Get a 360-degree view of Philip Schuyler, his family, and his household
Philip Schuyler was painted by John Trumbull in 1792. On March 2, the New Scotland Historical Association will host a free program titled “Who Was Philip Schuyler? A Look from Many Angles” presented by Heidi Hill, site manager at the Schuyler Mansion Historic Site.
To the Editor:
Philip Schuyler helped shape the newly independent United States. Major general, United States Senator, Surveyor General of New York, founder of Union College, entrepreneur, he was also a slave owner. His legacy is broad, deep, and complex.
At the New Scotland Historical Association’s March program, Heidi Hill, site manager at the Schuyler Mansion Historic Site, will provide a 360-degree view of Schuyler, his family, and household.
As schoolchildren, many of us enjoyed field trips to the Schuyler Mansion. Many illustrious visitors stood in its rooms. Among them were George Washington; Benjamin Franklin; British General John Burgoyne (defeated at the Battle of Saratoga, he visited the mansion while a prisoner of war); Marquis de Lafayette; and, of course, Alexander Hamilton, whose marriage to Schuyler’s daughter, Elizabeth, took place at the mansion.
As children, we probably most were struck by the gash on the stair rail said to have been the result of a tomahawk thrown by a raiding party of British soldiers and Tories in a desperate and violent attempt to kidnap Philip Schuyler — their goal being to demoralize the war effort by putting him and other patriots on trial for treason, resulting in possible hanging.
Schuyler escaped, but several others were wounded, and two of Schuyler’s guards were taken prisoner along with some of the house silver.
Besides the cut in the banister that we were all allowed to run our fingers through as visiting children, there is so much more to the story of Philip Schuyler, his family, and those who lived in his household.
For an informative afternoon about one of Albany’s most influential figures and the always ongoing research and discoveries about him, please join us at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 2, at the Wyman Osterhout Community Center in New Salem on 7 The Old New Salem Road; https://www.newscotlandhistory.org/
Admission is always free.
The New Scotland Historical Association Museum will be open for a half-hour before the program.
Judy Kimes
Publicist
New Scotland Historical Association
