Restoration of Famed Dunsmore Collection Continues

Dunsmore Paintings Collection to come to Vanderveer House
for 2011 Colonial Christmas

Dunsmore Conservation Project

John Ward Dunsmore (1856-1945) was a late 19th/early 20th century American painter best known for his realistic and historically accurate paintings of the events surrounding the American Revolution and Early Republic.  He placed tremendous importance on realism – he wanted his paintings to be as realistic as a photo.  His Revolutionary War images are iconic and widely sought for reproduction in items ranging from school children’s textbooks to the Library of Congress’s website, to a special coin produced by the US Mint. 

John Ward Dunsmore, one of the most prominent artists depicting revolutionary war events, the John Ward Dunsmore Collection at the Fraunces Tavern Museum is comprised of 45 paintings that illustrate important events of the Revolutionary War, including Valley Forge, the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Surrender at Yorktown.  Dunsmore was a late 19th and early 20th-century painter best known for his realistic and historically accurate paintings. He was the founding director of the Detroit Art Museum and a member of the Sons of the Revolution. Dunsmore donated much of the collection to the Fraunces Tavern Museum.

Since 1936, Fraunces Tavern Museum has owned the world's largest collection of Dunsmore paintings.  Over the past seventy five years, all forty five pieces in the Museum’s Collection have been exhibited at 54 Pearl Street and other locations, such as the Museum of the City of New York.  Some have aged more gracefully than others.  In the early 2000s it was noticed that these paintings were in need of conservation, so as to prevent their irreversible deterioration from time and allow them to continue to educate the public as narratives of our nation’s history. 

Above: Restoration of the John Ward Dunsmore General George Washington paintinng.
12 of Dunsmore's paintings will be on exhibit Dec 1-4, 2011 at the Vanderveer House during it's Colonial Christmas fundraiser event and open house. Images courtesy of Fraunces Tavern® Museum, New York City.

Over the past eight years all but seven paintings have been fully sponsored, conserved and put on exhibit in the John Ward Dunsmore Gallery, featuring the conserved paintings in a permanent, rotating exhibit entitled, “Keeping the Revolution Alive.”  Since the start of 2011 three of those seven paintings have been fully sponsored!

On behalf of the Museum staff and the Board I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to Lawrence K. Casey, Jr., S.R. Texas, for his most recently full support for the conservation of the Portrait of Colonel Henry Knox.   Throughout the Dunsmore Conservation Project, Mr. Casey has generously provided full funding for the follow works, Colonel Knox Bringing the Cannons from Fort Ticonderoga to the Siege of Boston, Spirit of '76, Bunker Hill: Fight at the Rail Fence, Arousing the Minutemen, and Paul Revere, 1775.

I would also like to recognize and thank the Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House in Bedminster, New Jersey for their efforts with Chubb Group and The Hurley Insurance Agency in their triumphant effort in raising full support for the conservation of Portrait of General George Washington without a Hat.  The images above show the amazing results of the conservation on this piece. 

Above: Dunsmore's  Portrait of General Henry Knox & Colonel Knox Bringing the Cannons from Fort Ticonderoga

About Fraunces Tavern Museum

Fraunces Tavern Museum is a survivor of the early days of New York City. It was built in 1719 as an elegant residence for the merchant Stephan Delancey and his family. In 1762, the home was purchased by tavern-keeper Samuel Fraunces, who turned it into one of the most popular taverns of the day. Though it is best known as the site where Washington gave his farewell address to the officers of the Continental Army, in 1783, the tavern also played a significant role in pre-Revolutionary activities. After the war, when New York was the nation’s first capital, the tavern was rented to the new government to house the offices of the Departments of War, Treasury and Foreign Affairs.

In 1904, the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York purchased the tavern and hired preservation architect William Mersereau to return the building to its colonial appearance. Fraunces Tavern® Museum opened to the public in 1907. Today, the museum complex includes four 19th century buildings in addition to the 18th century Fraunces Tavern building.

Fraunces Tavern® Museum is located at 54 Pearl Street, Manhattan. The Museum is open Monday - Saturday 12 – 5pm. Admission: $10.00 general, $5.00 seniors and children under 18, and free to children 5 and under and to members with membership card. Subway: R or W to Whitehall St., 4/5 to Bowling Green, 1 South Ferry, J/M/Z to Broad St. Buses: M1, M6, M15.

For additional information - visit the Fraunces Tavern® Museum Website.

By Jessica Baldwin, Museum Director - Fraunces Tavern, New York

Submitted: November 1, 2011

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