"It Happened Here: the Invention of Santa Claus" Exhibition
The New-York Historical Society
This event has ended.
To celebrate the winter season, the New-York Historical Society is presenting "It Happened Here: The Invention of Santa Claus," an installation tracing the modern image of Santa Claus, the red-suited, pot-bellied descendant of the medieval bishop St. Nicholas of Myra, which emerged only decades after the first Congress met in 1788 in Federal Hall in New York. The exhibition features Robert Weir's 1837 painting of a rather sly St. Nicholas and Thomas Nast's Harper's Weekly cartoons of Santa. Clement Clarke Moore's desk is on display in the Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture.
[Image: Robert Walter Weir, St. Nicholas, 1837, Oil on wood panel.]
Media
Schedule
from November 27, 2010 to January 07, 2011
Artist(s)
Robert Weir, Thomas Nast, Clement Clarke Moore et al.