Tea water pump

William P. Chappel

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Before the completion of the Croton Aqueduct in 1842, fresh water was scarce in Manhattan. Wells often produced brackish water and those that did not eventually became polluted as the city’s population swelled. Such was the fate of the Tea Water Pump at Chatham and Roosevelt, fed by the nearby Fresh Water Pond. By the end of the eighteenth century, the seventy-acre pond in the sixth ward was a noxious mix of dead animals, sewage, and, especially, industrial waste from the local tanneries and potteries. Without other options, poor residents had to buy the tainted city water from local cartmen at a penny per gallon.

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