General Winfield Scott Hancock

J. Wilson Alexander MacDonald

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hancock (1824-1886) graduated from West Point in 1844 in the same class with Ulysses S. Grant and Stonewall Jackson. He won lasting fame as one of the great Civil War soldiers for his part in the Union victory at Gettysburg in 1863. In 1880 Hancock was nominated as the Democratic candidate for president, but was narrowly defeated by James A. Garfield. That year MacDonald took a life mask of Hancock and, using it as a model, created this heroic bronze portrait. The herm-form bust is undraped except for a ribbon that crosses the chest, signaling military distinction. An over-life-size version was presented to the City of New York by the veterans of Hancock Post, Number 259. It was dedicated in 1893 and is located at the confluence of Manhattan and St. Nicholas Avenues at 124th Street.

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