Object use

Seating furniture

Object type

Chair

Maker

Doe, Hazelton, & Co., furniture manufacturer and retailer, looking glass maker, and upholsterer, about 1850-1859; Doe, Joseph M., furniture manufacturer, retailer, and upholsterer, 1809-1871, active about 1836-about 1869; Hazelton, Jonathan Eastman, furniture manufacturer and retailer, 1803-1888, active about 1844-1888; Walter, Thomas U., designer and architect, 1804-1887, active about 1820-about 1865

Basis of maker

Attributed to maker by Tom Ormsbee, 1954.

Place of origin

Boston, Massachusetts

Basis of origin

Doe, Hazelton, & Co. was a furniture manufacturing firm active in Boston, Massachusetts ca. 1850-1858.

Date

1857

Basis of date

Date provided by Tom Ormsbee, based on the commission date of the Walter chairs and desks for use in the US House of Representatives, 1954.

Style

Rococo Revival; Renaissance Revival

Materials

Oak; Leather; Upholstery materials

Attributes & techniques

Carving; Turning; Moldings; Castors; Therm feet;

Associated objects

May be of a set with DAPC_1997-0355.

History of ownership

Originally made for the United States House of Representatives. Later acquired by Matthew B. Brady, photographer, who used it in his photography studio from 1863-1877. In the collection of a private owner living in Maine who allegedly inherited the chair from an uncle and contacted Tom Ormsbee around 1954.

Bibliography

Online resource: US House of Representatives, History, Art, and Archives, http://history.house.gov (Accessed August 9, 2017), 2006.018.002

Subject

Armchairs

Context

Designed by the Architect of the Capitol, Thomas U. Walker, for the newly renovated and enlarged House chamber in 1857, and ordered for all members. 262 were made, or at least supplied, by Doe Hazelton Company of Boston for $90 each. After the secession of the South, there was a glut, and this chair among others was discarded. Matthew B. Brady, photographer of the Civil War, used it in his studio for portraits of Gen. Grant, Gen. Lee, Gen. Sherman, Pres. Hayes, Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie, among others. The chair was used in the famous photo of Abraham Lincoln with his son Tad, taken days before Lincoln's assassination. Other chairs from this set are at the Smithsonian, in Maine, in the Lincoln Room of Lincoln Memorial University at Harrogate, TN, and in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society. (Information comes from a newspaper clipping from an unknown publication, dated approximately 1954).

See DAPC_1997-0355. According to the House of Representatives website, the order for 262 chairs was split between the Bembe & Kimbel of New York and the Desk Manufacturing Company of Philadelphia (http://history.house.gov/Collection/Detail/15032393341). There is no mention in the record whether Doe Hazelton & Co. supplied the chairs or parts of the chairs. There is no mention of an inscription or label. The attribution was made by Tom Ormsbee in a newspaper clipping from an unknown source (included in the DAPC record) dated c. 1954. The House of Representatives website does have a record for the Walter desk (which accompanies the Walter chair) with an attribution to Doe Hazelton & Co. The Walter desk (unlike the Walter chair) does have a maker's inscription for Doe Hazelton & Co. (http://history.house.gov/Collection/Detail/42870).

Current owner

Unknown

Rights

Metadata and images digitized from the Decorative Arts Photographic Collection of the Winterthur Library. For reproduction requests or more information, contact DAPC at reference@winterthur.org

Source

Decorative Arts Photographic Collection

Date digitized

2017-10-06

Date modified

2018-07-18