Chancel of Trinity Chapel, New York

John William Hill

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hill presumably painted this watercolor in recognition of the new Trinity Chapel on West 25th Street. As the population of lower Manhattan swelled unrelentingly in the mid-nineteenth century, wealthy citizens moved to “uptowns” more and more northerly, making services at the original Trinity Church less convenient for them to attend. Designed in 1851 by Richard Upjohn, both buildings were central to the spiritual life of the city’s Anglican elite. The inaugural status of the chapel is here suggested by the baptismal ritual being conducted at left.

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