Minneapolis Institute of Art

Wardrobe

Retailer: B.J. Montgomery & Co.

Date

c. 1863

Medium

Mahogany

Department

Arts of the Americas

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

By the mid-19th century, the wealth generated along the Mississippi River through agriculture processing and distribution, especially of cotton, prompted the importation of manufactured goods to New Orleans. Bundled furnishings unloaded there were transferred to steamboats and sent north, sometimes as far as Minnesota. This Grecian-style wardrobe traveled almost the entire length of the Mississippi - from the New Orleans furniture retailer B.J. Montgomery & Co. to the home of Mrs. James Phelps, wife of a dry goods merchant in St. Paul. Grecian-style furniture is geometric in design and often decorated with richly grained veneers and architectural motifs such as the rounded arches and stylized molding seen here. This imposing object suited the Greek revival and Italianate house being built along the Mississippi during the mid-19th century. United States, Americas

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