“WE have no time to lose,” wrote the Colonel with urgency. “You must be the Centennial Historian.” The number of days remaining until the grand Exhibition in Philadelphia slipped below a hundred, and Frank M. Etting counted among his many worries the possibility that the department of which he had charge would come up short. While there was no dearth of material, all was in disarray, and large holes remained in the historical fabric he’d tried to weave.1
To fill one such void, Etting turned to his friend and fellow ex-Army officer, William S. Stryker of Trenton, New Jersey. The state’s adjutant general, appointed by governor Marcus Ward and reappointed by each successive governor until his death, Stryker headed the postbellum New Jersey military for some thirty years, and proved a formidably adept and devoted servant of its history as well.2
“Organize your own Board & put on it Parker & Whitehead,” Etting directed him, referring to Civil War governor Joel Parker and the state historical society’s long-serving corresponding secretary, William A. Whitehead. “It requires an expert to supervise & digest the whole illustrative history of New Jersey,” he counseled Stryker. Frank Etting would have been wiser to recommend many experts, but time was short, and Whitehead, whose seminal work on early New Jersey had just been revised and reissued, would be key to realizing Etting’s design.3
At the Colonel’s instigation, General Stryker wrote on the penultimate day of March 1876 to get Whitehead’s immediate help in arranging loans of “pictures, documents, maps and relics” to depict New Jersey’s colonial past. He couldn’t afford to be too discriminating; he welcomed articles in private collections, including Whitehead’s own, “and if possible such as I can obtain from our Historical Society,” as long as the items could be retained in Philadelphia for a six-month run.4
Stryker noted that “nearly all” of the thirteen original states were making impressive preparations–even South Carolina, equivocal in its posture toward the Union that it had fought to dissolve, and that this fair was devised in part to celebrate. Some state organizations had already sent their exhibits. New Jersey was well behind. “I have but thirty days in which to complete this task,” Stryker confessed. He hoped that, even “at this late hour,” Whitehead would do all in his power to help him and the state to put on “a creditable show.”5
Any appeal to New Jersey pride would, in Whitehead, have struck a chord. But he remained cautious. Anything loaned would need to be absolutely secure from fire or theft. Stryker had some insight into security measures at the Centennial, having invested heavily in, and become the president of, a company demonstrating its manufactures at the fair. But he conveyed Whitehead’s concerns to Colonel Etting, who provided what assurance he could that Memorial Hall, the intended venue for the historical exhibits, was regarded as fireproof and would be well policed.6
Stryker especially hoped for the loan of “pictures and relics” illustrative of the colonial period, yet he was keenly interested in the Historical Society’s portrait of a young Aaron Burr, by Gilbert Stuart. He thought it not “desirable that manuscripts be sent unless of a very interesting character.”7 The Society’s executive committee, feeling the pressure of time and not disposed to challenge Whitehead’s estimate of their “interesting character,” agreed to loan not only the Burr portrait, but eight of the most ancient charters in its collection, including the Duke of York’s original grant of New Jersey, and the original deed subdividing the province into East and West. The committee understood that it would bear none of the cost of framing these treasures, or of shipping them to Philadelphia, and “that they were to be returned in the same good condition free of all charges and expenses, and with the scarcely needed admonition that their loss would be irreparable.”8
Standing in vivid contrast to William Stryker’s slapdash, last-minute plea is the deliberate, unhurried campaign organized by Helen Boudinot Stryker, his wife. While both saw value in bringing a New Jersey perspective to the forefront of the celebrations, the general’s agenda was a good deal more chauvinistic: if New Jersey couldn’t hope to outdo other states, it could at least make a respectable showing. For Helen, whatever New Jersey could bring to the Exhibition was for the general good. More to the point, her approach was all method, while her husband’s could be said to border on madness.
A centerpiece of Colonel Etting’s Centennial project was a national historical museum at Independence Hall, the site where delegates voted to declare the thirteen colonies free of British rule. As president of the committee charged with renovating the Hall, and making its historic meeting room look as it did a hundred years earlier, Etting became convinced that he would need to work with “the ladies of Philadelphia, and through them with the ladies of America,” to achieve his aims.
Etting asked a group of interested upper-class women, including his wife Alice, to meet his committee at Independence Hall in July 1873, and form a Board of Managers to oversee the museum’s creation and operations. The thirteen members, all female and required to reside in Philadelphia, were instructed to elect their own officers and choose corresponding secretaries, also female, in all of the original thirteen states. In December 1873, the “Lady Managers” named Helen B. Stryker of Trenton their correspondent for New Jersey.9
A grandchild of Revolutionary patriot Elisha Boudinot (it was his surname, rather than her maiden name, that she proudly inserted before her husband’s), Mrs. Stryker went immediately to work. Within a month she had enlisted the help of several prominent New Jersey women, expecting to have one in place soon for every county of the state: “In this way the whole ground will be properly canvassed,” she said.10
It’s not possible to know how much resulted from the work of these local operatives, but Helen Stryker’s reports to the Board suggest a prodigious effort. Even if some articles were easily secured, such as the Boudinot family silver, or a portrait of her ancestor Elias Boudinot, or military materiel promised through her husband the adjutant general, such as cannons, muskets, bayonets and other relics recovered from Revolutionary battlefields, Helen’s reach was sweeping, if not always successful.11
Mrs. Stryker wrote to James McCosh at Princeton, seeking objects held at the college of which he was then president. She was especially interested in Peale’s portrait of George Washington, and an electrical machine of Benjamin Franklin’s design; the list grew to include even Princeton’s magnificent Orrery by David Rittenhouse. Although she assured the Managers that they would receive the college’s relics by the 4th of July 1876, there’s no record of these particular items being delivered.12
Almost anything associated with George Washington was sure to draw the adoration of visitors, and Helen Stryker obtained many such items for the Exhibition, from the small and mundane, such as Washington’s spectacles, mirror and shaving cup, to the momentous and monumental.13 Of particular significance to her adopted city was the wooden arch (or rather one section of it) erected by the “Ladies of Trenton” in 1789 on a bridge over Assunpink Creek. Beneath this arch had passed the Hero of Trenton on the way to his first inauguration. Overhead, an inscription in gold letters proclaimed the women’s bond with the new president: “The Defender of the Mothers will be the Protector of the Daughters,” it read. Complementing this artifact was the autograph letter in which Washington thanked those “Matrons and Young Ladies who received him in so novel & grateful a manner at the Triumphal Arch in Trenton, for the exquisite sensation he experienced in that affecting moment.”14
Helen Stryker became somewhat dissatisfied with the title of corresponding secretary and, in a circular letter addressed to the women of her state, written and printed on her own initiative, styled herself “Vice-President for New Jersey.”15 The letter bore the names of thirteen female coadjutors in as many counties, evidence of her leadership and organizing skill.16 (The Board of Managers seems never to have ruled on the content of the circular, or on the title change.)
Stryker began attending monthly meetings of the Board, to brief the Philadelphia women personally on her work, and not just in writing.17 Perhaps she came off as too assertive for the more status-conscious of the “Lady Managers,” leading some of them to lose interest. Frank Etting had invited each Board member to produce a brief memoir of a Revolutionary-era figure, to be deposited at a July 2nd “Congress of Authors.” Only three of the women did so. Yet among the biographies received was Helen Boudinot Stryker’s sketch of her illustrious forebear Elias Boudinot.18
Mrs. Stryker’s energy and success in securing loans for the Exhibition couldn’t obscure the troubles that plagued Frank Etting and the Board of Managers in the years leading up to the 1876 anniversary. When Etting’s committee of men appeared to encroach on the authority of the female Managers, they demanded a reckoning. Etting was inclined to a coequal relationship between the two bodies, but his repeated clashes with city officials over control of Independence Hall and its uses led in the course of the Centennial year to a forced reorganization of the historical department, resulting in Etting’s demotion and precipitating several resignations from the Board of Managers.19
On the 7th of June, Colonel Etting was yet able to preside at the opening of the Centennial’s historical exhibit, but neither the Museum rooms at Independence Hall nor the Exhibition’s sprawling Memorial Hall played host to the display. It was installed, rather, in space offered by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, on the second floor of its newly opened, ornate and fireproof building on Broad Street.20
New Jersey was represented by William A. Whitehead that evening, and also presumably by General Stryker. But the items lent by the New Jersey Historical Society were not on view. The Society was later told that its items were at that time “not available for want of a proper place to display them….”21 This was partially true, for paintings and sculptures had so filled Memorial Hall that the historical exhibits were either consigned to a large annex building at the rear, or had to find a place elsewhere. But why were New Jersey’s contributions not among them?
The Historical Society collection, packed into two crates and sent by rail from Newark on the 2nd or 3rd of May, was a week later still unaccounted for. General Stryker had given Whitehead his word that the contents would be cared for and safely sent back at the end of the fair. Having no word of their arrival on the Exhibition grounds, he sent a telegram to Etting on the 11th: “am greatly worried about two boxes … wish they could be returned.”22
Word arrived from Etting the next morning that nothing had been received, and within fifteen minutes Stryker was on a train, not even taking the time to wire Etting that he was coming. His efforts to find the missing items were unavailing. After “a fruitless and being without authority a rather unpleasant search” in Memorial Hall and the annex, Stryker dashed off a note pleading with Etting to locate the boxes and send them back to Newark. “I will pay any amount,” he vowed, heartsick at the thought of “those old deeds &c being lost.”23
Stryker was likewise agitated both by the displacement of Frank Etting from the head of the Exhibition’s historical branch–that Department now seemed to him “abandoned entirely”–and by the relegation of its exhibits to the Academy of Fine Arts. Each upheaval seemed to make the others worse. If nothing else, while immensely preoccupied with other Centennial duties, he promised to support any plan Etting could name for “a little sweet revenge” on his enemies.24 But what of those two boxes?
Happily, the “old deeds” and other items in them were not lost, only mislaid. But the possibility so bothered Stryker that he seems to have kept the full story to himself. In advance of the Historical Society’s annual meeting the following January, Stryker reported to Whitehead only that the boxes had been “duly received in Philadelphia”; that they had “remained unpacked for a few weeks in Memorial Hall” because he didn’t want them placed in the annex; and that they were “soon after” taken to the Academy of Fine Arts and placed in Frank Etting’s charge.25
With the close of the Centennial season in late fall, Helen Stryker and other women who remained associated with the National Museum faced the task of restoring hundreds of items to their owners all over the country. Some of these loans found a temporary home at the Academy of Fine Arts, among them the “Triumphal Arch,” which seems to have later found its way back to Trenton, though not to its prior owners.26 Colonel Etting was granted permission to keep the historical exhibit already there until March 1877, although it occupied a great deal of space and affected the Academy’s plans for future exhibits.27
Frank Etting praised the New Jersey Historical Society’s contribution to the exhibit as one of its “most interesting features,” and asked that it might be kept at the Academy until spring. Whitehead brought the request before the executive committee, which submitted it to a vote of the members, and it was granted.28 In April, William Stryker took charge of returning the articles, using the same boxes in which they were sent. The ancient documents were displayed in their frames at the Society’s May meeting, then dismounted and stored in the fireproof vault of the Newark Banking Company, in whose building the Society rented rooms.29
With the dismantling of the historical exhibit, Helen Stryker looked back fondly on her service to Independence Hall: “I have enjoyed exceedingly doing the little I have in its honor.” After her husband’s death in 1900, she gave a portrait of him to the Historical Society, which he had served in many capacities, ultimately as its president.30 But among his many contributions to New Jersey history, William Stryker’s part in the Centennial has gone unremarked.
The Society’s Centennial activities drew to a close with a condensed record, assembled by William A. Whitehead in his role as corresponding secretary, of observances held around the state in 1876; the national Exhibition would form no part of it.31 As far as Whitehead knew, New Jersey’s founding documents had left the state and returned without incident. Yet we can imagine that, knowing the untold side of the Philadelphia story, he might have doubted that the positive results of a “creditable show” were worth the risks of so irreparable a loss.
Copyright © 2026 Gregory J. Guderian
Last revised 2026.08.20
[1] Colonel Frank M. Etting, chairman of the Committee for the Restoration of Independence Hall and head of the Historical Department of the 1876 Centennial, scribbled his note on the back of a letter from Joel Parker that he then forwarded to William S. Stryker. Parker, a former governor of New Jersey, now busy with his legal practice in Freehold, apologetically turned down the position of Centennial Historian for the state. “The duties of my profession are such as to occupy every moment of my time,” Parker replied to the Colonel, adding: “Mr. William A. Whitehead of Newark N.J. has devoted much time to the study of our early local history & written much on the subject. Why not write to him?” Etting must have continued to press Parker to participate in some fashion, for the ex-governor wrote him again five days later: “I regret I cannot accept appointment. My time will be so fully occupied with business which I cannot neglect, as to make it impossible for me to do justice to the important work.” Parker then again recommended Whitehead, “the best man for historian of East Jersey,” and John Clement of Haddonfield for West Jersey. Joel Parker, Freehold 18 and 23 March 1876, to Frank M. Etting, Frank M. Etting Collection 0193, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Centennial Celebration Historical Department (Volume 4), (hereafter “Centennial Celebration Historical Department”) 71.
[2] General Stryker remains highly regarded for his compilations of New Jerseyans’ military service in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. The memorial notice published by the New Jersey Historical Society, of which he was the tenth president at the time of his death, is followed by a short list of his published works: “General William Scudder Stryker,” Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society ser. 3, 3:3 (July 1906) 185-188.
[3] On the first edition of Whitehead’s East Jersey under the Proprietary Governments (1846), see my previous post 053–Scot’s Model. His “Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged,” was issued in 1875.
[4] William S. Stryker, Trenton 30 March 1876, to William A. Whitehead, Manuscript Group 1258, New Jersey Historical Society Records, Box L6/4.
[5] William S. Stryker, Philadelphia 11 April 1876, to William A. Whitehead, Manuscript Group 1258, New Jersey Historical Society Records, Box L6/4 (hereafter “William S. Stryker to Whitehead, 11 April 1876”).
[6] “I referred your letter of the 4th to Colonel Etting and he instructs me to reply that the ‘Art Building’ at the Centennial is considered fire-proof, two picked policemen are to be kept in the Historical Room by day and a reserve force at night, all articles which could readily be stolen are to be securely locked in cases. This is all the answer which can be given to your question in regard to the safety. I shall myself see that all articles are properly placed and when the exhibition is over promptly returned.” William S. Stryker to Whitehead, 11 April 1876. (The 4 April letter from Whitehead to Stryker has not been located.) Stryker’s interest in the Miltimore Car-Axle Company required his frequent attendance at the Exhibition, where its railcar axle was on display at Machinery Hall: see William S. Stryker, Trenton 13 May 1876, to Frank M. Etting, Centennial Celebration Historical Department 71 (hereafter “William S. Stryker to Frank M. Etting, 13 May 1876”); “Miltimore Wheel and Axle,” Railway world (9 December 1876) 802:2-3.
[7] William S. Stryker to Whitehead, 11 April 1876.
[8] Minutes, Manuscript Group 1258, New Jersey Historical Society Records, Box A1 (hereafter “Minutes”), 18 January 1877, published in Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society ser. 2, 4:4 (1876) 164-165. The loaned documents, dated from 1664 to 1689, would be printed in William A. Whitehead, ed. Documents relating to the colonial history of the State of New Jersey. 1. 1631–1687 (Archives of the State of New Jersey, ser. 1, 1. Newark 1880) 3-14, 161-167, 205-219, 324-333, 366-369, and now form part of Manuscript Group 1218, Proprietary Era Manuscript Collection, 1664–1703, New Jersey Historical Society. Whitehead secured the executive committee’s approval in mid-April, and Stryker, delighted by the news, wrote to him with instructions: “If you will have the manuscripts you refer to neatly and plainly framed I will see that the bill is paid. I shall ask you also to have such articles as you can send properly packed and soon after May 1st I will send you directions for expressage. I am very thankful for the aid you have given me.” William S. Stryker, Trenton 20 April 1876, to William A. Whitehead, Manuscript Group 1258, New Jersey Historical Society Records, Box L6/4.
[9] Frank M. Etting et al., Philadelphia 23 May 1873, to Amelia (Mrs. John M.) Read et al., The National Museum at Independence Hall Collection, Mary Johnson Brown Chew Collection, Independence National Historical Park Archives (hereafter “National Museum Collection”), Box 1/3; Minute book, Board of Managers, National Museum Collection, Box 5/8 (hereafter “Minute book”) 2 July 1873; Helen B. Stryker, Trenton 26 December 1873, to Alice C. (Mrs. Frank M.) Etting, National Museum Collection, Box 1/1.
[10] Helen B. Stryker, Trenton 21 January 1874, to Alice C. Etting, National Museum Collection, Box 1/5 (hereafter “Helen B. Stryker to Alice C. Etting, 21 January 1874”). By the end of 1874, the New Jersey corresponding secretary had a network of thirteen women across the state, each “a Lady of Revolutionary family or prominent influence….” Helen B. Stryker, Trenton 4 January 1875, “To the Ladies of New Jersey” (printed circular letter), National Museum Collection, Box 1/14 and Box 6/16 (hereafter “Helen B. Stryker, ‘To the Ladies of New Jersey’”).
[11] Among the more remarkable articles promised to Helen Stryker were: “One six pound cannon ball fired at the battle of Trenton”; “Musket carried by ‘Amos Scudder’ guide to Gen. Washington from the crossing of the Delaware to Trenton, just before the battle”; “A Sevres cup and saucer given by Louis XVI to Benjamin Franklin and used by him at the Court of France”; and “The original picture of Hon. Richard Stockton, signer of the Declaration of Independence, in which the throat was cut by British Soldiery.” See Helen B. Stryker, Trenton 21 January, 24 March and 25 May 1874, to Alice C. Etting, National Museum Collection, Box 1/5-6; Helen B. Stryker, Trenton 23 April 1875, to Mary J. B. Chew, National Museum Collection, Box 1/18; Minute book, 26 February and 25 March 1876; Helen B. Stryker, Trenton 20 April 1876, to Mary J. B. (Mrs. Samuel) Chew, National Museum Collection, Box 1/34 (hereafter “Helen B. Stryker to Mary J. B. Chew, 20 April 1876”); Minute book, 29 April 1876.
[12] The expanding catalog of items to be obtained from the college is detailed in Helen B. Stryker, Trenton 2 February 1874, to James McCosh, Board of Trustees Records, 1746–2024, Princeton University Archives, Meeting minutes, 22 June 1874; Helen B. Stryker, Trenton 26 February 1874, to Alice C. Etting, National Museum Collection Box 1/5 (hereafter “Helen B. Stryker to Alice C. Etting, 26 February 1874”); Helen B. Stryker, undated [January 1876], to Mary J. B. Chew, National Museum Collection Box 1/28; Minute book, 29 January and 25 March 1876; Helen B. Stryker to Mary J. B. Chew, 20 April 1876; Minute book, 29 April 1876.
[13] For the small personal items, see mainly Helen B. Stryker to Alice C. Etting, 26 February and 25 May 1874. Helen was promised by a Trenton physician the table at which Washington held his “Council of War” on the eve of the Battle of Princeton, “with the two holes burnt in it, by the candles he overturned in his haste to ascertain the cause of an alarm,” and secured a loan from the Trenton Hose Company of the chair he used on the occasion. The latter, she reported, was “a difficult article to obtain, both because of the chair being much prized by the Company, and the very infrequent meetings which they have held and at which my appeal to them could be called up.” Helen B. Stryker to Alice C. Etting, 26 February 1874; Helen B. Stryker, 12 March 1875, to Anne Hopkinson (Mrs. Edward A.) Foggo, National Museum Collection Box 1/16; Helen B. Stryker, 27 March 1875, to Mary J. B. Chew, National Museum Collection Box 1/17 (hereafter “Helen B. Stryker to Mary J. B. Chew, 27 March 1875”).
[14] Two sisters, Mary and Susan Armstrong, daughters of one of the ceremony’s organizers, were in possession of both the portion of the arch brought to Philadelphia and Washington’s letter of thanks to the women of Trenton for their reception. Helen B. Stryker to Alice C. Etting, 21 January and 26 February 1874. Washington’s letter is now preserved in The Trentoniana Collection, Trenton Free Public Library. A portion of the triumphal arch may be found there as well, although the section loaned for the Centennial may have been a different one (see below, note 26). Stryker also secured the loan of the original text of a song performed as Washington passed under the arch: Helen B. Stryker to Mary J. B. Chew, 27 March 1875. The 1789 reception, the arch and its inscription have been the subject of various accounts, beginning with an eyewitness report in a letter of Jane Ewing; her rendering of the text on the arch reads “The protector of the mothers will also protect their daughters.” Jane Ewing, Trenton 23 April 1789, to James Hunter Jr., Miscellaneous Correspondence 1739–1941, New Jersey State Archives, Box OV-1; cited in John C. Fitzpatrick, ed. The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources 1745–1799 (Washington 1931-1944) 30:291 note 48. Above, I give the reading in William S. Stryker, Washington’s reception by the people of New Jersey in 1789 (Trenton 1882) 6, which I presume was based on Stryker’s interviews with the planners and participants still living. Stryker’s text agrees with that in John Marshall, The life of George Washington, commander in chief of the American forces, during the war which established the independence of his country, and first president of the United States (5 vols. Philadelphia 1804-1807) 5:159. An early version substituting “defender” for Ewing’s “protector” was also in circulation: see William Winterbotham, An historical, geographical, commercial, and philosophical view of the American United States, and of the European settlements in America and the West-Indies (4 vols. London 1795) 1:589.
[15] According to a letter from her husband to Etting, Helen was “anxious to complete the canvass of the State this winter [of 1874-5],” and planned to attend the Board of Managers’ meeting to present the draft of her circular, together with “some difficulties under which she labored and which the board could remove….” She learned only after the fact that the Board had met. “She wishes me now to write you,” explained the general. “Perhaps you can suggest a way to avoid these little hindrances to success.” He continued: “And first she finds difficulty in her title as ‘Corresponding Secretary’ for people say ‘Oh yes, you are secretary to Mrs. Daytons Committee (she is President of the Ladies Centennial Financial Committee) and in every case she has to go into a labored explanation, often she fears very unsatisfactory.” Helen also found it far more effective to describe her purpose as “‘Restoring Independence Hall’ and filling it with relics of Revolutionary interest” than assembling items for “a simple ‘Museum’.” Gen. Stryker enclosed the draft circular for Etting’s critique, concluding: “The change of title and object for the more easy explanation and understanding of the people, (and not for her intercourse with the Ladys Committee)–I think you will see no objection to and will approve.” William S. Stryker, Trenton 1 December 1874, to Frank M. Etting, National Museum Collection, Box 1/10. Etting addressed the question of titles in a letter to the Secretary of the Board of Managers: a state representative, he believed, might use “any title your Board or the lady herself, in the absence of your positive direction, should prefer.” After further consideration he recommended, in a postscript, the title of President. Frank M. Etting, 26 December 1874, to Mary J. B. Chew, National Museum Collection, Box 1/11.
[16] Helen B. Stryker, “To the Ladies of New Jersey.” “The object” of the Board of Managers, the letter explained, “is the restoration of Independence Hall as far as possible to its original state during the Revolution, and its historical illustration for all time … and to the Ladies has been given in charge the ornamentation and illustration of its historic halls with as much of the original furniture as can be found, portraits of the prominent men of that time, relics and curiosities of the Revolutionary period and of the administration of the first President of the Republic.”
[17] Helen Stryker attended monthly meetings, at which her reports were read and accepted, from December 1875 to April 1876. Minute book, 4 December 1875; 29 January, 26 February, 25 March, and 29 April 1876.
[18] Etting presented the plan to the Board at its December 1875 meeting, and his invitation was “formally accepted….” For the solicitation and deposit of these memoirs, including William A. Whitehead’s sketch of Richard Stockton, see my previous post 114–The nameless ties of sympathy. Helen Stryker’s memoir of Boudinot was published in The Pennsylvania magazine of history and biography 3:2 (1879) 191-193. The Board members who submitted biographies were Cornelia F. Taylor, whose subject was Cyrus Griffin; Armine Nixon Hart, who provided a sketch of Robert Morris; and Catherine K. Meredith, the Museum’s “Depositary,” who wrote on Gouverneur Morris. Minute book, 4 December 1875; The national centennial commemoration. Proceedings on the one hundredth anniversary of the introduction and adoption of the “Resolutions respecting independency.” Held in Philadelphia on the evening of June 7, 1876, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and on July 1, 1876, at the Hall of Independence (Philadelphia 1876; hereafter “National centennial commemoration”) 39-42.
[19] While owing their existence and acknowledging their responsibility to Etting’s committee for the proper exercise of their duties, the “Lady Managers” understood themselves to have “full authority” over the Museum, and resisted efforts to control their organization or methods. Already in June 1874, discord between the two bodies is evident in the papers of Board secretary Mary J. B. Chew, but the Historical Department’s 1876 restructuring and Etting’s removal seemed to several Board members as having “in effect destroyed their organization.” See Historical Museum Collection, Box 1 passim; Minute book, 29 January through 4 October 1876 passim.
[20] The historical exhibit and its opening are described in National Centennial Commemoration 1-5, with particular attention to portraits, memorabilia from the Massachusetts, Maryland and Virginia colonies, Revolutionary era artifacts, and Washingtoniana.
[21] Minutes, 18 January 1877; Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society ser. 2, 4:4 (1876) 165.
[22] William S. Stryker, Trenton 11 May 1876, text of telegram to Frank M. Etting, Centennial Celebration Historical Department 71. On 1 May, Stryker sent an address tag to Whitehead for shipping the boxes, requesting that he also ship “any other articles of interest besides those mentioned in your letter…. Let me know the amount of the freight bill which you will please pay. Please send list as soon as forwarded.” He must have received a contents list and the amount of the bill by the 4th, when he sent a check for $17 to cover the costs of framing and shipping the items, adding, “I will see to them being well cared for and returned in good order.” William S. Stryker, Trenton 1 and 5 May 1876, to William A. Whitehead, Manuscript Group 1258, New Jersey Historical Society Records, Box L6/4. Stryker also ordered a shipment to the Exhibition of scenes of New Jersey by Archibald Robertson. The drawings, both watercolors and pen and ink sketches, were offered to Mrs. Stryker as a loan by artist Eliza Pratt Greatorex, and were accepted by the Board of Managers the previous fall. Evidently they were never mislaid. Helen B. Stryker, 24 November 1875, to Mary J. B. Chew, National Museum Collection Box 1/23; Minute book, 4 December 1875; William S. Stryker, Philadelphia [12?] May 1876, to Frank M. Etting, Centennial Celebration Historical Department 71 (hereafter “William S. Stryker to Frank M. Etting, [12?] May 1876”). Besides contributing Robertson’s scenes to the Centennial, Greatorex spearheaded the representation there of women artists, including herself and her two daughters: see Katherine Manthorne,Restless enterprise. The art and life of Eliza Pratt Greatorex (Oakland, Calif. 2020) 218-221.
[23] William S. Stryker to Frank M. Etting, [12?] and 13 May 1876.
[24] While afraid that donors and lenders would now decline to send their treasures (“I know many of the articles promised me will not be sent other than to the Centennial Exhibition”), Stryker remained hopeful that patriotic feeling would prevail: “New Jersey is full of the Centennial fever, and any thing that diverts from that is looked upon unfavorably.” He found it almost impossible, however, to get away from the Fairmount Park exhibition grounds and “go down into the city” in order to lend Etting his support. “I would so much like to give you a good lift in this matter,” he wrote. William S. Stryker to Frank M. Etting, [12?] and 13 May 1876; William S. Stryker, Philadelphia 19 May 1876, to Frank M. Etting, Centennial Celebration Historical Department 71.
[25] William S. Stryker, Trenton 9 January 1877, to William A. Whitehead, Manuscript Group 1258, New Jersey Historical Society Records, Box L6/5. This communication, which must have served as the basis of the executive committee report made to the New Jersey Historical Society meeting nine days later, includes the detail that Stryker waited for the Society’s authorization to turn over its collection to Etting, and that he did so “immediately” on receiving a note from Whitehead dated 13 June 1876. According to the executive committee, the items were taken to the Academy of Fine Arts “about the 1st of July … and added to the collections of a like character received from other States and Historical Societies.” The apparent discrepancy in the date of delivery may simply reflect the length of time needed to unbox and install the New Jersey exhibit. Minutes, 18 January 1877; Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society ser. 2, 4:4 (1876) 165. (To the last sentence of the report, the printed minutes add the words “where they attracted the attention they deserve.”)
[26] Of this artifact, Helen Stryker wrote to the Board secretary: “The Miss Armstrongs to whom it belongs, desired me to present it to Independence Hall last Fall, but you and I decided to let Col. Etting have it, for a time, now it can go to Independence Hall as a gift, if the Board desire it. If they do not, let me know. If they take it, please have a note of thanks sent to them [the Armstrongs], as they prize it highly and all Trenton people are equally enthusiastic about it.” Helen B. Stryker, Trenton 24 March 1877, to Mary J. B. Chew, National Museum Collection, Box 2/10 (hereafter “Helen B. Stryker to Mary J. B. Chew, 24 March 1877”). The arch has had a complicated afterlife, as surviving sections of it, said to have resided at first with the Barnes family and later the Armstrongs (from whom Helen Stryker and the National Museum obtained the loan of at least one portion), were divided and passed on to different owners and caretakers, among them William E. Green, the Trenton Battle Monument (to 1925), the Old Barracks Museum in Trenton (from 1925), and the Trenton Free Public Library. (The last two institutions retain sections to this day.) For the centennial of Washington’s visit in 1889, it was suggested that the arch, “or so much of it as is still in existence,” be reassembled and erected again over the Assunpink: Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society ser. 2, 10:3 (1888) 128, 10:4 (1889) 187. It’s no less a challenge to piece together the arch’s history, and the generous assistance of Robert Schenker, local history librarian at Trenton Free Public Library, has been of immeasurable help. Much remains unknown.
[27] The Academy Board of Directors struggled with the problem of accommodating exhibits besides their own, especially given the size of the historical exhibit, with “assurance of continuation until into March next.” Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Board of Directors (Trustees) Records, RG.01.02.01, Box 18, Minutes of 11 December 1876.
[28] Frank M. Etting, Philadelphia 13 January 1877, to William A. Whitehead, Manuscript Group 1258, New Jersey Historical Society Records, Box L6/5; Minutes, 18 January 1877; Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society ser. 2, 4:4 (1876) 165; William A. Whitehead, Newark 19 January 1877, to Frank M. Etting, Centennial Celebration Historical Department 239.
[29] William S. Stryker, Trenton 16 March 1877, to William A. Whitehead, Manuscript Group 1258, New Jersey Historical Society Records, Box L6/6; Minutes 17 May 1877; Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society ser. 2, 5:1 (1877) 3, 7. Before the Centennial loan, the Historical Society stored these documents in an iron strongbox; the use of the bank vault was offered and accepted at its meeting of 17 May 1877.
[30] Helen B. Stryker to Mary J. B. Chew, 24 March 1877; Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, ser. 3, 4:2 (1902-1903) 126.
[31] Minutes, 18 January and 17 May 1877; Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society ser. 2, 4:4 (1876) 174; 5:1 (1877) 2-3, 13-19.
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