Anthony Van Arsdale Winans: New York Merchant, and His Daughter—The Canary of Lago Maggiore

Abstract

A.V. Winans’ was one of many merchants to experience loss in the “Great Fire of 1835” a conflagration that destroyed 17 city blocks in the heart of New York City. Approximately 150 years later, archaeologists at the Assay site discovered vestiges of Winans’ warehouse including merchandise stored there on the very day of the disaster. These artifacts provided details about the range of Winans’ inventory but provided few particulars about the man. Using archaeological and documentary evidence to explore Winans’ business and personal lives, it has been possible to piece together, at least in part, the story of one man’s rise from obscurity as the son of an indigent New Jersey hatter and Revolutionary War hero, to become a prominent New York City merchant. It also reveals Winans as an individualist with a common-law wife and charismatic daughter who performed opera, married a Russian prince, and gave birth to two of the most talented artists of the early twentieth century.