Treasury Building from J. P. Morgan's Office
Artist/Maker
Berenice Abbott
United States, 1898 - 1991
Date1938 (printed 1979)
CultureAmerican
Mediumgelatin silver print
DimensionsSight: 19 1/2 x 15 3/8 in. (49.5 x 39.1 cm)
Mat: 30 x 24 in. (76.2 x 61 cm)
Mat: 30 x 24 in. (76.2 x 61 cm)
ClassificationsVisual Works
Credit LineGift of Milton E. Feldman
Terms
Object number81.0511.04
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionThere is no irony in Abbott's choosing to photograph the former Sub-Treasury Building (1862-1925), which was from the office of J.P. Morgan. (Jack Morgan - J.P. Morgan, Jr. - the son of banking legend J. Pierpont Morgan, headed the dynastic firm, House of Morgan, from 1913-1943.) Rather, the image of one Wall Street fiduciary icon obliquely frozen in time within the scrutiny of another, in the heart of Manhattan's financial district, suggests the intimate, powerful, and ongoing relationship be-tween public and private commercial institutions. Occupying the site of New York's second city hall, where George Washington was sworn in as President and which served as the seat of the federal govern-ment until 1790, the present neo-classical building, inspired by the Parthenon, was built (1833-1842) as the U.S. Custom House. Designed by prominent architects Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis, Federal Hall National Memorial is New York's finest extant Greek Revival temple front.- Art of North America