Collections: Decorative Arts: Plate (Ulysses S. Grant)

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Plate (Ulysses S. Grant)

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, American presidents were often the subject of pressed-glass objects that most typically celebrated them as political candidates and more rarely memorialized them as political heroes and martyrs. Plate 40.159, showing Grover Cleveland (1837-1908), is presumably a souvenir of his presidential campaign of 1884 or 1892. Cleveland and his running mate, Thomas Hendricks (1819-1885), defeated the Republican candidate James G. Blaine (1830-1893) and his running mate, John "Black Jack" Logan (1826-1886), who are illustrated on plate 40.157, also a campaign souvenir. Plate 40.167 was issued as a memorial remembrance on the death of Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), the leading Union general during the Civil War who became president in 1868. It depicts Grant with the slogan "Let Us Have Peace" and his birth and death dates. The mug decorated with busts of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) and James Garfield (1831-1881) and inscribed "Our Country's Martyrs" refers to the assassinations of these two national leaders in 1865 and 1881 respectively.

• Culture: American
• Medium: Glass
• Place Manufactured: USA
• Dates: ca. 1885
• Dimensions: 1 1/8 x 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. (2.9 x 26.7 x 26.7 cm)
• Inscriptions: Molded inscription encircling central bust portrait: "BORN APRIL 27 1822 [five stars] DIED JULY 23 1885" Molded inscription around rim: "LET US HAVE PEACE / U. S. GRANT"
• Collections: Decorative Arts
• Museum Location: This item is on view in Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor
• Accession Number: 40.167
• Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. William Greig Walker by subscription
• Image: Overall, 40.167.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2004
American. Plate (Ulysses S. Grant), ca. 1885. Glass, 1 1/8 x 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. (2.9 x 26.7 x 26.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. William Greig Walker by subscription, 40.167 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 40.167.jpg)
• Catalogue Description: Amber pressed glass plate. Round with serrated leaf border around rim. In center, molded frontal portrait bust of Ulysses S. Grant surrounded by inscription, "BORN APRIL 27 1822 [five stars] DIED JULY 23 1885". Inscribed around rim: "LET US HAVE PEACE / U. S. GRANT". CONDITION: Good; few tiny chips around edge and footrim.