This tankard, engraved with the Verplanck family coat of arms, was likely owned by Samuel Verplanck, Sr. (1739-1820), who married Judith Crommelin in 1761. It descended through the Verplanck family to great-great grandson John Bayard Rodgers Verplanck (1883-1955), whose widow donated it to the Society.

John Jacob Taylor Luqueer (1852-1900) received this cup and saucer as a child. Luqueer was descended from an old New York family that traced its roots to the city's early French Huguenot immigrants.

Silver tankards held great meaning for colonial Americans. This example, described by the donor as a "wedding tankard," was presented to Cornelia De Peyster (1690-1756) and Oliver Stephen Teller (1685-1729), who married in New York City in 1712. This tankard descended in the family to Margaret Teller Van Kleeck (1808-1888), who was probably responsible for converting it from a drinking vessel to a pitcher with the addition of a spout. Spouting of tankards was common during the temperance movement as temperance advocates promoted water as a substitute for alcoholic beverages. When the tankard was donated to the Historical Society by Margaret Teller Van Kleeck's granddaughter in 1952, it still had the nineteenth-century spout. By that time, these later additions were viewed as aesthetic (and monetary) liabilities, and in 1962, the N-YHS had the spout of the Teller tankard removed.

This tablespoon belonged to Evert and Mary (McEachran) Bush. Evert Bush was a boat builder in New York from 1790-1833.

Prized for generations as a historical relic, this silver tankard descended through the family of the prominent New York City merchant and banker John Murray (1741-1808). As the engraving on the underside indicates, the family named it the "Murray Hill Tankard," in reference to a widely-perpetuated legend about its role in the Revolutionary War. Countless local and national histories written during the nineteenth century state that John's sister-in-law, Mrs. Robert Murray (Mary Lindley, 1720-1782), entertained the British generals following their landing at Kip's Bay at her country home, Inclenberg, at Murray Hill. It has been hotly debated whether Mary Lindley Murray intentionally distracted the British officers during the lunch while General Israel Putnam led the flight of American troops to Harlem Heights.

Silversmith John Moulinar was born in New York, son of Reverend Jean Joseph Brumauld de Moulinars. He married Elizabeth Bisset in 1743 and was made a freeman in 1744. He served as a lieutenant in an expedition to Canada in 1746. This tankard was acquired by Americana collector Francis P. Garvan (1875-1937) for $750 prior to 1917. In 1948, it was given by Garvan's wife, Mabel Brady Garvan, to her son, Peter D. Garvan, as a Christmas present and engraved with his name.

The American Institute was founded in NY in 1827 as a national organization dedicated to supporting the industrial and agrarian arts. Its annual fairs, held in Mechanics Hall, and later Masonic Hall and Niblo's Garden, were in the words of Luther Bradish, a former Governor of New York and 10th President of the N-YHS, "extensive and brilliant displays of the most valuable specimens of domestic skill and industry." The Institute awarded Corning V. Sotham the mug "for the best Cotswold bucks."

This serving dish was a gift to the donor's mother, Laura Augusta Webb Newman, from her father, Charles Willoughby Dayton, on the occassion of their twenthy-fifth wedding anniversary, January 29, 1899.