Members of the City Troop and Other Philadelphia Soldiery

Members of the City Troop and Other Philadelphia Soldiery

John Lewis Krimmel

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The oldest active volunteer mounted military unit in the United States, the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry was organized in 1774 in defense of the colonies. Shortly after commencement of war with Great Britain in the summer of 1812, the troop drilled several times a month for over a year; such an assembly may have provided the stimulus for this composition. The elongated proportions and friezelike arrangement of the soldiers depicted here are similar to the figures found in Krimmel's highly successful oil painting View of Center Square on the Fourth of July (1812; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia).

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Members of the City Troop and Other Philadelphia SoldieryMembers of the City Troop and Other Philadelphia SoldieryMembers of the City Troop and Other Philadelphia SoldieryMembers of the City Troop and Other Philadelphia SoldieryMembers of the City Troop and Other Philadelphia Soldiery

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.