Irresistibly Irish:

Decorative Arts from Winterthur's Collection

Ann Wagner, Curator of Decorative Arts, Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library

Ireland’s cultural heritage and arts are deeply imbedded in American museum collections as well as everyday life. Irish immigrants and their descendants wove diverse religious, culinary, artistic, political, and social practices into the fabric of each American colony. This exhibition celebrates those connections with selected artwork that, with a little investigation, shares public and private stories worth retelling. Making the selections was challenging, as innumerable, often unidentified Irish-born artists and craftspeople contributed to “American” arts. Items that carry qualities of “Irishness” across an ocean, and across the ocean of time, provide the sampling of artistic and cultural heritage on display in this exhibition.

The first brainstorming session for an exhibition title considered an invented word, Eirelooms―a  combination of the Gaelic name for Ireland with the idea of an heirloom. The artwork seen here most certainly represents cherished heirlooms. Generations have preserved these items, perhaps for their time and place of creation or ownership histories but also for their sustained power as cultural signifiers. A few incorporate political issues into an artistic and practical object, as with the inscription on a cheerful ceramic jug citing the life and death dates of Daniel O’Connell, an Irish politician whose public speaking style influenced that of American Frederick Douglass (fig. 1). The lasting power of O’Connell’s ideas and words advocating justice and equality resonated with abolitionists on both sides of the Atlantic.

Two works printed on paper are links to social issues in their time that may remind us of our own. Sir John Perceval (fig. 2), an Irish aristocrat, was an early supporter of better living conditions for those in overcrowded British prisons. Working with James Oglethorpe, he advocated for the establishment of the American colony of Georgia as a humane haven for inmates. Likewise, the Hibernian Society of Philadelphia, founded in 1790, provided financial and cultural assistance to Irish immigrants searching for religious freedom and economic opportunities in the young United States (fig. 3). The society’s certificate was designed by Irish immigrant John James Barralet not long after he arrived in Philadelphia. Both objects provide the basis for a deeper look into the stories highlighted by these connections.

Artwork that communicates private memories also enables us to imaginatively bridge the gap in time from the earliest owners. The skillful and colorful crewel needlepoint stitches covering a Bible suggest reverence for the role this book played within a family (fig. 4). The maker, Mrs. Hugh McCulloch, obviously treasured the book, and it most likely traveled with her and her husband from Dublin to a new life in Philadelphia. The cover conveys a desire for not only botanical decoration and personalization but also protection for the contents, which include a family genealogy. Also a memorialized remembrance, the tiny buckle that Irish immigrant Philip Syng, Jr. made in Philadelphia for a woman’s gown communicates emotion just by the secret heart outlined beneath the gold rococo-style frame (fig. 5). Owned first by Sarah Jervis Sandwith, her initials, SS, are engraved on the underside. We do not need a love letter to understand the meaning spelled out in the precious metal.

Henry Francis du Pont, the founder of Winterthur Museum, sought out American fine and decorative arts, manuscripts, and books for their aesthetic as well as historic merit. The items reflecting Irish heritage form just one of many such concentrations, recording the diversity of our colonial and early national history. We have presented a small group here and invite you to discover many more that can be found in the museum rooms at Winterthur (fig. 6).