Paint in the Schuyler Mansion: Restoration

By Jessie Serfilippi

The current paint color in the Formal Parlor.

The Schuyler Mansion’s interior paint underwent a few different restorations between the state’s purchase in 1911 and the latest restoration in the early 1990s. In 1911, at the beginning of State ownership, the original paint was blow-torched off the walls. It was replaced with an inaccurate cream color. Only a few areas, mainly behind the window shutters, remained where later restorers were able to find samples from which they could determine some original paint colors.

The first attempt at uncovering the true colors of the Schuyler Mansion’s walls was in the late 1940s. Starting in 1948, restorers chipped away at the small remaining samples of paint and discovered seventeen layers of paint on the walls of the main hallway. They repeated the process in each room. Underneath all of these samples they discovered a variety of colors, such as gray-blue in the Formal Parlor and pea-green in the Master Bedroom. While the amount of research that went into backing these findings is credible—18^th century paints commonly used in the latter quarter of the century were consulted—the chipping technique the restorers used is not reliable.

According the restoration efforts undertaken by Mount Vernon as documented in an article for House Beautiful in the 1980s, there are several factors that can alter the original paint color’s appearance. Fading of the original pigment— eighteenth century paints in particular are known to fade to colors that differ vastly from the original— dirt, and aging linseed oil, commonly used as a finish, can add to the discoloration of the paint, rendering the chipping technique mostly useless.

In the 1990s, another effort to uncover the real colors of the Schuyler Mansion’s walls was undertaken. This time, there was more technology to aid the restorers in their work, but the same issue earlier restorers faced persisted—there was little paint left to sample. For this study, hand-held magnifiers, raking lights, and a binocular microscope were used to take samples that could provide a stratigraphic look at the paint. A stratigraphic view of the sample allows researchers a comprehensive look at the layers that have been painted onto the walls and is helpful in determining the color of a specific layer of paint.

It is in crevices formed by shutters like these
from the Master Bed Chamber that original paint samples
  may still be found, due to the blow torch's inability to reach them.

These samples were then mounted onto slides and studied under high magnification. Some were exposed to ultraviolet light for a few days so researchers could obtain a better view of the original oil paint. Once a paint color was determined from each sample, they were matched to tones on the Munsell scale. Yet even with the new technology in use, the findings of this study were limited by the lack of sizeable original paint samples. In some instances, original colors could not be definitively determined because the samples taken were too small to be conclusive.

So, what did the walls of the Schuyler Mansion look like when Philip Schuyler called it home? Even though the results from the paint analysis aren’t conclusive for every room, we can still make an educated guess. We’re going to focus on the main hallway, since it runs throughout the home and was a space that was visible to all who entered the house.

From the paint analysis, we know the walls were primed with oil to prevent the pigmented oil paint from seeping into the them. The window seats of the hallways were grained in dark brown. The wooden sidings of the hallway were found to be painted a shade of grey or green. But what if the color the restorers saw on the walls was the faded version of the original? What if the walls were once Prussian blue, as were Mount Vernon’s?

A window seat in the Main Entrance

Prussian blue is known to be vibrant when first applied, and later fades to a green or grey color—exactly the shade restorers found on the walls. It was an expensive color, and one a man as concerned with showing off wealth as Schuyler was would use in a space that all visitors to the home saw.

Even if another analysis with newer technology was performed, the issue of few surviving places with original paint still remains. There are still two other routes to uncovering what these walls truly looked like: a receipt from Schuyler turning up or a newfound account from a guest who goes into greater detail about the space. Until one of these three things happens, the true color of the Schuyler Mansion walls remains a mystery.

The current paint color in the hallway.

Prussian blue at Washington's Mount Vernon.

“Can Do All Sorts of Housework”: The Labor of Enslaved Women

by Ian Mumpton

In the last installment of  “The Servants” we looked at the disparity of records for the lives of women held in bondage by the Schuyler family compared to those of enslaved men. Despite women making up roughly half of the enslaved workforce, they are mentioned by name far less frequently than are the men, and the details of their specific lives and labor often went unrecorded except in the most general terms. Too often these difficulties place a mantle of silence over the experiences of a group of people already marginalized in the documentary record by virtue of their bound status. However, breaking that silence is far from impossible. Where direct documentation is lacking, evidence of general experiences gleaned from a variety of sources, when looked at in the context of the Schuyler family and household, can help paint a surprisingly detailed picture, especially of the sorts of labor performed by these women.

While slave holders might be less likely to record the specific work that they tasked women with on their properties, the skillsets that they sought in their slaves is telling. Slave merchants advertised their “wares” through a variety of printed sources, including handbills, broadsides, and advertisements in newspapers and gazettes. Marketing is nothing new; the advertisers specifically highlighted the skills and backgrounds most likely to appeal to prospective buyers.

The Adverts 250 Project hosts an amazing collection of 18^th century advertisements for all manner of things, from property and tools, to services and wanted ads. They have also amassed an excellent collection of slave advertisements from all across the colonies (which they publish on their Twitter feed). The specific form taken by slavery varied considerably across the colonies however. The experiences of someone in South Carolina could differ markedly from that of someone in Rhode Island, and both of these could differ from the experiences of someone in Albany, New York. Most of the people that the Schuylers enslaved over the years were purchased in Albany or New York City, so we can restrict our search to advertisements published in New York itself. For the purposes of this article, we will be sampling from advertisements published between April 13^th and June 25^th, 1767, just two years after the construction of the Schuylers home in Albany. Let’s dig in!

The most common descriptors applied to the women in these advertisements refer to their ability to do housework. On April 13^th, 1767, a Mr. H. Gaine advertised a 28 year old woman, “who is a tolerable cook, and can do all sorts of housework, fit for town or country.” The same advertisement was run a week later, presumably for the same woman and with the same description.[1] On April 16^th, the New York Journal ran an advertisement for a young woman 17 or 18 years old, described as able to do, “all sorts of House-Work.” This specific phrase, or near identical variations, abound in the sources. On April 16^th of the same year, the New York Gazette ran an ad for, “A Smart likely active Negro Girl, about 14 Years of Age, has had Small-Pox; is very handy, and sold for no Fault but Want of Employ.” On the 20^th, the New York Mercury listed a 25 year old woman, described in the exact same language, with the addendum that she could also cook. H. Gaine used the same sort of terminology to advertise an 18 year old woman and her four month old infant on June 22^nd, saying, “she is a good cook and can do all manner of work, belonging to a house.” These examples indicate that the ability to cook and familiarity with housework were considered two separate areas of accomplishment.

Many of these advertisements are vague to modern eyes, unfamiliar with the types of labor that would have been obvious to a prospective 18^th century buyer. For example, it is clear that an ability to do housework was a desirable skill, but what exactly did that entail? Another posting from April 13^th offers a few specific examples of essential household tasks: “A likely handy Negro Girl, between 13 and 14 Years of Age, that can make Beds, sweep, and do many other Things about the House…” 
In this case, housework refers to general housekeeping ability. Another specific example comes from a June 25^th advertisement, which describes a young woman of sixteen years as being “forward with the Needle, and handy in a family”.

Other advertisements emphasized skills specifically related to country life. On June 22^nd, Robert Lettice Hooper advertised the sale of an entire estate near Trenton in the New York Mercury. In addition to 200 acres of land, a dwelling house, and sundry other property, Hooper advertised that, “The Gentleman that purchases the plantation, may be supplied with three negro men and a wench, that understands all manner of farming.” While the vast majority of Philip Schuyler’s farmland was tended to by tenant farmers, the people enslaved by the family were sometimes tasked with clearing new fields and assisting with agricultural labor. It was also not uncommon to rent the labor of enslaved men and women to assist with such tasks. For example on February 5^th, 1762, Col. John Bradstreet, Philip’s friend and mentor, paid 68 pounds, 9 shillings on Philip’s behalf for, “ye Labour of a Negro man and Wench from ye 9^th of April to ye 29^th of Septembr [sic].”

One area of women’s work that is less often mentioned in the advertisements is personal attendance. Enslaved servants to wait upon one’s person and to assist in daily tasks were considered a clear status symbol and part of the comfortably refined lifestyle of a gentleman or lady. Philip Schuyler was attended by a man named Prince, while several references indicate that the women of the family were attended by female servants. For instance, there are references to an enslaved woman named Caty Betty (or possibly “Caty’s Betty”) who accompanied Catharine Schuyler on travels. In 1781, Alexander Hamilton negotiated the purchase of a woman specifically for his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, likely as a personal attendant. Catharine and Elizabeth would have expected their attending women to aid them with their toilette, caring for children, and as travel companions and assistants.

From sources like these, a picture emerges in which women were assigned a wide variety of tasks associated with the smooth running of an 18^th century estate such as the Schuylers' Albany property. The beautiful furnishings of the house itself required constant upkeep. Seven of the eight chambers of the house featured flocked wallpaper, and the furniture throughout the home was upholstered in fine silks and wools. These ornate textiles are prone to collecting dust, and needed special attention. The carpets- five rooms of which were purchased for the equivalent price of 9,000 loaves of bread- needed to be carefully swept to avoid damage from dirt or gravel being ground into the pile. At times these same women would be expected to assist Catharine and her daughters as personal attendants.

The Schuyler’s home in Albany was more than just an elegant mansion however. The working courtyard attached to the West face of the house, hidden from the view of guests approaching from the river, was the scene for other labor associated with the house, labor which was often assigned to enslaved women. The working courtyard featured a brick kitchen structure where all of the meals would have been prepared. The women assigned to the kitchen would not only have been responsible for food preparation, but for the laborious work of cleaning dishes and laundry, which required hauling large amounts of water, and for the odiously odoriferous task of rendering animal fats to make tallow for soap and candles. While it is unclear to what degree Philip rented out the agricultural labor of enslaved women, livestock in the back courtyard were likely tended to by both men and women, but may have also been assigned to the children of the women working in the courtyard.

Unfortunately, due to the limited number of sources specifically referencing the experiences of the women held in slavery at the site, most of our understandings of their lives comes through extrapolation and generalization, however these generalizations hold true in the wider Albany community, and there is little evidence to suggest any meaningful divergence from the norm at the Schuylers’ home. Work is only one aspect of a person’s life however, and while it is often the first question that we ask in regards to an enslaved person, other important questions can help us uncover even more about the lives of these women. One of our next projects on “The Servants”, will be to try to piece together the familial relationships of the men, women, and children held in bondage by Philip Schuyler. Check back soon! In the meantime, check some of the other series on our blog with the links at the top of the page, and be sure to check us out on Twitter @SchuylerMansion. You can follow the Adverts250 projects on slavery @SlaveAdverts250

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[1] Gaine posted another ad the week after, with the same terminology, however in this third iteration he paid for an eye-catching floral border to the ad and larger, italicized, text. Interestingly, he lists the woman in question as being only twenty years old. This raises questions- Was this a different woman than was advertised previously, or was Gaine trying to make his “wares” more appealing by listing her as younger than she was?

Paint in the Schuyler Mansion: 18th Century Paint

By Jessie Serfilippi

A copy of Schuyler's paint receipt

Painting the interior of a house in the 18^th century greatly differed from modern paint methods. In the 18^th century, paint had to be mixed specifically for each job and used quickly so it wouldn’t develop a skim on top. Paint also came in powdered form, allowing it to be mixed at the convenience of the user. Surprisingly, what these powders were made of not only determined the cost of the paint, but also made certain paint colors into status symbols. Because of this, the wealthy social elite of the colonial era used paint to further display their wealth. As a man of great wealth, Philip Schuyler may have sought to show off his status through paint colors, too.

One of the few paint-related receipts from the early days of the Schuyler Mansion details the colors, form, quantity, and prices for a variety of paints Schuyler purchased. According to this receipt, he bought four bags of white paint “Ground in Oil,” two bags of “Brown paint Ground in oil,” 20 bags of “Umber” paint, two bags of lamp black paint, and three ounces of Prussian Blue. Schuyler also purchased 20 gallons of oil with his paint, indicating that his paint was made from an oil base. Oil paint was made from three main ingredients—linseed oil, the ground-up pigment, and turpentine. 

Out of the four paints purchased, the easiest pigment to make was brown. This was made using whichever minerals were available locally. Most commonly, dirt was used to achieve what was sometimes referred to as Spanish Brown. This paint was commonly used as a primer, so its exact color—which varied widely, from red, to orange, to brown—didn’t matter.

White paint, according to Colonial Williamsburg’s Making History, was not exactly white. It was rather a creamy off-white that sometimes faded to khaki over time. This is because white paint is made from either chalk or lime, which would be available to colonials in nearby quarries. Because the pigment is created through these minerals, a pure white color could only be achieved through white washing. Whether or not Schuyler white-washed after painting anything white is currently unknown.

Lamp black paint, which Schuyler purchased two bags of, was created with either soot from oil lamps or burnt vegetable oil mixed with the base, which was oil in this case. These common resources would make is fairly cheap to produce, much like the brown paint.

Schuyler also purchased umber paint. This is a shade of brown named for the clay material from which it’s derived. The clay is typically mined in Italy or Cyprus, meaning the import value alone likely caused it to be more expensive than the other shade of brown.

The most expensive paint color of all was Prussian blue, of which Schuyler purchased only three ounces. Those three ounces cost 1 pound, 1 shilling, while two bags of brown paint cost him one pound, twelve pence. Prussian blue paint was the first artificially manufactured paint. It was discovered through experimentation with the oxidation of iron by a German man named Diesbach. Not only did it become popular in the centuries following its discovery, but it was also expensive, making it a status symbol. George Washington put it in his home. Did Philip Schuyler, as well? Discover the answer in the next blog post in this series, which will focus on restoring the paint in the Schuyler Mansion!

Prussian Blue at George Washington's Mount Vernon.

Note: A previous version of this article included information on milk paint which has since been removed after further research revealed only questionable historical evidence for the existence of milk paint.