Sugar Bowl

John C. Moore

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 1850, Marshall Lefferts, president of the New York and New England and the New York State telegraph companies, was presented with "a splendid service of plate" to honor his construction of telegraph lines from New York to Boston and Buffalo. It was designed by John C. Moore in the "modern French" style, with floral chasing and rusticated castings. Surmounting the kettle is a figure of Zeus holding lightning bolts—an allegory of electricity.

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