid, and have great arrears due to me, for want whereof I am almost ruined; and having a numerous family to maintain, to wit, a wife, and seven small children, I am forced to undertake such occasional business as offers, and by consequence to neglect a correspondence with the learned, which, though unworthy, I much covet. Sir Jonas Moore being a surveyor of the Stores and Ordnance, and now naval preparations going on, he is much in journeys and absent, so that I can give you no account as yet of your labours going to the press, though I much wish I could, and shall omit no endeavours to hasten." -- Correspondence of scientific men of the seventeenth century: including letters of Barrow, Flamsteed, Wallis, and Newton, printed from the originals in the collection of the right honourable the Earl of Macclesfield : In two volumes, Volume 2 compiled by Stephen Jordan Rigaud (Oxford, at the University Press, 1841)

[2] Christoph J. Scriba's article on Collins in the DNB says "About 1670 he married Bellona, laundress of the table linen to the queen, and the younger daughter of William Austen, head cook to Charles II; they had seven children." It's strange he gets the wedding date wrong, though all else right. Regarding second self, here is what the OED says:

second self n. a friend who agrees absolutely with one's tastes and opinions, or for whose welfare one cares as much as for one's own.
1586 T. Bowes tr. P. de la Primaudaye French Acad. I. 150 The mightie and inuiolable bond of friendship, as of a second-selfe did constraine him to lend his eare to his friend.
1665 R. Brathwait Comment Two Tales Chaucer (1901) 93, I will offer to your choice two things, wherein please your self, and you shall please me who am your second self.
1778 F. Burney Evelina I. xxvi. 215 As to Miss Mirvan, she is my second self, and neither hopes nor fears but as I do.
1851 E. Bulwer-Lytton Not so Bad i. i. 6 Ha, Softhead! my Pylades—my second self!
transf.
1609 Shakespeare Sonnets lxxiii. sig. E4, Blacke night..Deaths second selfe that seals vp all in rest.

Penn's admonition comes from Some fruits of solitude by William Penn (London, Printed for Thomas Northcott, 1693, reprinted: S. T. Freemantle, 1900). Here is the closing sentence of the letter to Collins by his mathematical practitioner friend, in full:

Not to trouble you further, but my respects to yourself and Mrs. Collins, your second self, I shall only tell you, that if there be any thing wherein I may serve you at Bristol, it shall be endeavoured by

Your engaged friend, Mich. Dary

Bristol, the 23rd
April, 1663.
-- Correspondence of scientific men of the seventeenth century compiled by Correspondence of scientific men of the seventeenth century (Oxford, the University Press, 1841)

[3] Regarding his status as someone "middling" Collins wrote of himself that he was "but a mean person," mean and middling connoting the same standard of living. Regarding money owed him, he was not alone in being stiffed by the government. The court always paid out more than it took in, but periodically the imbalance became so great that economies were necessary and it was these bouts of financial retrenchment that made government employment perilous. Collins did eventually receive some payments that the government owed him but not nearly what was owed. The phrase "but a mean person" appears in: "Narrative of John Collins, 1682," Report on the manuscripts of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (Printed for H. M. Stationary off., by Mackie & co. ld., 1900)

[4] William Austin's association with John Wilkins is an interesting one. I suspect they were linked by friendship with John Marr. Wilkins was a scholar at Oxford. Marr was clerk, that is accountant and purchasing officer, in the same royal kitchen where Austin was chief chef. Wilkins and Marr were both eminent mathematicians and, when the royal court was in Oxford they very likely formed an acquaintance. When the position of chef at Wadham College became vacant, it's reasonable to suppose Marr proposed that Wilkens, then head of Wadham, hire the man for the job. It's interesting that Marr had employed Collins as "servant's servant," in this case clerk's assistant, because, though still in his teens, Collins may have met both Bellona Austin as well as John Wilkins at this time. He later wrote: "In my Youth-hood I was employed in Clerk-ship under, and received some Mathematical Knowledge from Mr. John Marr, one of the Clerks of the Kitchin to His Present MAJESTY, when Prince of Wales, the said Mr. Marr being very Eminent for his Mathematical Knowledge, some testimony whereof' may be evinced, from those excellent Dyals, wherewith the Gardens of our Late SOVEREIGN were adorned." -- An introduction to merchants accounts: containing five distinct questions or accounts by John Collins (London, Printed by James Flesher for Nicholas Bourn, 1653, 2d ed 1664)

[5] 'The household below stairs: Household Kitchen', Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 11 (revised): Court Officers, 1660-1837 (2006), pp. 502-509. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43871 Date accessed: 25 November 2011.

[6] Here's a record of William Austin's appointment as master cook to King Charles II. The date of appointment is only a few weeks after Charles' return from exile.

{source: The Database of Court Officers 1660-1837 R. O. Bucholz, Project Director, an online computer database providing the career histories of every remunerated officer and servant of the English royal household from the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 to the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837}

This table gives some idea of the extent and varied functions of the ca. 300 staff members "below stairs":

{source: The King's Servants: the Civil Service of Charles I, 1625–1642, by G.E. Aylmer (London, 1961)}

[7] See my list of sources for information about Catherine of Braganza, the royal laundry, and related topics. Bucholz provides a succinct description of the laundry's functions: The Database of Court Officers 1660-1837 R. O. Bucholz, Project Director, an online computer database providing the career histories of every remunerated officer and servant of the English royal household from the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 to the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837

[8] See the Bucholz database for amounts paid laundry staff members.

[9] Calendar of state papers, domestic series, of the reign of Charles II: preserved in the state paper department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office, Volume 1 (Longman, Green, Longman & Roberts, 1860)

[10] Calendar of state papers, domestic series, of the reign of Charles II: preserved in the state paper department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office, Volume 1 (Longman, Green, Longman & Roberts, 1860)

[11] On single women in the workforce, see entries for Amy Ericson and Amy Froide in the sources list.

[12] Here is this interesting painting in full.

The BnF's caption reads: "Festin d'apparat. Histoire d'Olivier de Castille et d'Artus d'Algarbe, Paris, BnF, Département des manuscrits, Français 12574 fol. 181v. La table d'honneur est isolée sous un dais, tandis que le gros des convives se répartit le long d'une table, dont ils n'occupent qu'un côté. Le ballet des serviteurs est mené par le maître d'hôtel, tandis qu'au buffet et près du prince veillent d'autres officiers de bouche, prêts à répondre à ses moindres désirs. Des musicicens égayent le repas."

Sidonie Dittmarsch and family

A distant relative of mine who's collaborated with me in sorting out some difficult genealogical questions recently came up with a nice find. My small stash of old family letters includes a condolence from a grandmother, four generations back, to a woman named Sidonie.[1] The distant relative, Alexandra Shand, discovered that the recipient of the condolence was Sidonie Dittmarsch, mother-in-law of my great-uncle, Adolph Windmuller.

Adolph's wife was, in Alexandra's words, "the fascinating Caroline (Lilly) Thurn Hague Windmuller." Caroline had a sister, Clara, and a brother, Theodore. Her parents were Sidonie Dittmarsch Thurn and Leopold Thurn.

New York's newspapers of the second half of the 19th century show a "Prof. Leopold Thurn" as teacher of drawing and painting on one occasion and of German on quite a few others.[2] They also show a Leopold Thurn making trans-Atlantic voyages, but whether this Leopold was Caroline's father I cannot say. The 1880 Census gives more satisfying information. It records Leopold Thurn as head of a household containing "Lidonis" his wife, his three children, and a servant. The occupation of both husband and wife is given as "Childrens Furnishing Goods."[3] By 1901 Leopold may have died, for in that year Sidonie is recorded as hosting the reception for Caroline's wedding to my great-uncle at her (Sidonie's) townhouse at 30 W. 36th St.[4] A year later Sidonie is recorded as leasing her townhouse to a tenant — none other than the famous Finley Peter Dunne.[5]

{New York Times, November 27, 1902}

I know nothing about Leopold Thurn's origins. Sidonie's father, Albert Ludwig Dittmarsch, was a merchant in Dresden, Germany. Her mother, Emilie Karoline Ranft, was the daughter of a Protestant pastor. Her brother, Emil Dittmarsch, was a the Philadelphia manager of a Milwaukee malt company.

Sidonie was 23 years old when she applied for permission to leave Dresden for the U.S. A quarter of a century later her name appears in diary of the piano manufacturer, William Steinway. He says he's had a New Year's call from her husband whom he refers to as "Mr. Thurn, husband of Sidonie Dittmarsch."[6] This phrasing suggests what I've suspected: that Sidonie had a somewhat larger impact on those around her than did Leopold.

By the time of Sidonie's death, in 1919, Caroline had become a successful and respected designer, maker, and seller of wedding gowns and other expensive women's clothing. The death notice says Sidonie was at a summer resort on the northern shore of the Long Island when her life came to an end.

{New York Herald, July 11, 1919}

In 1915 the Times had reported that Caroline had rented a summer place in the same location. There's no certainty that Caroline was in the same summer rental four years later, but it's entirely possible.
She rented this mansion or, possibly, another building on the estate.[7]

{Caption: Firwood, a Darien waterfront estate has 325 feet on L.I. Sound, a swimming pool, gardens and 4.84 acres in a one-acre zone. The estate remained in one family for 129 years. Inside Firwood, first built in 1860, and rebuilt and expanded 30 years later, are 14 bedrooms, nine baths and 13 elaborate antique fireplaces. Three living levels, with both walk-up attic and basement, the house features turrets, multiple chimneys and spectacular views. Source: Stamford Advocate, copied under fair use provisions of copyright law.}

Sidonie may or may not have put her husband in the shade; Caroline definitely put Adolph there. She had great talent, business acumen, and entrepreneurial ability while he was content to dally in finance and to drive about in her yellow Rolls Royce and other chauffeured vehicles.

After their marriage, he moved in with her (rather than their seeking a new home together or her moving into his place). A newspaper account some years after the wedding shows him to be living in 52 East 66th Street, a town house that her mother owned.[8] Here, via Google Street View, is what the building looks like today. Note that the lower part of No. 52 is obscured by a tree. (There's a view of the entryway here.)

View Larger Map
Caroline's sister, Clara, was married twice, first to a man named Patterson, then to George Anson Wilson.[9] Caroline likewise first married Ernest Hague, with whom she had two sons, and then married my great-uncle. I don't know whether, on re-marrying, either or both were widows or divorcées.

It's an oddity that men whose middle or last name is "de forest" recur in records and news accounts connected with Sidonie, Caroline, and the Windmullers. The 1880 Census records that Dewin Deforest, a 47-year-old salesman of dry goods, lived in the same building as the Thurns.[10] When Caroline and Adolph married in 1901, his best man was William De Forest Bostwick.[11] In 1903 the townhouse where Sidonie lived, 30 W. 36th Street, was leased first to Mrs. Nathaniel De Forest and then to Othniel De Forest.[12] Robert W. De Forest served with Louis Windmuller on civic committees and both were trustees of the Title Guarantee and Trust Co. (which Louis had helped to found).[13] Henry de Forest Baldwin served with Louis Windmuller as an officer of the Reform Club and he was one of the speakers at a ceremonial tribute to Windmuller given in the last year of his life.[14]

Finally, I should note that I have written before about my fascinating great-aunt:

• at Madame's
• the shame of Madame Thurn
• Caroline Hague

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Some sources:

I am indebted to communications from two descendants of my great-aunt Caroline as well as from Alexandra Shand for information contained in this blog post. See the sections on the Thurn-Dittmarsch family in my Windmuller genealogy for more on this subject.

Family Tree of Alexander R. Grässer and Birgit C. Karg for the Dittmarsch genealogy

Frauenwiki Dresden for Sidonie's travel to the U.S.

The William Steinway Diary, American History Museum, Smithsonian Institution

The Wine and spirit bulletin 1903, for Emil Dittmarsch

Long Neck Point, by Maggie Gordon for the Darien News, Feb. 1, 2010; about Collender's Point; points out that Andrew Carnegie spent summer vacations at the Brick House at roughly the same time Carolyn Hague was there.

John Alexander Joyce "John Alexander Joyce (1842-1915) Kentucky, Washington D.C., Missouri, Joyce, John Alexander, soldier, lawyer, poet, and biographer, b. Ireland, 1842; d. Washington, D.C. Jan. 1915."

Crimmins estate boasts vast waterfront

Firwood on the Sound Historical house on the market for $16.75 million on the Crimmins estate

Room for a Baker’s Dozen on the Crimmins estate

52 East 66th Street · Upper Eastside, NYC

Weddings of a Day, Dunne-Abbott, New York Times, December 10, 1902
--------------

Notes:

[1] Here's the text of the condolence.

New York, January 16, 1865

My Sidonie

Please receive this my first letter to you and I intend to continue my correspondence from time to time if you are pleased to answer my letters. If I did not write to you I have only my excuse to offer except a hesitation to be the first to communicate.

Your last letter caused us sorrow for the death of your good Father when I looked at his picture so fine looking and healthy -- I thought he might live many years. your loss is great and only you as a loving daughter can know this and never let me tell you will you find his place filled. I know all this I have like yourself neither father nor mother and speaking for self concerning words from our parents to us when present ... will come to us when our loved ones are gone: you must try and sustain yourself for your family and I know you have a kind and loving husband, children Brother and Sister [to] take care of your health. I will expect a letter from you in due time My love joined with my daughters Joan and Hannah to your husband, yourself and children and all your family. I am with love and wishing all happiness, your

- Abby Lennington

[2] On "Prof. Leopold Thurn" see for example a display ad for the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of September 20, 1865.

[3] "Furnishing goods" included shirts, socks, underwear, belts, scarfs, collars, and the like. One ad listed: "Boys' and Children's Furnishing Goods: Shirts, Waists, Blouses, Underwaists, Hose Supporters, Neckwear, Collars; all carefully selected and a profusion of styles and qualities that will make easy choosing." -- Muncie Morning News, April 14, 1900.

Here are the census records for Leopold and Sidonie:

Leopold THURN on familysearch.org
Census Place New York, New York (Manhattan), New York City-Greater, New York
1880
Birth Year <1822>
Birthplace GER. BRANDENBURG
Age 58
Occupation Childrens Furnishing Goods
Marital Status M
Race W
Head of Household Leopold THURN
Relation Self
Father's Birthplace GER BRAN.
Mother's Birthplace GER. BRAN.

Lidonis THURN
Census Place New York, New York (Manhattan), New York City-Greater, New York
1880
Birth Year <1833>
Birthplace SAXONY
Age 47
Occupation Children Furnishing Goods
Marital Status M
Race W
Head of Household Leopold THURN
Relation Wife
Father's Birthplace SAXONY
Mother's Birthplace SAXONY

[4] Here is what a New York Times reporter had to say about the Windmuller-Hague wedding.

{New York Times, June 6, 1901}

[5] Finley Peter Dunne was famous for his character Mr. Dooley. Dunne's work is funny and quotable: "A fanatic is a man that does what he thinks the Lord would do if He knew the facts of the case." He was a Chicagoan but in 1890 he "moved to New York City, where he married Mary Abbott's daughter Margaret Abbott, had four children and continued to write books and articles. He died in 1936 in New York at age 68 of cancer." -- Finley Peter Dunne

[6] The entry reads: "New York, Jan'y 1st 1881. Saturday. Remain home all day, have quite a number of New Year Cards, and also calls among them Mr. Thurn, husband of Sidonie Dittmarsch of Dresden. Fred Steins and Carl Prox of Brooklyn take supper with us Measure children, Georges height 5 feet 6 inches his weight 127#. Paulas height 5 feet 4¼ inches her weight 110#. I weigh #191, and wife 160#."

[7] The place was on Collender's Point, in Noroton, Darien, Connecticut. It's possible that Caroline leased a smaller house on the property of the estate, but the report in the Times does not make that seem to be so: "Fish & Marvin have leased furnished for the Summer the Colonial House and three acres owned by John D. Crimins at Collender's Point, Noroton, to Mrs. A.C. Windmuller of this city." -- New York Times, March 18, 1915. For more information on the Crimmins place, see Excerpts from John D. Crimmins' Diary.
I like this view of the sound from the side porch.

{Source: Stamford Advocate, reproduced under fair use provisions of copyright}

[8] When Caroline was married to Afred Hague she had also lived in her mother's Upper East Side townhouse. See note 4 for mention of Sidonie's home at 52 E. 66th. Some details about the property are given in a NYT real estate offering: 52 EAST 66TH STREET. Here's the relevant part of a report on the mental condition of Adolph's father, my great-grandfather, Louis Windmuller.

{New York Times, September 24, 1913}

[9] Caroline's sister marries for second time
NYT 20 Oct 1909

[10] Here's the record:

Name: Derwin Deforest
Home in 1880: New York City, New York, New York
Age: 35
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1845
Birthplace: Vermont
Father's birthplace: Vermont
Mother's birthplace: Vermont
Neighbors: View others on page
Occupation: Salesman Dry Goods
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Gender: Male

It's surely irrelevant, but a popular poet of the time, Col. John A. Joyce, dedicated a poem to Derwin Deforest:

Jewels of memory. By Col. John A. Joyce (Washington, D.C., Gibson brothers, 1895) "The Voice of the Clock (Dedicated to Derwin De Forest, of New York.)

TICK, tick, the moments fly,
Tick, tick, we live and die.
Tick, tick, goes the hour,
Tick, tick, fades the flower.

Tick, tick, heart beats go,
Tick, tick, weal or woe.
Tick, tick, soon are fled,
Tick, tick, lost and dead.

Tick, tick, days and years,
Tick, tick, smiles and tears.
Tick, tick, wind and wave,
Tick, tick, grief, the grave.

[11] See note 4, above.

[12] Mrs. De Forest leases 30 W. 36th Street:

{New York Times, October 29, 1903}

[13] TITLE GUARANTEE AND TRUST CO., 176 Broadway, New York. Trustees: John Jacob Astor, Frank Bailey, E. T. Bedford, Charles S. Brown, Julien T. Davies. Robert W. de Forest, Robert Godot, Martin Joost, A. D. Jullliard, Clarence H. Kelsey, Woodbury Langdon, James D. Lynch. It. II. Macdouald, James H. Manning, Edgar L. Marston. William J. Matheson, Charles Matlack, William A. Nash, William H. Nichols, Robert Olyphant, Charles A. Peabody, William H. Porter, Frederick Potter, Charles Richardson, Henry Itoth. James Speyer, Sauford H. Steele, Paul M. Warburg, Ellis D. Williams, Louis Windmuller. -- Directory of directors in the city of New York (Audit Co., 1911)

[14] HONOR LOUIS WINDMULLER; Members of the Reform Club Praise His Long Services.

17th Light Dragoons in Newtown, Queens

This post concerns a British regiment called the 17th Light Dragoons. The 17th Light Dragoons were a predecessor of the 17th Lancers, about which I wrote the other day. The post is also about Newtown, Queens, during the American Revolution. In the middle of the nineteenth century a small village called Woodside would emerge within Newtown and this village was the place where my great-grandfather build his family a home.

I've written previously about Newtown. The place was inhabited first by American Indians, then colonial Dutch, and, from the 1660s onward, by British subjects.[1] The Newtown freeholders tended their fertile lands with care and eventually became relatively prosperous farmers, providing for themselves and selling their surplus to the burgeoning metropolis across the East River. However, when, toward the end of the eighteenth century, colonial aspirations came into serious conflict with Parliamentary prerogatives, the men and women of Newtown found this prosperity to be in jeopardy. Along with other Americans across the Eastern Seaboard, they divided into two camps over the proper way to handle their grievances. One side, the tories, argued for conciliation and supplication. They saw continued pursuit of legal redress as the best response. For the most part, these families were among the more prosperous inhabitants. The other side believed that the moderate course recommended by tories had been tried over and over without success. These men, the whigs, argued for resistance and, if circumstances warranted, decisive action. In the middle years of the 1770s, the positions of the two opposing groups grew increasingly polarized.

When the whigs at last came to believe that British oppression had become unbearable, they formed governing councils in preparation for armed conflict. As these committees formed, the freeholders of Newtown, who were mostly whigs, were set in opposition to neighboring communities, all of which had loyalist majorities.

In December 1774 a committee appointed by Newtown's citizens declared themselves willing to fight to redress their grievances. They said actions of the British Parliament were "intended absolutely to deprive his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the inhabitants of the American colonies, of their most inestimable rights and privileges, by subjugating them to the British Parliament, and driving them to the dire necessity of submitting to have their property taken from them without their consent." And they resolved to oppose these "tyrannical and oppressive acts."[2]

Within months hostilities broke out. In the whole of New York the whigs outnumbered tories by a considerable margin and thus whigs of the New York militia, with help from the men of Newtown, were able to disarm the better-known men among the Queens tories.[3] The tide began to turn against the whigs when, in the summer of 1776, British troops from Boston began to assemble in preparation for the Battle of Long Island.

The 17th Light Dragoons figured in the early stages of this battle as they had at Bunker Hill. By one account, the colonial army might have been forced to submit rather than retreating, but an instance of General Howe's habitual passivity came to the Americans' rescue: "On the action on Long Island the 17th were to find themselves in an excellent position to trap the American army who were pinned with their backs to the river. Unfortunately, General Howe did not take advantage of the situation, and 12,000 Americans rowed to safety to Manhattan Island." -- American War of Independence

During the summer of 1776, after the British began to offload from their ships at Staten Island, members of the Newtown militia then were assigned to deprive their enemy of needed provisions by driving livestock as far away as they could.[3] The 17th Light Dragoons first shows up in Newtown history when a detachment that had been sent to disrupt the whig effort encountered members of Newtown's own light-horse militia. Here's one account of the conflict:

SEIZURE OF WHIGS

Newtown — Jona. Coe and Hezekiah Field, two lighthorse, with regimentals on, returned to White Pot, August 28 [1776]. They had been driving off stock. Early next morning, when starting to cross the Sound, they were seized by British light-horse from Jamaica. Lieut. Coe had thrown his epaulett in the bushes. They were carried to Flatbush jail, where Coe died of dysentery, having suffered much for want of food and necessary attendance. His body was refused his friends for burial.

Richard Bragaw, Robert Moore, George Brinckerhoff, Abm. Devine, and Ludlum Haire, had been with Woodhull, driving off stock. After they left him, they were surprised at Hinchman's tavern, Jamaica. A British light-horse rode up, when Moore came out and received a sabre cut, which nearly severed his two fingers. The other four were taken to the prison ship, where they were urged to enlist; but, by bribing a friend to government, were released. --Documents and letters intended to illustrate the revolutionary incidents of Queens county

Other whigs were not so fortunate. General Woodhull, named above, was the officer in charge of keeping provisions out of British hands. While directing this effort he was captured by members of the 17th Light Dragoons and mistreated. Some accounts say that the mistreatment came from the dragoons; others say it was a British infantry officer, accompanying the dragoons, who attacked the defenseless man with his sword and that a dragoon officer intervened to stop the outrage.[4]

Several men of Newtown were taken prisoner at this time. The History of Newtown goes on to say that, "Newtown was now open to the enemy, and many of the Whig families, alarmed at their defenseless condition, fled in the utmost confusion. Early the next morning the British light dragoons [i.e., the 17th] entered the town. The tories, in the excess of their triumph, informed against their Whig neighbors. The leading Whigs were imprisoned or sent into exile, and their property was seized by the enemy."[5]

Riker gives an incident of this time:

The light horse scoured the town, and while it was yet early, guided by one George Rapelye, a loyalist, came along the Poor Bowery, and halted at Jacobus Lent's (late Isaac Rapelye's,) to get some bread. Brandishing their naked swords, they declared that they were in pursuit of that d—d rebel, Doctor Riker. The doctor had spent the night in visiting different sections of the town, tearing down Howe's proclamations, that none might be misled, and induced, at this critical juncture, to remain and accept British protection, instead of hasting to the support of the American arms. The females at Mr. Lent's were terrified at the ferocious appearance of the light horse, and observing the haste and greediness with which they broke and ate the dry bread, Balche, a colored bondwoman, innocently inquired of her mistress whether they would not eat them. They dashed on towards Hellgate, but the doctor had escaped in a boat to Barn Island, and thus eluded these demons in human form.

Once they had occupied Queens, the British troops bivouacked in fields while officers and noncoms were quartered in private homes. Officers and noncoms of the 17th were assigned to Newtown. An article by Gus Dallas in the Richmond Hill Record says "Ten to 20 noncoms were assigned to a house. They were ordered to take over just one room in the house, and they shrewdly chose the kitchen, setting up hammocks in tiers. British officers were arrogant, and Queens folk had to tip their hats outdoors or stand like inferiors when speaking to them inside their own homes. Slave owners grumbled that their slaves tended to become snippy and disobedient after they saw how the officers pushed the master around."[6]

The next action seen by the 17th was in the Battle of White Plains[7] and then followed the retreat of Washington's troops, remaining in the South until 1778. In the winter of that year the British feared that the American forces were preparing to attack New York. Here's a report of this, the final appearance of the 17th Light Dragoons in Newtown.

Newtown in the winter of 1778 presented an unusually animated appearance. General Washington was expected to make an attack upon New York, and for the better preservation and safety of the shipping Sir Henry Clinton ordered all vessels not in the service of the government to be removed to Newtown Creek.

A large number of British troops were also barracked here. There were the seventeenth regiment of light dragoons, the Maryland loyalists, the royal Highlanders, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Sterling, who had seen long and arduous service in America during the French and Indian war; the royal artillery, with their cannon and horses; and the thirty-third regiment, Lord Cornwallis. During this period the farmers were subjected to many severe burdens. They were required to furnish from year to year, for the use of the army, the greater portion of their hay, straw, rye, corn, oats and provisions, under pain of being imprisoned and having their crops confiscated. The commissary weighed or measured the produce, and then rendered payment according to the prices fixed by the king’s commissioners. If the seller demanded more it was at the risk of losing the whole. The private soldiers were billeted in the houses of the Whig families. The family was generally allowed one fireplace. Robberies were frequent, and Newtown became a prey to depredation, alarm and cruelty. The civil courts were suspended, and martial law prevailed through seven long years. It was a happy day for Newtown when news arrived that Great Britain had virtually acknowledged our independence, and when her patriotic sons were permitted to return from a tedious exile. -- History of Queens [One notes that it was a happy day for whigs, not, of course, for tories, many of whom would — temporarily or permanently — exile themselves to Canada.]

These images all appear in A History of the 17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge's Own) by John William Fortescue (Macmillan and co., 1895)

An officer of the 17th Light Dragoons in the late eighteenth century.


Members of the regiment in 1764.


Two private soldiers from the early nineteenth century.


Two private soldiers and an officer, a few decades later.


-----------

Some sources:

HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY, with illustrations, Portraits & Sketches of Prominent Families and Individuals. New York: W.W. Munsell & Co.; 1882

The annals of Newtown, in Queens county, New-York containing its history from its first settlement, together with many interesting facts concerning the adjacent towns; also, a particular account of numerous Long island families now spread over this and various other states of the union, by James Riker (D. Fanshaw, 1852)

Documents and letters intended to illustrate the revolutionary incidents of Queens county with connecting narratives, explanatory notes, and additions by Henry Onderdonk (Leavitt, Trow and company, 1846)

Battle of Long Island, Hard Times followed Battle of Long Island, by Gus Dallas for the Richmond Hill Record

Battle of Long Island Hard Times followed Battle of Long Island by Gus Dallas, Printed by The Richmond Hill Record

17th Light Dragoons, a blog

17th Light Dragoons on the British Empire web site

The Battle of Long Island 1776 on the British Battles web site

17th Lancers in wikipedia

The Birth of the American Cavalry

Revolutionary incidents of Suffolk and Kings Counties with an account of the Battle of Long Island and the British prisons and prison-ships at New York by Henry Onderdonk (Leavitt & Co., 1849)

The Streets Of New York in Something About Everything Military

American War of Independence, 17th Light Dragoons, The British Empire

17th Light Dragoons

17th Light Dragoons in A Miniature History of the American Revolution

A History of the 17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge's Own) by John William Fortescue (Macmillan and co., 1895)

---------

Notes:

[1] James Riker's History of Newtown gives a detailed account of the town's early history. In part, he writes: "Newtown, or, as it was called by the Indians at the time of the discovery of this section of country by Henry Hudson in 1609, "Mespat," was a part of the New Netherlands, the trade from which was exclusively granted by the States-General of Holland in 1621 to the organization known as the West India Company. Valuable cargoes of beaver and other skins were annually shipped from here. The population up to 1638 numbered but a few individuals, in the employ of the company; but in that year the monopoly was abolished, and then trade with the New Netherlands opened to all. The encouragement thus given to emigration was further extended in 1640 by the grant of a new charter, providing for the administration of civil government, and establishing the rights and privileges of the inhabitants on a footing parallel with those in Holland. This had a benign effect, and gave an impulse to emigration, ‘not from Europe’ only but from New England also, many of whose inhabitants, fleeing from religious persecution, took up their abode here... The fertility of the Newtown lands early attracted the attention of colonists... [and] in 1652 a goodly company of Englishmen arrived from New England. [After several name changes, the place became "New Towne" in 1665.] -- The annals of Newtown, in Queens county, New-York

[2] Here's the text:

Having seriously considered the consequences that must evidently flow from the several acts of the British Parliament to raise revenue in America, and likewise that of having power to bind the people of these Colonies by statute in all cases whatsoever; and that of extending the limits of the Admiralty Court, whereby the judges are empowered to receive their salaries and fees from effects to be condemned by themselves, and his Majesty's American subjects deprived of the right of trial by jury; that of empowering the Commissioners of Customs to break open and enter houses, without authority of any civil magistrate; stopping the Port of Boston; changing the form of government in Massachusetts Bay; and the Quebec Bill: all which, as appears to us, are absolutely intended to deprive his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects of the American Colonies of their most inestimable rights and privileges, by subjugating them to the British Parliament, and driving them to the dire necessity of having their property taken from them without their consent: Resolved,

1. That we consider it our greatest happiness and glory to be governed by the illustrious House of Hanover, and that we acknowledge and bear true allegiance to King George the Third as our rightful sovereign, and under his protection have a right to enjoy the privileges of the Constitution of Great Britain.

2. That man ought to have the disposition of his property, either by himself or his representatives.

3. That it is our indispensable duty to transmit unimpaired to posterity all our most valuable rights and privileges as we have received them from our ancestors—particularly that of disposing of our own property.

4. That as some mode of opposition to the Acts of Parliament imposing taxes in America, has been thought necessary by the inhabitants of the different Colonies on this Continent, to secure their.invaded rights and properties: which mode has been left to the determination of the Delegates sent by each Colony, and met in Congress, at Philadelphia, in September last: they having, among other articles of their association, recommended that a committee be chosen in every county, city, and town, whose business it should be to observe the conduct of all persons touching said association; and, as we are willing to establish harmony and union, we will, so far as our influence extends, endeavor that the measures of Congress be strictly adhered to in this town.

5. As we highly approve of the wise, prudent, and constitutional mode of opposition adopted by our worthy Delegates in the General Congress, to the several late tyrannical and oppressive acts of the British Parliament, we therefore render our most sincere and hearty thanks to those gentlemen for their patriotic spirit in so cheerfully undertaking the difficult and arduous task, for their faithfulness in council, and great wisdom in drawing conclusions, which, through the influence of Divine Providence, we trust will be the means of securing to us of liberty and privileges as freeborn Englishmen, and again re store harmony and confidence throughout the British Empire, which is the hearty wish of all the friends to liberty and foes to oppression.

Signed by order of the Committee,

JACOB BLACKWELL, Chairman.

--
Documents and letters intended to illustrate the revolutionary incidents of Queens county with connecting narratives, explanatory notes, and additions by Henry Onderdonk (Leavitt, Trow and company, 1846)

[3] The whigs wanted both to collect the livestock in a safe area and also, by setting guards on roadways, to prevent tories from communicating with the enemy.

[4] Henry Onderdonk gives several versions of the account and says "as the accounts both written and traditional are conflicting, we ... leave the reader to form his own opinion.". See Revolutionary incidents of Suffolk and Kings Counties with an account of the Battle of Long Island and the British prisons and prison-ships at New York by Henry Onderdonk (Leavitt & Co., 1849)

[5] NEWTOWN, in HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY

[6] The annals of Newtown, in Queens county, New-York containing its history from its first settlement, together with many interesting facts concerning the adjacent towns; also, a particular account of numerous Long island families now spread over this and various other states of the union, by James Riker (D. Fanshaw, 1852)

[7] In the Battle of White Plains the 17th were once again successful:

The hill was now held by green militia and Connecticut and New York troops still shaken by the beating they had recently taken on Long Island. Behind these units, however, were tough, battle-wise Maryland and Delaware regiments. While the main body of the British army was assembling on the plain below the Americans, gunners of the Royal Artillery opened up on Chatterton’s Hill, and the troops there replied to the heavy fire as best they could with two small fieldpieces. When the cannonading eventually lifted, long lines of Hessian and British troops splashed across the Bronx River and moved up the hill with fixed bayonets. They met unexpectedly strong resistance from the militia, and the battle seesawed back and forth, the Americans giving as good as they got.

But while the king’s troops were wavering, trumpets sounded a charge, and the 17th Dragoons galloped into view, terrible with plumed brass helmets and cavalry sabres. It was more than most of the Americans could stand, and their line dissolved. They fled the field, covered by the steadfast Delaware regiment, which brought up the rear and held off the British attack until their fellow soldiers had reached safety.

-- The Streets Of New York

Eden Musee

Following my great-grandfather's landing as a penniless German immigrant, his upward trajectory was a steep one.[1] Within a dozen years of his arrival in New York in 1853 this man, Louis Windmuller, had established himself as merchant and money manager. In the next dozen had become prosperous and well-connected and by the end of the century he had become a prominent reformer, philanthropist, and public-spirited author. He served on corporate boards with the heads of the city's great financiers and businessmen: Vanderbilt, Astor, Sloane, Choate, and Whitney. He developed friendships with the city's reform mayor and other civic activists. Although he was grandson of a famous rabbi, he helped to found and served as vestryman for an Episcopal church.[2]

Windmuller might seem to have been self-made in the classic sense: one who creates a new identity for himself, ascends from poverty, and achieves social recognition. He might. Except that his education in Germany had been excellent (although a reversal in family fortunes did force him to leave school before graduating). Except that he was known for his big heart and open hand, not in the least uncomfortable to be sharing a humble meal with New York's unwashed poor in a soup kitchen.[3] And except that — having married into a family of Old New York patricians — he never gave himself nativist airs. He never stopped being a German-American and his closest friends and associates were other German-Americans, like Carl Schurz, William Steinway, Adolph Sutro, Jacob Schiff, Abraham Jacobi, Henry Villard, Ashbel Fitch, Gustav Schwab, Oswald Ottendorfer, John Roebling, and Charles Hauselt. That many of these men retained a commitment to Judaism while he did not was (so far as I can tell) of no concern to them or him.

He was also known for his devotion to high culture. A self-made man might purchase expensive works of art, but would probably not be accepted as a connoisseur. Windmuller bought art and literature, but not haphazardly. He carefully assembled what was thought to be an excellent collection and he was considered to be enough of an art expert to be named arbiter in a suit by a well-known artist for non-payment of a commission.[4]

There was nothing of the snob in him. His neighbors knew him as a benevolent and kindly man. With his German-born friends, he delighted in the festivities of the Liederkranz singing society (where his cousin Jacob Windmuller often presided) and of the city's German beer halls.[5]

Two views of German beer halls in New York.

{On left: The Atlantic Garden, 1872, from Lights and shadows of New York life, or, The sights and sensations of the great city, by James Dabney McCabe (Philadelphia, National Publishing Co., 1872); on right: A German beer garden in New York City on Sunday evening by Alfred Fredericks, 1859, written on border: Oct. 15, 1859, printed on image: 'The audience is requested not to stand on the chairs & tables', from Harper's weekly: a journal of civilization. (New York : Harper's Weekly Co., 1857-1916); source: NYPL Digital Gallery)}

His association with the Eden Musee shows both the exalted and chummy sides of his engagement with New York's cultural institutions. The Eden Musee was patterned after European wax-works, such as Madame Tussaud's, but it offered considerably more than views of life-like and often grisly wax tableaux. It boasted of a "winter garden" in which daytime patrons could eat and drink while being entertained by European orchestras and where, in the evening, they would see exotic dancers, lady fencers, conjurers, illusionists, and even some of the very first motion picture shows.

The Eden Musee in 1900.

{This photo appears on numerous web sites, including Facebook.}

Opening in 1884, the place quickly became a New York institution that visitors from within the US and abroad put on their "must see" lists, as they did the new Statue of Liberty and other famous sites.[6] From the first it carefully straddled the barriers separating rich from poor, educated from ignorant, and tenement dwellers from householders. Its name was usually given with plebeian lack of accent, Musee (pronounced musey or moosey) not Musée, but the institution had European roots and its stage held European acts. Local newspapers' society reporters frequently mentioned the presence of celebrated, well-connected, and aristocratic personages among the vast numbers who made there way there. It made itself attractive to the thousands of women who were brought to the neighborhood by the presence of large dry goods emporia and the new department stores that were beginning to crop up. Women, often with children in tow, would stop by to snack, listen to Prince Paul Esterhazy's Hungarian Orchestra, and look at the ever-changing wax installations.

It possessed the mysterious Ajeeb, supposedly a chess automaton, but in reality a dummy manipulated by a live chess master.[7] It was known for its floral displays and was the first place in New York where people could see orchids in bloom.[8] As wax-works it resembled predecessors such as the Friedle museum, mentioned in my last post, and Barnum's American Museum (which was successor to Gardiner Baker's American Museum, also mentioned in that post). The number of resources on the Eden Musee is quite large. I've put a few of them in my list of sources.

The Eden Musee was founded by a French syndicate headed by Adolf Wilhelm Kessler, a wealthy German who made his home in Paris.[9] Kessler had made himself useful during the Franco-Prussian war and been made a Count for his services. Most of the early investors and members of the board of directors were German-Americans and Windmuller was one of them. He was elected a director in 1888 and became corporate treasurer in 1890.

{At left: NY Daily Graphic, March 1, 1888; at right: entry in Trow's City Directory of 1890}

The location of the Eden Musee was ideal. At 55 W. 23rd Street, it was close to upper-crust Madison Park with its prestigious hotels, galleries, restaurants, and theaters. It was also close to the 23rd St. station of the 6th Avenue elevated train and other public transit.[10] As you can see from this detail of a 1897 atlas of Manhattan, Stern's very large dry goods store stood across the street, as did a department store which had been reconstructed from theater run by the famous actor, Edwin Booth (brother to the notorious John Wilkes). During the lifespan of the Eden Musee, the Flatiron Building would rise on the triangle of land half a block east at 5th and Broadway. In pictures of the Eden Musee you can sometimes also see the Castro Building, an architectural landmark built in 1893.

{Plate 17: Bounded by W. 36th Street, E. 36th Street, Lexington Avenue, E. 25th Street, Madison Avenue, E. 26th Street, Fifth Avenue, W. 25th Street and Eighth Avenue; source: NYPL Digital Gallery, Atlas of the city of New York, Manhattan Island. From actual surveys and official plans by George W. and Walter S. Bromley. 1897}

The Eden Musee was also near a music hall called Koster & Bial's. Located on the other side of 6th Avenue, at 115 W. 23rd, it had moved farther north by 1897 when the following map was made (and thus is labeled "Trocadero Music Hall" on the map. Koster & Bial's did not aim for family entertainment, but was rather a variety house where men went to smoke, drink, and relax.

In time the fancy hotels, restaurants, galleries, and stores moved north to Broadway and 34th and the theaters moved up to Broadway at 42nd. Places like Koster & Bial's moved with them, but the Musee did not and, having lost its customers, declared bankruptcy in 1915. Things might have turned out differently. Like Koster & Bial's, the Musee was one of the first places New Yorkers could see moving pictures. But it appears the management wasn't interested either in moving north or in becoming a movie palace.

The Eden Musee building was demolished in 1915 and the commercial building that replaced it still stands.[11] Some of the other buildings that were the museum's neighbors are still standing.

You can rotate this Google street view to see the Castro Building (now Huffman Koos Furniture) east of the museum's location at 43 w 23rd and R. J. Horner & Co. (also a furniture store) to the west at 61 w. 23rd. Across the street at 34w. 23rd, the large building that was Stern's is now a Home Depot.[12]

Windmuller was associated with places just off the map. He was a founding member of the Reform Club which was then located at 5th and 27th. He didn't belong to the Marble Church up the way a bit, but his wife was brought up in the Reformed Dutch faith of which it was a component and her siblings were educated at the Reformed Dutch Church Collegiate School. The church is at 29th and 5th, next to Holland House. He was an art collector and knew the owner of Goupil's Gallery, located at 5th and 21st.

This page from an advertising brochure shows the lobby of the musee. You can see that the featured moving picture in the "Passion Play."[13] Most of the figures are wax dummies, including the boy pickpocket and his mark, the erect policeman, and the officious looking gentleman by the poster.

{Lobby at the Eden Musée; source: NYPL Digital Gallery }

{Catalogue of the Eden Musée (Mayer, Merkel & Ottmann, 1884)}

{Pasteur Group, 1886 advertising card of the Eden Musée; source: CUNY.edu}

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Some sources:

A. About the Eden Musee

PASSING OF THE EDEN MUSEE; Picturesque Old Place of Entertainment by James Huneker, New York Times, June 20, 1915

EDEN MUSEE SITE SOLD.; The Museum Will Seek a New Home Near Times Square. New York Times, April 30, 1910. Extract: "The museum was erected about 1882 by a French syndicate, and a few years later it was taken over by the Eden Musée American Company."

NOTES OF THE STAGE., New York Times, July 1, 1894.

EDEN MUSEE FACES BANKRUPTCY COURT, Owners File a Petition for Purposes of Liquidation -- Doors Still Open. LANDMARK OF 23D STREET Northward Movement of Stores and Moving-Picture Craze Hurts Wax Works. New York Times, June 8, 1915

TO COVER SITE OF EDEN MUSEE, New York Times, July 11, 1915

Adolf Wilhelm Kessler

Obituary, Count Kessler, New York Times, May 23, 1895. "A cablegram was received yesterday from Paris, announcing the death in that city, yesterday morning, of Count Kessler, the head of one of the largest importing houses in the world, one of the founders of the Eden Musée in this city, and a large stockholder and Director. The flag was placed at half mast on the Musée, and a meeting of the Directors called for this afternoon, when appropriate action will be taken. Count Kessler's residence was in Paris, but nearly half his time was spent in this country, and he had a large circle of acquaintances in this city. It is supposed he was many times a millionaire. He left for Paris only a few weeks ago, and the particulars of his death have not been received."

The Eden Musee by Harry Buschman. Extract:

I worked at the Eden Musee. A house of waxwork figures frozen forever in moments of agony and ecstasy. The original Eden Musee in midtown Manhattan, (until it burned down) was a major attraction for nearly fifty years. ... Wax figures consist of little more than a head and hands. When you're dealing with an image of Lincoln, the head must look like Lincoln, but the hands can be anyone's; no one cares what Lincoln's hands looked like. The artist must search for someone who has a superficial resemblance to Lincoln, make a facial plaster cast of him and then pour in flesh colored molten wax. From then on it's glass eyes, a wig, stage make-up and costuming fitted on a show window dummy. Other than his hapless victims, no one ever saw Jack-the-Ripper and nobody could pick Lizzie Borden out of a police line-up either.

"The Eden Musee" in A history of the New York stage from the first performance in 1732 to 1901, Vol. 3, by Thomas Allston Brown (Dodd, Mead and company, 1903) "THE EDEN MUSEE -- THE Eden Musee is situated at 55 West Twenty-third Street, north side, between Broadway and Sixth Avenue. Not until the opening of The Eden Musee did New York have a house devoted exclusively to wax-work exhibitions. It was opened March 29, 1884. Caroline Otero, Spanish character dancer, made her American debut here Oct. 1, 1898. Mlle. Valti, an eccentric singer from Paris, made her debut Sept. 24, 1891; De Kolta, a magician, Dec. 22, 1891; M. Delprade, a French illusionist and bird imitator, made his American d^but April 18, 1893. 'A Dresden Shepherdess,' a pantomime, was produced here Dec 24, 1892, by Vance Thompson, music by Aime Lachaume: Pierrot, Mlle. Pilar-Morin."

Eden Musee Wax Museum 1906

The Eden Musée

The Lost Eden Musee -- "The Wonders of the World in Wax", The Mirror of the Stage; Old Eden Musee a Pioneer in Hungarian Bands, Russian Ballet, and Moving Pictures — First Photo-play Produced There. New York Evening Post, August 19, 1922

The Pride of the Eden Musée, The New Yorker, Nov. 30, 1943

Ajeeb (Automaton) at the Eden Musee

The mysterious Ajeeb. Extract: "The mysterious Ajeeb was the pride of the Eden Musée wax museum on West 23rd Street in NYC which opened to the public in 1884. It drew scores of thousands of spectators to its games, which President Grover Cleveland played in 1885, and other opponents for which included Harry Houdini, Theodore Roosevelt and O. Henry."

The Eden Musee by Harry Buschman, The Writers Voice

Silent Film: The Passion Play of Oberammergau, (1898) American, B&W, 2100 feet, directed by Henry C. Vincent, cast: Frank Russell, Frank Gaylor, Fred Strongl; Eden Musée production

Archive for Eden Musee

Richard G. Hollaman, President of the Eden Musée, an article on victorian-cinema.net

Show Time at the Eden Musée by Joseph Atmore

A sampling of some news reports in the New York Times:

September 15, 1884: Sitting Bull and some of the braves of his tribe will be at the Eden Musee throughout the present week.

February 17, 1885: The performance at the Eden Musee, Saturday afternoon, closed with the third act of the "Mountain Queen," in which little Linda Da Costa appeared as the Queen and Julius Witmark as the King. Linda is 10 years old, and Julius not yet 16.

December 7, 1886: The reception given by the Eden Musee last night for the opening concert of Prince Paul Esterhazy's Hungarian Orchestra was attended by a large and fashionable gathering.

October 1, 1887: The New-York Society for the Promotion of Art has arranged a pretty little art gallery in a room admirably adapted to the purpose in the Eden Musee building, over the Musee proper.

October 28, 1887: Once again the Eden Musee blooms like a garden. Palms rear their graceful stems to the ceilings, and the walls are draped with beautiful vines. The central platform is covered with palms and a few choice plants, among them an orchid from the same stem as the famous flower of that variety in the Morgan collection.

October 21, 1888: The concerts at the Eden Musee on Sunday have become a feature of city life and are always largely attended. An excellent programme is provided to-day, in which Erdelyi Nacal and his gypsy orchestra will figure prominently. The Viennese lady fencers continue to astonish the patrons of the Musee with their skill, and the many lesser novelties on exhibition make the establishment a seeming fairyland.

October 13, 1889: A very large crowd went to the Eden Musee last night to see the first performance of some new female fencers and dancers whom the management has just received from Europe.

January 24, 1893: The Eden Musee seems to lose none of its hold on popular favor. On the contrary, the attractions of the pretty little Twenty-third Street resort make new friends for the house each week. Danko Gabor's royal gypsy band at the afternoon concerts, together with the waxworks, draw large crowds of ladies and children.

June 8, 1915: The Eden Musee, which has stood on Twenty-third Street near Sixth Avenue and shown "the wonders of the world in wax" for more than thirty years, has its days numbered, for yesterday the Eden Musee American Company, Which operates it, filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy.

January 24, 1929: Peter J. Hill, formerly well known as a chess player, who for nine years was the brain of Ajeeb, the automaton chess player in the old Eden Musee on Twenty-third Street, was buried here today, forgotten by his friends of other days, but carried to his grave by friend in St. Francis's Home for Aged Catholics, where he lived for the last year.

B. Other wax-works

Madame Tussaud: And the History of Waxworks by Pamela M. Pilbeam (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006)

Rubens Peale (1784-1865) Extract: "In 1825, Rubens opened his own museum, the New York Museum of Natural History and Science. His museum housed collections of insects and butterflies, stuffed animals (Rubens was also interested in taxidermy), paintings, sculptures, and even a pair of Egyptian mummies. Rubens took his museum very seriously, viewing it as a place for scientific inquiry and examination, and frequently held lectures on various emerging scientific theories. Unfortunately, in the early 1840’s the museum fell into debt, and Rubens was forced to sell his entire collection to P. T. Barnum, circus entrepreneur and owner of the competing American Museum. It seemed that museum-goers wanted freaks of nature rather than just “ordinary” nature, and so, unwilling to condescend to the addition of freaks and curiosities to his displays, Rubens retired from the museum business."

The forgotten museum of Rubens Peale

Rubens Peale. Extract: "He opened his own museum in New York on October 26, 1825, (along with the opening of the Erie Canal). By 1840, Peale would change the name to the New York Museum of Natural History and Science. The Panic of 1837 sent his museum into debt. It competed with the American Museum, of P.T. Barnum. Rubens had to sell his entire collection to Barnum in 1843. He moved to Pottstown, Pennsylvania. In 1837, he retired to his father-in-law, George Patterson's estate near Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania, and lived as a country gentleman, at Woodland Farm. He experimented with Mesmerism, and wrote to his brother Rembrandt about it."

Scudder's American Museum

"Scudder's Museum," in Travels through part of the United States and Canada in 1818 and 1819 by John Morison Duncan, Vol 2 (University Press, 1823)

Doesticks on visiting the American Museum

American Museum: SIGHTS AND WONDERS IN NEW YORK

Barnum's American Museum

Barnum's Museum, New York Tribune, June 19, 1850

Barnum on the American Museum, from P.T. Barnum, Struggles and Triumphs, "The American Museum" 1869

P.T. Barnum and the Fire that Destroyed The American Museum

A history of the New York stage from the first performance in 1732 to 1901 by Thomas Allston Brown (Dodd, Mead and company, 1902)

A Word About Museums, The Nation, July 27, 1865.

C. Other sources:

"The Commercial Progress of Gotham," by Louis Windmuller, in The Progress of the Empire State: New York State and City by Charles Arthur Conant (The Progress of the Empire State Company, 1913).

"THE COLLECTION OF LOUIS WINDMULLER, ESQ., OF WOODSIDE, L. I.", in The Collector and Art Critic, Vol. 2, No. 11 (Apr. 1, 1900). Extract: "The collection of paintings resulting from discriminating acquisitions extending over a number of years is like an art history of that period. Mr. Louis Windmuller was collecting his art works during the period when the Dusseldorf and Munich schools were at their height, his own German extraction leaning him favorably to the work of his erstwhile countrymen. The result of his collecting shows some of the more enduring examples of this school, interspersed with a few canvases which bring the needed variety of landscape art among the anecdotal pictures. Thus combined the collection is an interesting one."

"Louis Windmuller" in History of German immigration in the United States and successful German-Americans and their descendants by George von Skal (New York, F.T. & J.C. Smiley, 1908). Extract: "Of his services in behalf of charity his efforts for the benefit of the German Hospital Fair in 1888 deserve especial mention. In connection with this affair Mr. Windmuller arranged a collection of paintings and a souvenir containing autobiographical contributions from the best American and German authors. He is known as an art connoisseur and collector of paintings and books. He was also treasurer of a fund for the erection of a monument to Goethe and vice-president of the Heine Monument Society."

"American Art Notes," by Arthur Barnett, The Scottish art review, Volume 2 (E. Stock, 1889). Extract: "Thomas Moran, better known to our English cousins as an etcher and prolific illustrator in the magazines than as a painter, has brought a suit against the estate of the late Joseph Drexel of a peculiar nature."

Waxworks, a film by Paul Leni, 1924

Weird and wonderful: the dime museum in America by Andrea Stulman Dennett (NYU Press, 1997)

"Louis Windmüller" in Geschichte des Deutschthums von New York von 1848 bis auf die Gegenwart, Theodor Lemke (T. Lemke, 1891) Extract: "Noch ein anderes Unternehmen, das eine der größten Schenswürdigkeiten für alle New York besuchenden Fremden ist, verdanken wir der Initiative des Herrn Windmüller: das Eden Musée in 23. Straße, nahe 5. Avenue, ans dessen gedeihliche Entmictelung er in seiner Stellung als Direktor und Schatzmeister unausgestzt den regsten und fruchtbarsten Antheil genommen hat." Rendered in English, roughly, as: "Yet another company, one of the most enchanting places for all New York visiting foreigners, we owe to the initiative of Mr. Windmüller: the Eden Musée on 23rd Street, near 5th Avenue, to the prosperous development of which he has constantly put in his position as director and treasurer of the liveliest and most fertile portion."

23rd Street in wikipedia

New York Songlines: 23rd Street on songlines.com

Ladies' Mile

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Notes:

[1] A news article written after his death says "He came to this country at the age of 18 with less than $18 in his possession. He started life here as an errand boy in a grocery store at a salary of $4 a week. He rose rapidly in position and accumulated wealth until he became a director of many financial institutions." Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 26, 1914. Late in life my great-grandfather wrote of 18-year old immigrants like himself, on their own in New York: "[starting out] as grocery clerks sleeping under the counter, they devoted themselves assiduously to the details of the business, so that many were soon able to establish themselves on their own account." -- "The Commercial Progress of Gotham," by Louis Windmuller, in The Progress of the Empire State: New York State and City by Charles Arthur Conant (The Progress of the Empire State Company, 1913).

[2] I've written frequently about my great-grandfather's experiences in New York during the second half of the 19th century. The tag "Louis Windmuller" at right takes you to 39 blog posts about him; for example: America's best citizens.

[3] This comes from an article by my great-grandfather called "Reminiscences Of Financial Problems" appearing in The Forum, Vol. 40, (Forum Pub. Co., 1908): "To relieve the poor, many of whom were out of employment during the winter of 1893 to 1894, the writer joined a citizens' committee, formed under auspices of the "Christian Alliance." Members were expected to purchase tickets at the rate of $5 a hundred and distribute them gratis to applicants for charity. Each ticket entitled the bearer to a square meal in the basement of No. 170 Bleecker Street, New York City. As member of this committee the writer frequently convinced himself of the quality and quantity of the food furnished by Mr. Milbury, the agent. After a visit to kitchen and cellar he sat down on stools in line with other hungry men and women, and he enjoyed with them a large bowl of fragrant steaming stew, a chunk of sweet bread and a cup of good coffee. Some of those supplies were furnished gratis, others at extremely low prices; everybody was glad to help, by timely charity, the starving poor to good food."

[4] One newsman said of him that "He is a distinguished art amateur, and possesses a fine collection of paintings and objects d'art" (NY Daily Graphic, March 1, 1888). For a description of his collection, see "THE COLLECTION OF LOUIS WINDMULLER, ESQ., OF WOODSIDE, L. I.", in The Collector and Art Critic, Vol. 2, No. 11 (Apr. 1, 1900). On his service as arbiter see the description of the suit by Thomas Moran in "American Art Notes," by Arthur Barnett, The Scottish art review, Volume 2 (E. Stock, 1889).

[5] Liederkranz, dancing, beer gardens: Educated Germans comprised the best element of our population. Conscientious in the performance of their duties during the day, they knew how to enjoy their nights. They sang in the 'Liederkranz,' danced in assembly rooms, and drank in 'gemuthliche Kneipen,' where good beer was available. Besides teaching us harmless pleasures, they spread their taste for art and literature. Amongst their foremost citizens were Carl Schurz, Oswald Ottendorfer, and Charles Hauselt." -- "The Commercial Progress of Gotham," by Louis Windmuller, in The Progress of the Empire State: New York State and City by Charles Arthur Conant (The Progress of the Empire State Company, 1913).

[6] Newspapers told of its attractions for domestic and foreign visitors in the appreciations they produced at the time it closed. See for example

{New York Times, June 8 1915}

Extract: "The Eden Musee presented "wonders of the world in wax" and was the latest idea in amusement from Paris. Up-country visitors and foreigners felt as much obligated to go there as they did to see the Statue of Liberty, which was not unveiled until two years later. It was a pioneer in moving pictures: "The Passion Play" opened in 1898 and ran for nine months. The film was more than 2,000 feet in length, and was considered amazing in the day when about 500 feet was the average. Flower shows were a great feature. The Eden Musee held the first orchid exhibition in 1887. It lost its business when the department stores moved uptown and people flocked to the moving-picture shows."

[7] The New Yorker magazine profiled Ajeeb during the war years: The Pride of the Eden Musée, The New Yorker, Nov. 30, 1943.

{source: Hakes and wikimedia commons}

[8]

{New York Times, November 11, 1884}

[9] Here's the obituary of Count Kessler in the New York Times.

{New York Sun, 23 May 1895. Extract: "Kessler born in Germany, acquired great wealth, put wounded French and German soldiers up in castle during Franco-Prussian War, lived in Paris, spent much time in NY member Lotos Club, lived at Hoffman House [located on 5th Avenue around the corner from the Eden Musee]."}

[10] I've done some blog posts on tony Madison Square, including:

• five-cent den on Pearl St.
• a tenement on Mulberry Street
• nothing to wear
• Madison Park 1905

[11] The New York Times gave an artist's impression of the building that replaced the museum:

{TO COVER SITE OF EDEN MUSEE, New York Times, July 11, 1915}

[12] This ad from 1879 shows Stern's when it opened for business in its new 23rd Street store.

{From Harper's bazaar; source: NYPL Digital Gallery}

[13] From the New York World, February 1, 1898: "SACRED DRAMA SHOWN BY MEANS OF THE CINEMATOGRAPH — A series of Passion Play pictures is now being presented at the Eden Musee by the cinematograph. The scenes have been reproduced from sketches at the time of the last presentation of the biblical drama given at Oberammergau. The motion pictures were secured from a representation given in this country by actors garbed in the costume drawn from these designs and drilled in the various tableaux. Twenty-three scenes are shown, beginning with the shepherds watching their flocks and ending with the ascension. The best of them were the flight into Egypt, the raising of Lazarus, the crucifixion and the descent from the cross. The exhibition made a decidedly favorable impression and will doubtless be the means of attracting many visitors to this popular place of amusement."