Burning of the City Hall New York, on the night of the 17th August 1858 – Supposed to have taken fire from the fire works exhibited in commemoration of the successful laying of the Atlantic telegraph cable

Burning of the City Hall New York, on the night of the 17th August 1858 – Supposed to have taken fire from the fire works exhibited in commemoration of the successful laying of the Atlantic telegraph cable

Currier & Ives

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A fireworks display in 1858 led to the near destruction of New York’s City Hall. The occasion was the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable. When the USS Niagara arrived in Brooklyn from Newfoundland, where the cable came ashore in North America, New York responded by illuminating public buildings and shooting pyrotechnics over City Hall Park. Unnoticed sparks penetrated the metal covering of the dome and, by the morning of August 18, the roof was ablaze. Currier & Ives, with offices on nearby Nassau Street, quickly issued this hand-colored lithograph. Unfortunately, the cable itself also experienced problems and failed after three weeks.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Burning of the City Hall New York, on the night of the 17th August 1858 – Supposed to have taken fire from the fire works exhibited in commemoration of the successful laying of the Atlantic telegraph cableBurning of the City Hall New York, on the night of the 17th August 1858 – Supposed to have taken fire from the fire works exhibited in commemoration of the successful laying of the Atlantic telegraph cableBurning of the City Hall New York, on the night of the 17th August 1858 – Supposed to have taken fire from the fire works exhibited in commemoration of the successful laying of the Atlantic telegraph cableBurning of the City Hall New York, on the night of the 17th August 1858 – Supposed to have taken fire from the fire works exhibited in commemoration of the successful laying of the Atlantic telegraph cableBurning of the City Hall New York, on the night of the 17th August 1858 – Supposed to have taken fire from the fire works exhibited in commemoration of the successful laying of the Atlantic telegraph cable

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.