Anthony Van Corlaer
Anthony Van Corlaer was a trumpeter for the garrison in New Amsterdam. According to legend, in 1642 Peter Stuyvesant, having learned of an English expedition on its way to seize the colony, ordered Van Corlaer to rouse the villages along the Hudson River with a trumpet call to war. It was a stormy evening when Van Corlaer arrived at the upper end of the island, and as no ferryman was available Van Corlaer vowed to swim across the Harlem River "in spite of the devil", but drowned in the attempt. Some sources state that Spuyten Duyvil, an inlet between Manhattan and the Bronx, is named after this incident.[1]
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Von Corlaer was famous for his enormous, shiny red nose. One story related by Charles M. Skinner tells of a sturgeon killed by a ray of sunlight reflected off its surface. Anthony's Nose Mountain along the Hudson is named for this event.[2]
The 1838 painting Dance on the Battery in the Presence of Peter Stuyvesant by Asher B. Durand depicts Van Corlaer with his trumpet.[3]
In 1893 Howard Pyle painted a picture of Anthony Van Corlaer to serve as the basis for a stained glass window commissioned by the Colonial Club of New York from Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company. The window was removed at some point and on March 30, 1984 was auctioned by Christie's in New York and purchased by the Delaware Art Museum.
Van Corlaer's prior endeavors on behalf of Stuyvesant are mentioned several times in Washington Irving's book A History of New York.[4] Irving also wrote the most popular account of the trumpeter's last deed, ascribing his death to being grabbed by a huge moss bunker.
References
- Notes
- Ed Boland Jr. (October 13, 2002). "F.Y.I. – Beating the Devil". The New York Times.
- Skinner, Charles M. 1896. Myths and Legends of Our Own Land – Volume 1: the Hudson and its Hills p. 39
- "Dance on the Battery in the Presence of Peter Stuyvesant". Museum of the City of New York. Archived from the original on December 1, 2008. Retrieved January 23, 2010.
- Irving, Washington (July 29, 2004) [1809]. "X". A History of New York (eBook). Project Gutenberg. VII. Chicago: W. B. Conkey. OCLC 8381780. Retrieved March 24, 2011.
- Sources
- Myths and Legends of Our Own Land – Volume 1: the Hudson and its hills (at gutenberg.org), Skinner, Charles M. (Charles Montgomery), 1852–1907
External links
- "The Last Blast of Anthony the Trumpeter or The Origin of the name of "Spuyten Tyfel Creek"". United States. 1856. Retrieved January 23, 2010., a longer, more fanciful version of the story