Walter Launt Palmer (1854-1932)
Library at Arbor Hill (Olcott Interior)
Oil on canvas, 1878
AIHA Collection: Gift of the Estate of Robert W. Olcott

In 1878, Palmer (son of sculptor Erastus Dow Palmer) painted this interior of the home today known as the Ten Broeck Mansion. Seated within is the house's owner, Thomas Worth Olcott (1795-1880), a prominent Albany banker. The furnishings are an eclectic mix of personal possessions, oriental rugs, a Shaker chair, a Japanese screen and a marble bust of Mary Olcott sculpted by Erastus Dow Palmer.

Inclusion of the elderly Mr. Olcott reading a morning newspaper gives an idea of his social and economic status; he had both the means to pursue and acquire his possessions and the leisure time to enjoy them.

Ariaantie Coeymans Verplanck

by Nehemia Partridge

A Sculptor's Studio

by Tompkins H. Matteson

The Fondey Family

by Ezra Ames

Still Life: Fruit in a Classical Setting

by John Vanderlyn, Jr.

The Fist

by Alice Morgan Wright

Margin of Silence

by Kay Sage

Thoroughbreds

by Walter L. Greene

Bust of Young Girl

by Charles Calverley

Library at Arbor Hill (Olcott Interior)

by Walter Launt Palmer

Emma Turner Banks

by Charles Loring Elliot