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In the early twentieth century, the sculpture assumed a different role, receiving recognition as an outstanding work of folk art and woodcarving by the artist Thomas Brooks, famous for his cigar store figures. As attitudes about race and personal dignity changed by the late twentieth century the object’s meaning changed again, offering us insight into the attitudes of the past, but encouraging us to openly confront our attitudes about our own identity and the identity of others.
Thomas V. Brooks was born in New York. In 1840, he began an eight-year apprenticeship with John L. Cromwell (1805-1873), who at the time was working at 419 Water Street. Brooks began carving ship figures but soon switched to tobacconist figures, which he made in wide variety. After his apprenticeship, Brooks partnered briefly with Thomas Millard, but was on his own by 1853 when he moved to 258 South Street. He worked steadily filling orders and by 1870, his shop was the most productive in New York; it is estimated that his shop could make about two hundred figures a year.
Exhibition History“Through the Eyes of Others: African Americans and Identity in American Art”, New York State Museum, Albany, NY, August 28, 2009 – January 14, 2010; Fenimore House Museum, Cooperstown, NY, August 23, 2008 – December 31, 2008.
Attributed to
Thomas V. Brooks
(1828 - 1895)
Reverend Campbell
Datec. 1880
MediumPainted wood
DimensionsOverall: 83 × 23 1/2 × 21 in. (210.8 × 59.7 × 53.3 cm)
Object numberN0143.1961
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C. Clark.
The conservation of Reverend Campbell by Thomas Brooks was made possible by the NYSCA/GHHN Conservation Treatment Grant Program administered by Greater Hudson Heritage Network with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextThe richly polychromed and imposing statue of Reverend Campbell stood outside of the Onarga, Illinois, home of Allan Pinkerton, founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Pinkerton commissioned it “in honor” of the Black minister who cared for formerly enslaved peoples living on the property as they awaited their freedom papers after emancipation. The story accompanying the object recounts Pinkerton’s trip to a hotel in Chicago where he saw porters wearing long red coats and tall hats. The detective, known for saving President Lincoln from a first assassination attempt, liked the costume and purchased a set of the clothes to give to the itinerant Black preacher, telling him that in the city all ministers wore such outfits. In the nineteenth century, Pinkerton’s little joke would have seemed a fitting slight for a Black man with the audacity to assume the role of minister. In the early twentieth century, the sculpture assumed a different role, receiving recognition as an outstanding work of folk art and woodcarving by the artist Thomas Brooks, famous for his cigar store figures. As attitudes about race and personal dignity changed by the late twentieth century the object’s meaning changed again, offering us insight into the attitudes of the past, but encouraging us to openly confront our attitudes about our own identity and the identity of others.
Thomas V. Brooks was born in New York. In 1840, he began an eight-year apprenticeship with John L. Cromwell (1805-1873), who at the time was working at 419 Water Street. Brooks began carving ship figures but soon switched to tobacconist figures, which he made in wide variety. After his apprenticeship, Brooks partnered briefly with Thomas Millard, but was on his own by 1853 when he moved to 258 South Street. He worked steadily filling orders and by 1870, his shop was the most productive in New York; it is estimated that his shop could make about two hundred figures a year.
Exhibition History“Through the Eyes of Others: African Americans and Identity in American Art”, New York State Museum, Albany, NY, August 28, 2009 – January 14, 2010; Fenimore House Museum, Cooperstown, NY, August 23, 2008 – December 31, 2008.
On View
On view
