Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Canoe, Sailing |
Date |
1895-1900 |
Artist |
Rushton, John Henry, 1843-1906 |
Maker |
Rushton, John Henry |
Subjects |
boats and boating canoes Raquette Lake |
Material |
Wood |
Used |
Raquette Lake; Long Lake |
Description |
Open Sailing Canoe built around 1894 Length: 13'Beam: 30"Weight: 69 lbs "IF YOU DO NOT SEE WHAT YOU WANT ASK FOR IT," wrote Rushton in the "greeting" to his 1903 catalog. One of the elements in his success was this willingness to build what the customer wanted. Sometimes such modifications were incorporated into his stock models, and sometimes they simply resulted in a one-of-a-kind customized boat. In the late 1890s, the entrepreneur William West Durant saw a small open canoe being sailed on Raquette Lake, "smothered in canvas" in light winds, and "in a `canoe hurricane...' under eight square feet of mainsail and a lady's handkerchief for a mizzen." This was another canoe in the museum's collection, 1956.61.4, and was sailed by the New York surgeon Arpad Gerster. Durant liked it so much he ordered a duplicate. By that time the model, a "hunting canoe" with tumblehome (the inward curve of the sides of a canoe above the waterline), was no longer offered in the catalogs, but Rushton dug out the old forms and built one for Durant, to which he added copper flotation tanks and a sailing rig. Durant used the new boat for a short while and then gave it to Gerster. By then the original had been damaged, and Gerster sailed the new canoe all over Raquette Lake and then on Long Lake, where he moved his camp in 1904. Gerster soon gave up sailing on Long Lake because it "lacked the diversity available at Raquette." |
Collection |
BBB130A |
People |
Gerster, Arpad Geyza |
Search Terms |
boats and boating canoes Raquette Lake |
Catalog Number |
1962.067.0066 |
Other number |
cat. 58 |
Imagefile |
055\1962.067.0066 COLOR.JPG |
Species |
Canoe, Sailing |
Owned by |
Gerster, Arpad; Durant, William West |
Credit line |
Gift of Dr. John C.A. Gerster |