Description:
Cheroot (type of cylindrical cigar) case made of papier mache in black decorated with draped banners over a shield with stars and stripes in gold; handpainted scene of General Zachary Taylor (1784-1850), 12th President of the United States (1849-1850), on horseback in blue, white, brown, yellow, green, and beige; over the inscription "TAYLOR'S VICTORIES on the RIO GRANDE." in gold. After the annexation of Texas in 1845, when war between the United States and Mexico seemed imminent, Taylor was sent with a considerable force into Texas to watch the movements of the Mexicans. In March, 1846, he moved to the banks of the Rio Grande, opposite Matamoras, and in May engaged in two sharp battles with the Mexcans at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma on Texas soil. He entered Mexico on May 18, 1846, and soon afterwards captured the stronghold of Monterey. The scene, which was taken from one of the many engravings celebrating his role in the Mexican War (1746-1747), shows Taylor, wearing a dark blue helmet with white plume and uniform jacket and white gloves and britches, mounted on a brown horse, pointing out his left arm to the river while holding the reins in his right hand; there is a line of small figures of soldiers, rider and horse, and palm tree in the background. The case came from the descendants of Dr. Stephen West Williams (1790-1855) of Deerfield, who married Harriet Taylor Goodhue (1799-1874) in 1818. Harriet was the daughter of Dr. Joseph Goodhue (1762-1849) who was a doctor at Fort Constitution, N.H., and moved to Deerfield by 1822. Stephen and Harriet had four children, one of whom, Dr. Edward Jenner Williams (1823-1881), studied medicine with his father and and then moved to Laona, Illinois, where he married Orilla Nancy Webster in 1856. Two of their three sons and their daughter lived to adulthood - Dr. Henry Smith Williams (1863-1943), Dr. Edward Huntington Williams (1868-1944), and Harriet Goodhue Williams Myers (1867-1949) who wrote a privately printed book (1945), "We Three, Henry, Eddie and Me: Henry Smith Williams, Edward Huntington Williams, Harriet Williams Myers." A folded note inside the case reads in type: "Lacquer eye-glass case 100 years old owned by Harriet Williams Myers." The donor, Dorothy Williams Hartigan, was the daugher of Henry Smith Williams and Florence Whitney Williams, and first cousin of Helen Myers Curtis and her sister, Neva Myers Brown, who were the daughters of Harriet Williams Myers and Raymond Myers. Both Mrs. Hartigan and Mrs. Curtis gave Historic Deerfield a number of Williams/Goodhue family pieces.
Subjects:
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+64.168 |
