Old Indian Homestead (Clinton Smith Cottage)

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Date

1935–42

Description

Watercolor on paper. Ernest Cramer (1877–1953). Following the enactment of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in 1933, German immigrant artist Ernest Cramer was hired by the Works Progress Administration to create paintings for the Federal Art Project. This watercolor by Cramer is a view down Valley Road in the historic free Black and Indigenous community of Success in present-day Manhasset. Pictured is the home of David Clinton Smith, a Black farm laborer, and Fannie J. Waters, a woman of Matinecock, Montaukett, and Shinnecock descent. Approximately 30 structures once stood in Success, which grew rapidly following the gradual end of slavery in New York in 1827, attracting freed people seeking land and homes of their own. The Lakeville A.M.E. Zion Church, constructed in 1832, is the only surviving building from Success and continues to hold services today. One of the oldest Black churches on Long Island, it was not only the spiritual center of the community, but a social one too, where families united and politics were discussed. This item was featured in the Voices and Votes: Democracy in America Exhibition.

Type

Image

Region

Long Island

Era

The Great Depression and WW II

Topic

African Americans, Community, Indigenous Peoples of North America

Repository

U.S. General Services Administration New Deal Art Project

Source

Fine Arts Collection, U.S. General Services Administration New Deal Art Project

Rights

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