Good morning. It's Tuesday. We'll look at several takes on Washington's famous crossing of the Delaware 246 years ago. We'll also see why some famous historical documents are locked away, unseen, in Trenton, N.J. |
 | | Sarah Yenesel/EPA, via Shutterstock |
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Let's be New York-centric. (As if a newsletter called New York Today would not be.) |
This is for us, the New Yorkers who did not spend a few hours on Christmas Day standing on a frigid riverbank 70 miles away, hoping to see a bunch of people clamber into flat-bottom boats and set sail for New Jersey. They were re-enacting Washington's crossing of the Delaware, which made possible a sneak attack on pro-British Hessians in Trenton that was a turning point in the Revolution. |
On Sunday things did not go the way they did on Dec. 25, 1776. Nobody went anywhere this time. No one even got in the boats. |
When the park put out the word on social media, "a lot of people were like, 'You're not going to cross? When Washington was here, his men were poorly dressed, and they did it,'" Martin said. "I was like, 'On Christmas, those men were soldiers during war. These men are investment bankers and retired individuals.'" |
New Yorkers can take in Washington's crossing 309 days a year. Emanuel Leutze's 1851 painting "Washington Crossing the Delaware" is a mainstay at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (The Met is closed for four holidays a year and every Wednesday. You do the math. And yes, this famously patriotic painting was the work of a German artist.) |
"It's one of our most iconic works," said Sylvia Yount, the head of the Met's American Wing. "People come and celebrate the simple narrative of patriotism." |
"It's just not a factual picture, which a lot of people think it is," Yount said. |
Others who have studied the painting say that Washington probably wouldn't have stood near the bow, as Leutze showed him. The future president James Monroe didn't stand behind him, holding the flag. (Monroe had gone ahead, to secure the route, and the flag in the painting was not designed until later.) |
Also, the weather was different from the conditions that Leutze painted, and the boat in the painting is too small to carry everyone Leutze piled into it. |
"But choosing Washington as kind of a figure, even though he was very much a Virginia native son, could be seen as uniting North and South," in the decade before the Civil War when Leutze completed the painting, so he "was playing into that kind of founding-origin story," Yount said. |
 | | Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles |
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For the next couple of months, a takeoff on the Leutze painting is steps away: "George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page From an American History Textbook," a 1975 canvas that was once described as "a satirical intervention in American history, culture and politics." It presents the Black educator and agricultural researcher at the helm of a boatload of Black stereotypes. |
"Scholars will write about this moment at the Met," said Sandra Jackson-Dumont, the director and chief executive of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, which owns the Colescott. "It's not just about these two paintings coming together, it's where they're coming together, it's how they're coming together." |
The Colescott is "at once a criticism of America and how it's treated its citizens," she said, "and it's also lifting up some of the most incredibly, like, I mean, heart-wrenching, stereotypes and elevating them to the point where it's saying look at America. This painting is about look at America. This is about look at this America." |
Enjoy a sunny day with high temps in the mid-30s. At night, the low will be around freezing. |
In effect until Sunday (New Year's Day). |
 | | Jalen Wright for The New York Times |
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Why priceless archives are kept in a drawer |
 | | Natalie Keyssar for The New York Times |
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On the subject of the colonials, New Jersey's original, ink-blotched state Constitution from July 1776 — the document that declared the stalwart colony's independence from Britain — sits in a drawer in a climate-controlled vault in an office building down the street from the New Jersey State House in Trenton. It's where many of New Jersey's priceless documents are kept, not in a museum where they could be seen. |
Also in that drawer in the state archives is an earlier document that carries the seal of King George III and made William Franklin's appointment as governor official. It spells out Franklin's powers to preside as an agent of the crown, which he did until 1776, when the Declaration of Independence sent him packing. His father was one of the signers, by the way — Benjamin Franklin. |
In anticipation of the 250th anniversary of the Revolution four years from now, New Jersey named the nonprofit Crossroads of the American Revolution to manage the federally designated heritage area that includes the state's Revolutionary War sites. The state arranged a public-private partnership between Crossroads and the New Jersey Historical Commission to plan how to observe the anniversary. |
Crossroads requested $46 million in the most recent state budget for Revolutionary War sites; the state appropriated $25 million. No money was allotted for the Revolutionary War Experience Center proposed for the State House grounds that was to have included a rotating selection of items from the archives. |
"People might say, 'Nobody cares about the Revolutionary War,' but it's in the news every day, with all these discussions of democracy here, and what did the Founding Fathers mean?" said Sally Lane, the board chairwoman of Crossroads. "The unfinished promise of the American Revolution is what we're all contending with." |
Every week since 1976, Metropolitan Diary has published stories by, and for, New Yorkers. Readers helped us pick the best Diary entry of the year, and 'The Scream' claimed the top spot in this year's voting. |
It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving in 2012, and my mother, who was 89 at the time, and I were on our way to the Museum of Modern Art to view Edvard Munch's "The Scream." As it turned out, she was correct in her feeling that this trip to MoMA might be her last of many. |
We took the train in to the city and then rode the subway before walking the last few blocks. It was a struggle for her, but she wouldn't let me hail a cab. |
After arriving at the museum, we bought tickets, checked our coats and proceeded up several escalators to the large gallery where Munch's masterpiece was on display. |
Alas, even as big as the gallery was, it was overflowing with people. There was no way I was going to be able to navigate my frail, fragile mother through the elbow-to-elbow crowd. |
"Mom," I whispered, disappointed, "it looks like it's just not our day." |
We were turning to leave when, without saying a word to us, a museum guard who was standing nearby sprang into action. |
"Pardon me!" he said in a booming voice, gently but firmly parting the crowd. "Pardon me, please!" |
He continued this way until he had created a path and was standing just two feet from the painting. Everyone watched him expectantly. |
He turned, found my mother with his eyes and silently waved her forward. I steadied her until we were right in front of "The Scream." |
We lingered there for over a minute, taking in all the inimitable painting had to offer before thanking the guard and the crowd and making our way out. |
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. |
| Morgan Malget and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. |
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