AFA Summer 2018

Summer 110 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com S everal major discoveries have recently come to light that offer important new insights on the Muhlenbergs—one of the most influential German-American families in U.S. history. Patriarch Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711–1787) immigrated in 1742 and settled in Trappe, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where he devoted the rest of his life to establishing the Lutheran Church in America. His oldest son, Peter, served as a general in the American Revolution, while the second son, Frederick, was the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and first Signer of the Bill of Rights. The youngest son, Henry Jr., was a renowned botanist nicknamed the “American Linnaeus” and a life-long Lutheran minister. In 1910, Muhlenberg descendants published a genealogy, the Muhlenberg Album, illustrated with black-and-white photographs of family heirlooms. Many of these objects remain in the family or are now in museum collections, but some disappeared. Such was the case with a portrait of Catharine Muhlenberg, painted by Joseph Wright about the same time as his 1790 portrait of her husband Frederick Muhlenberg, until persistent detective work finally unearthed it (Fig. 1). Both portraits are identified in the Muhlenberg Album as the property of Mrs. George Brooke I of Birdsboro, Pennsylvania. Born Mary Baldwin Irwin, she died in 1910, and her husband in 1912. The portrait of Frederick descended through their son Edward’s line and in 1974 was donated to the National Portrait Gallery. 1 But this line of the family knew nothing of Catharine’s portrait. When Monroe Fabian wrote a catalogue raisonné on Joseph Wright, he noted that the original portrait was probably destroyed in a 1917 house fire. In his research notes, however, he theorized the portrait might be in the possession of a Mrs. Samuel Guiberson of Dallas, Texas. 2 More sleuthing identif ied Ms. Guiberson as Elizabeth Muhlenberg Brooke Blake, the only child of George Brooke II; identification had been hampered by numerous name changes as a result of five marriages over the course of her 100-year life. The portrait did not fit in with her contemporary art collection and, after her death in 2016, it was located in the attic of her Newport summer house. Thanks to the generosity of her sons, Tom and Doug Blake, the portrait has now returned to Trappe. It will ultimately be displayed in the home of Frederick and Catharine Muhlenberg, now known as the Speaker’s House, after the conclusion of restoration work on the house (Fig. 2). 3 The 1910 Muhlenberg Album also includes an image of five camp cups inscribed “PM” for Peter Muhlenberg and a tea set bearing the monogram “FCM” for Frederick and Catharine Rediscovering © Muhlenberg Family by Lisa Minardi , Fig. 1: Portrait of Catharine Muhlenberg (1750–1835), attributed to Joseph Wright (1756–1793), New York, ca. 1790. Oil on canvas. H. 49, W. 37¾ inches. Collection of the Blake Family. Photo by Gavin Ashworth. Fig. 2: The Speaker’s House, home of Frederick and Catharine Muhlenberg, Trappe, Pa. Photo by Gavin Ashworth. Fig. 3: Sugar bowl owned by Frederick and Catharine Muhlenberg, made by Christian Wiltberger (1766–1851), Philadelphia, ca. 1790. H. 9½ inches. The Speaker’s House. Photo by Gavin Ashworth.