Militia Drilling

William P. Chappel

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Though New York City was not attacked during the War of 1812, residents feverishly reinforced fortifications and militia regiments trained in preparation for the worst. Here, militiamen are drilling near one of the city’s four arsenals, which was built in 1808, when the state authorized the construction of "an arsenal, laboratory and workshops and ordnance yard ... between Elm and Collect streets, not to exceed the sum of $13,000," according to an 1889 history of New York during the War of 1812. In the foreground are the remnants of Fresh Water, or Collect, Pond. In 1803, New York began draining the heavily polluted pond, which was then replaced in 1815 by the infamous Five Points neighborhood.

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