Last week, I intended to post on Hamilton's 1782-1783 term in Congress, but got distracted by Hamilton's role in the Newburgh Conspiracy (March 1783), which could have led to a…
Through January 8, 2017, the Metropolitan Museum is showing Fragonard: Drawing Triumphant. The exhibition includes about 100 drawings by this top-notch 18th-century artist, some from the MMA, others from private collections…
In July 1782, Alexander Hamilton passed the bar in New York State, became the state's tax receiver, and was appointed a delegate for New York State to the Continental Congress,…
When I see an exhibition of an artist I'm unfamiliar with, I always ask: Why do I like or dislike his work? And are there any of his works that…
In early 1782, the Siege of Yorktown was over, but the British government had not yet admitted defeat. Without hindsight, it was impossible to know whether or not the Revolutionary War…
The Metropolitan Museum is showing "Valentin de Boulogne: Beyond Caravaggio" through January 16, 2017. But before we go beyond Caravaggio, let's talk about what made Caravaggio himself such a big…
By late December 1781, Alexander Hamilton was recovering from the Yorktown campaign at the Schuyler family mansion in Albany - still so exhausted that he hardly wrote any letters (see…
In honor of the 235th anniversary of the British surrender at Yorktown, here's a poem mocking Cornwallis that was originally published in Philadelphia on October 11, 1781. At that point,…
In October 1781, immediately after the British surrendered at Yorktown, Hamilton set off on the three-week trip to Albany, arriving there in November. By December 29, 1781, he was writing to his…
Washington Irving on Columbus Certain it is that at the beginning of the fifteenth century, when the most intelligent minds were seeking in every direction for the scattered lights of…