Gulian Verplanck

John Singleton Copley

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gulian Verplanck (1751–1799) graduated from Kings’s College (now Columbia University) in 1768 and then spent several years in the Netherlands working at the banking firm of his maternal uncle, Daniel Crommelin. In 1788, following his return to New York, Gulian was elected to the state assembly, where he served twice as speaker. He also became president of the Bank of New York and, in 1792, helped found the Tontine Association, a precursor of the New York Stock Exchange. Fruitful in his private life as well, Gulian Verplanck had seven children.

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