Side Chair

Benjamin Randolph

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This magnificently carved chair is part of a suite of furniture made for the Second Street house of General John Cadwalader (1742–1786), which was reputed to have the richest parlor furnishings in pre-Revolutionary Philadelphia. In its ample proportions, saddle seat, and scalloped skirts, the chair is English, but its construction and naturalistic carving are pure Philadelphia.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art