James H. Hyde Collection of Allegorical Prints of the Four Continents

Call Number

PR 27

Dates

1500-1900, inclusive

; 1600-1800, bulk

Creator

Hyde, James H. (James Hazen), 1876-1959

Extent

7.9 Linear feet (766 prints and some posters)

Language of Materials

English .

Abstract

The James Hazen Hyde Collection consists of 766 prints and some posters from the 16th-20th centuries, the majority of which relate to the theme of the Four Continents. Other minor themes in the collection include historical, religious and political subjects, with a small folder devoted to material on Benjamin Franklin. There are also a number of playing cards, caricatures, and popular prints from Épinal.

Biographical Note

Philanthropist and francophile James Hazen Hyde was born June 6, 1876 in New York city. He graduated from Harvard in 1898 with honors in French and German. He then entered the Equitable Life Assurance Society, the business that his father Henry Baldwin Hyde founded, and was vice president of the firm from 1899-1905. To set the scene for a ball he hosted in 1905, Hyde hired Stanford White to "transform Sherry's into a counterpart of the French court of Louis XVI at Versailles." The ball, which was at first reported to have cost $200,000, caused a scandal that led to an investigation into the insurance industry, at the end of which Hyde resigned from all of his business concerns and relocated to Versailles where he lived until 1941. While living in France, Hyde compiled an extensive collection of allegorical prints. Hyde was one of the founders of the Alliance Française and was awarded the Grand Cross of the French Legion of Honor. He died of pneumonia in Saratoga Springs in 1959.

Arrangement Note

The prints have been kept in the original order devised by Hyde. Hyde divided the allegorical prints roughly by nationality and date while making separate portfolios for religious, historical and political prints, as well as prints from Epinal. Frontispieces and playing cards also merited separate portfolios. While Hyde's order was far from consistent, its preservation was desirable for two reasons: for the historic record of one collector's organizational methods, and for ease of access. At some point prior to their entry into the Historical Society, each of the prints was assigned an "Enregistre" number that corresponded to its place in the original green portfolios. These numbers made it possible to determine Hyde's original order (even those whose original portfolios have been lost) and provide an easy method of identification for future researchers.

The prints are also labeled with "JHH" numbers. These numbers are most likely acquisition numbers for Hyde's entire collection since they run into the 7,000s, and are not sequential except for groups of prints that probably were bought together, such as a set of four prints of four continents.

Three prints had "JHH" numbers but no "Enregistre" numbers, so were arbitrarily assigned the "Enregistre" numbers 3001-3003 and placed loose in Box 1. Similarly, 13 prints had "Enregistre" numbers but no "JHH" numbers. These could be placed in their proper order (in Box 5) but for cataloguing purposes had to be assigned the arbitrary "JHH" numbers 10,001-10,013.

Scope and Contents Note

There are 766 prints in the collection, mostly depicting allegories of the Four continents. Artists used various devices to personify the various continents. American was often shown as a stylized Native American woman, surrounded by exotic animals and plants. Africa was shown with lions, elephants and camels. Asia was shown dressed in rich clothing and surrounded by the riches of the east, while Europe was shown as a queen or aristocrat surrounded with the accouterments of the what was perceived as the center of civilized and cultured life.

In addition to the 600 or so purely allegorical prints, there are roughly 23 prints with religious themes, 30 with historical themes, 8 with political themes, 25 or so caricatures, 8 prints depicting Benjamin Franklin as well as a large number of playing cards. Most of these, however, contain at least a small allegorical figure somewhere within the image. The theme of the Four Continents was made popular by the European explorations of the 16th and 17th centuries and continued to appear well into the 20th century, as Hyde's collection attests. He originally collected the prints, as well as objects donated to other museums, with the intent of publishing a book on the personification of the Four Continents in the major and minor arts.

Subjects

Genres

Engravings (prints); Lithographs.; Playing cards; Woodcuts (prints); Portraits.

People

Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790 -- Portraits

Topics

Allegories; Symbolism in art

Places

Africa –- In art; Asia -– In art; Europe -- In art.

Access to Collection

Collection is open for research; access requires at least 24 hours advance notice.

Access Restrictions

Open to qualified researchers.

Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to 30 photocopies per day per person. Suitability of the original for photocopying is at the discretion of the staff. Neither blueprints nor tracings can be copied under any circumstances. Duplication of large-format items will be done by the house photographer. See Print Room guidelines for details.

Use Restrictions

Permission to reproduce any Print Room holdings through publication must be obtained from:
Rights and Reproductions
The New-York Historical Society
Two West 77th Street
New York, NY 10024
Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282
Fax: (212) 579-8794

The copyright law of the United States governs the making of photocopies and protects unpublished materials as well as published materials. Unpublished materials created before January 1, 1978 cannot be quoted in publication without permission of the copyright holder.

Preferred Citation Note

This collection should be cited as: James H. Hyde Collection of Allegorical Prints of the Four Continents, PR-027, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, New-York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, New-York Historical Society

Provenance

Gift of James Hazen Hyde in 1953 and 1957.

The collection was formed by Hyde in the first half of the 20th century. It appears from a collectors' stamp that appears on all but a few of the prints, that they were at one time housed in the Musee des Art Decoratifs in Paris.

Related Material at The New-York Historical Society

The Manuscript Department of the New York Historical Society has Hyde's correspondence, diaries and other papers from 1891 to 1940. The Society also owns an oil portrait of Hyde by Theobald Chartran, from 1901.

The Metropolitan Museum and The Brooklyn Museum have prints, drawings (61 in MMA) and decorative objects representing the Four Continents from Hyde. The Cooper Hewitt has original ceramic furniture and other decorative art objects (ca. 130 pieces), as well as Hyde's collection of photographs of personifications of the Four Continents (ca. 4000 pieces). The Library of Congress black and white film negatives of the Cooper Hewitt's photographs, and the National Gallery of Art has a tapestry donated by Hyde.

Bibliography

The Four Continents: From the Collection of James Hazen Hyde. New York: Cooper Union, 1961.

Honour, Hugh. The European Vision of America.Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1975-1977.

Hyde, James Hazen. "The Four Parts of the World as Represented in Old-time Pageants and Ballets." Parts I and II. Apollo (Dec. 1926): 232-238 and 5 (Jan. 1927): 19-27.

Hyde, James Hazen. "L'Iconographie des quatre Parties du Monde dans les Tapisseries." Gazette des Beaux-Arts (Nov. 1924).

Obituary. The New York Times. July 27, 1959.

Parker, Alice L. "Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration has presented...." Library of Congress Information Bulletin 19 (Dec. 5, 1960): 694.

Who Was Who in America,vol. 3.

Collection processed by

Louisa Wood Ruby; database migrated to Archivist Toolkit by Jennifer Gargiulo, 2016

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-09-28 12:31:25 -0400.

Language: Finding aid written in English.

Repository

New-York Historical Society

Series I: Allegorical, Mixed Nationalities

Series II: Oversize prints (allegorical, mixed nationalities)

Series III: Allegorical, French and Irish

Series IV: Caricatures, Irish

Series VII: Allegorical, American and English

Series VIII: Allegorical, French

Artist: Printmaker: Publisher:

Artist: Printmaker: Publisher:

Series XIII: Images D'Epinal, French

Series XIV: Frontispieces with Allegorical and Playing Cards

Series XV: Allegorical, German

Artist: De Troy Printmaker: Cx Publisher:

The Royal Mail Line to New York (JHH# 4222 / Enregistre# 1756)

Folder: Portfolio 13-1 (Material Type: Graphic Materials)

General note

20th Century English Color Lithograph

General note

Artist: Printmaker: Publisher: Sanders Phillips and Co.

Series XVII: Political

Series XVIII: Franklin

Folder: Portfolio 14-1B (Material Type: Graphic Materials)

General note

19th Century French Reproductive print

General note

Artist: Printmaker: Publisher:

Artist: Printmaker: Publisher:

Amerique (JHH# 6264 / Enregistre# 1838)

Folder: Portfolio 14-2 (Material Type: Graphic Materials)

General note

19th Century French Aquatint

General note

Artist: Printmaker: Paul Legrand Publisher: Dopter

Series XXI: Allegorical, Netherlands

Artist: Joannes Stradanus Printmaker: Adrianus Collaert Publisher: Philippe Galle

Artist: Printmaker: Publisher: Johnson, Fry & Co.

Brand der Philadelphia vor Tripolis (JHH# 10013 / Enregistre# 2019h)

Folder: Portfolio 19 (Material Type: Graphic Materials)

General note

19th Century German Etching

General note

Artist: Printmaker: Publisher: