Page two at the library
by Don Rittner

Let's continue this week exploring the works of art in the Troy Public Library (Hart Memorial), on Second Street.

Last week we talked about what could be found inside and along the elaborately carved marble walls - besides books. The Troy Public Library lives up to it's renaissance flavor by holding a collection of 19th century paintings, friezes, marble and bronze statues, engravings, stuffed birds, and other americana, including an original Tiffany window. I cannot think of any other local library that has this unique collection of books and artifacts in our area.

Marble pieces not discussed last week include the life size sculpture of Esmeralda & The Goat (from the Hunchback of Notre Dame story) attributed to Antonio Rossetti of Rome (1867). It's located in the northwest corner of the Lobby (an identical piece, though different pedestal, is at the Union League in Philadelphia).

Inside the Children's Room, tucked in the corner is a beautiful carved figure of a child with legs cross reading a book although no attribution is given. Another lovely piece of marble, a silouettte, called II Penseroso is framed on a pedestal next to the fireplace in the reading room upstairs. It was created by Launt Thompson (1833-1894), an Irishman who studied with Erastus Dow Palmer and was a member of the famous Academy of Design. The piece was purchased in 1861 for the library and is based on Milton's moody poem Il Penseroso or Handel's musical version of it.

"Sleeping Peri" a marble bust by Erastus Palmer created probably in the 1850's is now in storage in the basement. Palmer, an Albany carpenter turned artist became world famous and executed about 100 cameo portraits and many portrait-busts, such as Alexander Hamilton, Commander Matthew C. Perry, and Washington Irving. The Sleeping Peri and three others (The Emigrant Children, The Little Peasant, The White Captive) are considered his best work. In Persian mythology, a Peri was a supernatural being or fallen angel who was denied paradise until penance was obtained. Originally agents of evil, they were identified as benevolent spirits in later mythology. An anonymous poem inspired by this statue can be found in "The Sleeping Peri. Lines Suggested by Palmer's Statue. The Continental Monthly, vol. 4, issue 2 (August 1863), pages 159-160."

A bronze clock with Christopher Columbus seated on a coiled rope sits on the mantel in the administration office. This was made by the sculptor Louis Cox.

Right above the sculpture of Atalanta as you walk up the stairs to the second floor hangs a 3 by 18 foot plaster frieze mural called Six Horses and Nine Men, a smaller version of the original one on the Parthenon (1 meter tall by 160 meters in length), one of the largest relief sculptures of the ancient world. It depicts the Panathenaic procession, a procession that took place during the Panathenaia, an ancient Athenian festival that celebrates Athena's birthday for 28 days during the summer.

Throughout the library you can find prints depicting various Troy scenes such as the falls at Mt. Ida, or scenes of Troy from different vantage points, all 19th century views.

For Civil War buffs, upstairs in a small room off the fireplace, sitting on top of a book case, is the remains of an American Battle Flag that left for war with Company E of the Harris Light Cavalry on August 12, 1861. This tattered flag was the first to enter the fortifications of Centerville, Manassas, as well as Falmouth and one of the first into the battle at Fredericksburg. It was given to the Young Men's Association in 1905 "to whose keeping it has been so handsomely committed, with all the care that so precious a memento of the valor of our Troy soldiers in the war for the salvation of the republic deserves to be kept."

Next to the flag is a framed original 18th century copy of one of Lansingburgh's first newspapers, the Farmer's Oracle.

As you begin the flight downstairs to the basement on the Ferry Street side you are confronted with a large exhibit case filled with stuffed birds from around the world. As a kid I also remember one filled with butterflies and a third I believe were larger animals. While the cases are still there, the specimens are gone. Many of the natural history specimens were donated to the library when the Troy Lyceum of Natural History folded. This was one of the first such scientific societies in America and was founded by Amos Eaton and others in 1818. The rocks, minerals, and fossils were given to RPI and the natural history material went to the library.