USA: Albany Institute of History and Art opens exhibition on Schuyler Sisters

The Schuylers were a prominent family in New York in the 18th and 19th centuries, who played a central role in the formation of the United States during the Revolutionary War. The Schuyler Sisters, Angelica, Elizabeth and Margaret (Peggy) are especially well known from their prominent feature in Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, ‘Hamilton: An American Musical’.

Dutch families in the 18th century

Their parents, Catherine Van Rensselaer (1734-1803) and Philip Schuyler (1733-1804), were descendants of early Dutch settlers who arrived in the Hudson Valley in the mid-17th century and established the colony of New Netherland. Immense tracts of land were owned by a few wealthy Dutch families, who were interrelated by blood and marriage. After the English took over in 1664 and renamed the colony New York, these families maintained Dutch customs and often spoke Dutch within their households.

Catharine Schuyler raised her daughters with an awareness of their colonial Dutch New York heritage and their connections to members of the prominent Ten Broeck, Livingston, Bayard, Van Rensselaer, and Van Cortlandt families. The exhibition ‘Schuyler Sisters and Their Circle’ includes the example of the Dutch bible and Delft tiles from their homes and uses clothing, decorative arts, portraits, and manuscripts from the Revolutionary Period to the Federal Period to tell the stories of the Schuyler women.

Revolutionary history

The exhibition presented at the Albany Institute of History and Art discusses the wide-ranging interests of Catharine and her three eldest daughters Angelica, Elizabeth, and Margaret, who witnessed history unfold in Albany, New York, Philadelphia, Paris and London. As the wife of Alexander Hamilton, Eliza witnessed events that shaped the United States in the years following the Revolution. For many years, Angelica lived abroad where she entertained royalty, diplomats and artists in Paris and London. She maintained life-long friendships with the prominent figures she met, like Thomas Jefferson, and patronised artist John Trumbull. Peggy married Stephen Van Rensselaer III who ranks 10th on Business Insider’s list of wealthiest North Americans of all time.

This exhibition was supported by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York.