First State Election in Detroit, Michigan, 1837

ca. 1837

Thomas Mickell Burnham American, 1818-1866

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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About the Artwork

Title First State Election in Detroit, Michigan, 1837

Artwork Date ca. 1837

Artist Thomas Mickell Burnham

Life Dates 1818-1866

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 24 1/4 × 30 3/4 inches (61.6 × 78.1 cm) Framed: 34 3/8 × 40 3/8 × 3 3/8 inches (87.3 × 102.6 × 8.6 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Gift of Mrs. Samuel T. Carson

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 57.267

Markings

Inscriptions Banner: No Monopoly | Regular Democratic | Nomination! | For Governor | Stevens Ason[full name of Stevens T. Mason is obscured by hat] Horse's mane: Equal Rights

Provenance

James W. Tillman (d. 1866);
his widow, Martha Conant;
(Mrs. Alpheus S. Williams) Tillman (d. 1903);
her daughter Louise Tillman (Mrs. Samuel T. ) Carson, who placed the painting on loan at the museum on January 31, 1905;
1957-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

“Election of Mason, Detroit in 1937.” Detroit Daily Advertiser (February 4, 1852).

Roberts, Robert Ellis. “Sketches and Reminiscences of the City of the Straits and its Vicinity.” Detroit Free Press, 1884, pp. 106-107.

Farmer, Silas. The History of Detroit and Michigan. Detroit, 1889, pp. 112-113, 359-360.

Ross, Robert Budd. “Fine Arts in 1837.” Detroit Sunday News Tribune. September 9, 1894, p. 17.

Palmer, Friend. Early Days in Detroit. Detroit, 1906, pp. 452, 719-720.

Hemans, Lawton T. Life and Times of Stevens Thomson Mason; the Boy Governor of Michigan. Lansing, 1920, pp. 306-312.

Burroughs, C. “Painting and Sculpture in Michigan.” Michigan History Magazine 20 (1936): pp. 396-397.

Michigan, A Guide to the Wolverine State. St. Claire Shores, MI, 1941, p. 137.

Drepperd, Carl W. American Pioneer Arts and Artists. Springfield, MA, 1942, p. 52.

Groce, George C. The New-York Historical Society’s Dictionary of Artists in America. New Haven, 1957, p. 96.

Walbank and Schrier. Living World History, 2nd ed. New York, 1963, p. 514 (ill.).

Kenny, Sister M. Kilian. “A History of Paintings in Michigan 1850 to World War II.” Ph.D. Diss, Wayne State University. 1965, pp. 19-20, 187.

“Paintings: the People and Places of the Old Northwest Territory.” Antiques 87 (March 1965): p. 305.

Woodford, F.B. and A.M. Woodford. All Our Yesterdays. Detroit, 1969, pp. 82, 380, no. 17.

Williams, Hermann Warner, Jr. Mirror to the American Past: Survey of American Genre Paintings 1750-1900. Greenwich, CT, 1973, p. 103.

Gibson, Arthur Hopkin. Artists of Early Michigan: A Biographical Dictionary of Artists Native to or Active in Michigan 1701-1900. Detroit, 1975, p. 64 (ill.).

Yarnell, James L. and William H. Gerdts. The National Museum of American Art’s Index to American Art Exhibition Catalogues from the Beginning through the 1876 Centennial Year. Boston, 1986, p. 521.

Gerdts, William H. Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting 1710-1920. New York, 1990, p. 232.

American Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts, Volume 2. New York, 1997, pp. 36-39 (ill.).

Saxbe, William B, Jr. “Battle of the Transits: The Toldeo War.” Timeline 4, 5, pp. 2-11.

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Thomas Mickell Burnham, First State Election in Detroit, Michigan, 1837, ca. 1837, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Mrs. Samuel T. Carson, 57.267.