Fanlight from Craig House, Baltimore, Maryland

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This fanlight came from a house formerly located at 915 East Pratt Street in Baltimore, Maryland. Built around 1810 for Henry Craig, a prosperous merchant, the brick, three-story, Federal style structure was a particularly large and elaborate example of the many townhouses being built at the time for the city's wealthy mercantile class. Fanlights, often installed over windows and doors, functioned as a means of bringing light into the interior of the house. The spare, elegant design of this fanlight is characteristic of the Federal style, which became popular in the late eighteenth century. The Museum acquired it in 1918, along with various other architectural elements from the Craig dwelling. These include the woodwork from the front parlor, two sidelights, and a mantel (18.101.1–.3).

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