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Curatorial RemarksNote
This lantern with its hexagonal shape and free-standing leaf-shaped finials, is known as a “Liberty Tree” lantern. The design is similar to an example in the Bostonian Society Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, which is thought to have been hung from the “Liberty Tree” at the intersection of Essex and Orange (now Washington) Streets during a demonstration against the Stamp Act in May 1766. When the British Parliament threatened to tax paper goods, such as legal documents, newspapers and even playing cards, colonists rallied against the tax, one of the acts of protest that eventually lead to the Revolution. The Liberty Tree was a large elm that served as a gathering place for colonists opposed to English governance. Effigies and lanterns hung from it, funeral processions passed by it. The tree was cut down by British troops shortly after the start of the Revolution, but the revolutionary spirit could not be so easily destroyed. Thomas Paine included a reference to the tree in his 1775 poem "Liberty Tree": "From the east to the west, blow the trumpet to arms,/ Thro' the land let the sound of it flee,/ Let the far and the near, —all unite with a cheer,/ In defence of our Liberty tree." (see curatorial object file for additional information) [Jessa J. Krick, Collections Manager, 6/30/2016].Note Type
StorageNoteNote
Home Location: Historic Hudson Valley, Van Cortlandt Manor, Milk Room