Operation and the home was passed down through several generations of the myers family. We toured to see the furnishings and learn what life was like the prominent merchant family. Hello. Welcome to the moses myers house. Moses myers was born in new york city in 1752 and he made his fortune as a maritime merchant. He did serve as an American Revolutionary war veteran and as a direct result of his efforts, he unfortunately suffered his first bankruptcy. That bankruptcy that caused him to move away from new york city here in norfolk, virginia. We think he chose perfect for three important reasons. Norfolk was one of the most prominent colonial seaports. That was very important in his business life. Norfolk had been burnt to the ground during the american revolution. We were rebuilding and he was it was ag his life, so good match. And thirdly and probably most important, virginia had just passed to be statute of religious freedom five years before the bill of rights. This would be important to moses and his new bride eliza because they were jewish. They moved to norfolk, virginia in 1787, becoming norfolks First Permanent jewish residents. They reestablish their business, and by 1791, they were doing well enough to purchase this lot of land and begin instruction on this beautiful federalist style mansion. They moved in i17 95. By 7095. They are the only family to house untiln this the game a museum in 1931. One of the great things about that is they left the house in tact. A majority of the furnishings we will see are not only period antiques, but they actually date the first generation of the myers family. If you look up above us, you can see one of the finest examples of neoclassical plasterwork to be found in this time period. The robert is in adams style. We also have over here a , an original to the house and the family. This is the first room many guests would have seen. They would have been welcomed into this room. And you only get to see the rest of the house if you are vip or a friend of the family. And you are a friend of the family, so come on in. To introduce you to the myers family. We have mosese myers himself and on our right hand side, we have a eliza myers. These two portraits were painted by the stewart, the same artist that painted the portrait of George Washington that is on the one dollar bill. Above the fireplace, we have the eldest son john. This portrait was painted by thomas foley. Above this door we have samuel myers, the second oldest son, minor myers,ave the third eldest son. In total, they had 12 children, nine of whom lived into adulthood. Six were boys, three were girls. , areight ask yourself these the original colors on the wall . Are these the original furnishings . On the first floor, we have the house set more or less looked in 1819, and the reason we know what was in each room in 1819 was moses myers suffered a second bankruptcy. There was kind of a panic in that year and he had overextended himself by opening a branch for his eldest son john. When the panic hits, he had to file bankruptcy. They did an inventory of the entire house. They used this inventory to place 100 people in the 100 mansion. The original if you look at this picture, you will see it looks much different. When they dug underneath the layers of paint, they struck gold. It only had to be prepared in a few places. This is one of the most elaborately gilded fireplaces in america at this time. Here, i wouldr love to bring you into the parlor. Originally, this room was served as the dining room to the family ons noted by the food motif the mantle. When they build the later dining room edition in 1810, it allowed them to transform this dining room into a parlor. This was a room where they played games. They love games of chance. Trainedhe children were musicians. Girls played the heart. The harp the boys play the violin. All nine of the children sang. They had one of the largest collections of music to be found anywhere in antebellum america. Another door, we have portrait. You may ask yourself, being of the jewish faith, how did they find people of the same faith to marry . I will tell you, it was very difficult. And meyer myers married sisters louisa and judith. You can see the original glass and to original oil lamps. These may be one of the first set of lamps and virginia as moses would have had access to whale oil during a time when not many people had that sort of oil. Escortth me and i will you to the dining room. Ground nding in the grand dining room. This was added around 1810. Many of the furnishings are originals. This is the original table. We have 12 beautiful have a white chairs. We have to original sideboards custombuilt for this room. There is still an exact measure that are not interchangeable. One of these nooks is shorter than the other. The back legs are tucked into baseboards. These sideboards have been in this exact location for over 200 years. The moses myers family were known as a great entertainers. , did theyeople ask us have a kosher diet, and the answer to that is, no. To keep anot able kosher diet. Even though they celebrated passover and yom kippur, they also had occasion to eat oysters on Christmas Day and we do know that from one of their journals. They also had other types of in this room like balls, weddings, and funerals. Thatinteresting to think looking out, most of the other points in this area would have been one story, maybe two wooden structures. Most other family homes in this area would have been single room , may be size of this landing if you are lucky the size of this landing. This room was used for storage. ,hey had at about 30 armchairs which is another sign of their wealth that they had place where they could store things. Space was a luxury not many afford. N norfolk could if youre looking here, this is some of the original myers cuply class and this is a used in jewish ceremonies and rituals. From here, we will enter the master bedroom. The majority of the furniture you are seeing is original to the family. This is the actual bed moses myers slept then and unfortunately, the bed that he died in. This is a locally made piece of furniture by local craftsman James Woodward and you can see the acorn above the headboard. That is a symbol of wealth. One of the things this family definitely had going for it. This is a great place we can look at the form and function and furniture. The canopy bed is still popular today. Back then, they had mosquito netting for summertime or heavy curtains for winter. And a swing back chair to be pulled forwards toward the fire and the wings act as walls to circulate the heat. You what is inw this closet. Here, we have some of the myers clothing. On your left, that may have been that moses was wearing in the 1785 miniature portrait. Many guests point out to us they would love to live in this time, to there were many drawbacks the 17 and 1800s. One of those aspects was slavery. A slave would commend, stoked pot,ire, empty the chamber and even use this object here on the bed this is a bed warmer. Is this blanket, there this warm to the bed before the myers got into bed at night. Just a couple of the tasks that the enslaved servants is expected to do. We would like to show you more. Follow me to the kitchen. We are now standing in the moses myers family kitchen. Built aroundably 1797. This is one of the homes where the furniture is not original to the family. What is original is the flooring. We are standing on ballot stone and you see the brick extends out and that is because brick is a natural heat conductor and you could put pots and pans here to keep them warm. This wouldve been one of the busiest rooms in the house the myers servants and slaves were coming and going from this kitchen and would have taken their meals in this room. Above this room, there are sleeping quarters for enslaved services. Urban slavery was very different slavery. Tation here in town, the enslaved servants had time to interact with other free blacks in norfolk, and they could earn a wage. If moses myers did not have any work for enslaved servants, they could hire themselves out. Billy was a skilled tradesmen. He was a cooper who built barrels and boxes. This would have been very important to moses and his shipping. Now we are standing in the moses myers maritime merchant room. On this wall, you can see a map of the atlantic. These are all of the different seaports were moses myers shifts wouldve made call and we emphasize the different types of cargo. Cargoes. Erent suffer some ill side effects from their religion. Taken a shipment of tobacco to norway. Foray recently passed laws bidding choose from profiting from trade. Sent their son meyer myers to recover a shipment of tobacco. He was warned by a friend one of the first things he would be asked was what religion. Because he was forewarned, he feigned illness and sent his servant to get the passport for him. Luckily, the officials were so taken aback, they forgot to ask what religion, and in this way, he was able to obtain a passport. The merchants who received tobacco were still seeking to hide behind this lot and they in for being jewish. He appeared before the magistrate, who demanded that he present a certificate of baptism. , who do you know that carries around a certificate of baptism . He said name any doctor and i will go get an examination and thereby prove i am not jewish. And imo to the doctor not sure if may be money changed hands, but we do know he was able to prove he was not jewish. He spent five years in norway trying to recover that shipment of tobacco or the payment thereof and never received for payment. We have other maritime this whichincluding belong to the youngest son, henry myers and kind of your oldfashioned gps. The angle ofasure the sun. This belong to the youngest son whoy hires henry myers joined the navy and invents and unfortunately died of yellow fever. Barton myers was the greatgrandson of myers. It was his wife who left the house to become a museum. By the age of 35, barton myers had already founded to factories , was president of the chamber of commerce, was instrumental in getting many railroad mines and in norfolk, and had served as mayor of norfolk, all by the age of 35. One of the most important things barton myers did was in 1907 he was on the board of directors for an expedition. The exhibition was held in norfolk to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the founding of jamestown and barton myers owned the land on which the exposition was held and he helped set up plumbing and electricity. After the exhibition was over, he lobbied for a naval base to be brought to norfolk, which was already well known as a great port. They did bring the navy base here, and norfolk earth station, the World Largest navy base is on the land barton myers owned. We hope that you will come back and see us again very soon to learn about this fascinating family and the effect that one family can have on the life of a small town might norfolk. Hi, im allison, the librarian for the chrysler museum. I have brought material from the moses myers archive, which we. Ave a lot of paper material Adaline Myers did a lot of the shopping and grocery. Lists are often not kept but the myers family firm kept good records of everything and we had a lot of, as you can see, these are just some examples of the things that she would buy in preparation for dinners or just her family, or larger dinners for guests. There is things on this like fish, potatoes, sweet potatoes, we have 17 duck, beef, cabbage. They seem to have eaten a lot of melon. These date from 1829, 1824 to 1829. Here i have taken out a freight list for the ship ravina. This is around 1824. One of myers ships. It leaves a detailed inventory of what is on the ship, the weight of it, the measurements, and the totals. And then here we have preprinted shipping documents to state who the ship owner was, where it was headed, the name of the vessel, what they were shipping, the date, and also the description, the length, breadth, and depth of the ship and how many times it was able to carry. How many times it was able to carry. It was able tos carry. This is typical of 1819. This is the moses myers family bible. At this point it is a bit fragile and needs some conservation, but it has many other useful information like birthdates written in the margins in the bible. It was definitely a well used book in the house. Here on the table is just a small example of what we hold at the library. We have many letters that are written twice, as a carbon copy almost so that when they send it out and maybe they would not get a letter back, a reply for a couple of weeks, they can refer back to the original letter they wrote to remember what it is they were talking about. The letters and all the documents that we have help us learn more about the moses myers family. We have a very intimate and personal look into letters from moses myers to his children, and letters from moses myers to his Business Partners and other people. This way, we are able to piece together a wellrounded story along with having the historic house, is a really great asset to have. You can watch this and other american artifacts programs by visiting our website at cspan. Org history. The second president ial debate is tonight at Washington University in st. Louis, missouri. Eastern. 7 30 p. M. At 9 00, live coverage of the debate with viewer reaction your calls, tweets, and comments. Phone,ive using your desktop, or tablet on www. Cspan. Org. Phone with the cspan radio app, available on the app store or google play. Of state secretary Marilyn Albright received the great americans award. We will show the ceremony and remarks. Here is a preview. First of
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