Fireplace wall paneling from the Benjamin Hasbrouck House

Fireplace wall paneling from the Benjamin Hasbrouck House

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The paneling on this fireplace wall is made of gumwood, which in the eighteenth century was used almost exclusively in the New York area. The Benjamin Hasbrouck House, from which the paneling was taken, still stands. After a recent on-site investigation, it became apparent from the size of the room in which the paneling was originally installed that two more bays of paneling made up the complete wall, as seen in the photographic re-creation below. The dentil cornice in the room is not original; it was created when the paneling was installed in the American Wing in the 1930s. The figural Dutch tiles around the fireplace were popular in the colonies but did not come from the Hasbrouck House.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fireplace wall paneling from the Benjamin Hasbrouck HouseFireplace wall paneling from the Benjamin Hasbrouck HouseFireplace wall paneling from the Benjamin Hasbrouck HouseFireplace wall paneling from the Benjamin Hasbrouck HouseFireplace wall paneling from the Benjamin Hasbrouck House

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.