Long Island Pottery

SPLIA's comprehensive collection of 142 pieces of Long Island pottery contains the only known examples of several potteries including G. S. Andrews' Brooklyn Salamander Pottery. Many of these pieces are described in the Society's catalogue, Useful Art Island Pottery by Cynthia Arps Corbett.

Long Island Silver

Our unique collection of 125 pieces features marked hollow and flatware fashioned by every silversmith known to have been working on the Island in the late 18th and 19th centuries.

Glassware

The category of glassware (115 pieces) contains objects as ubiquitous as several cases of late 18th century bottles of liquor, as well as objects as rare as the striped free blown glass pitcher and lamp crafted by Joseph N. Walter (1807-73) of Brooklyn.

Paintings & Watercolors

SPLIA's fine arts holdings comprising over two hundred accessions, range from Robert Feke's (1707-52) 1732 portrait of his niece to impressionist William de Leftwich Dodge's (1867-1935) watercolor of a 20th century country house. James Bard's (1815-97) painting of Steamboat Seawanhaka, William S. Mount (1807-78) landscape of the mouth of the Nissequaque River and Orlando Hand Bears (1811-1851) portrait of Sarah Eldridge of Sag Harbor are among the highlights. A number of works by William Davis (1829-1920), the Mount Student and Port Jefferson artist, including his self-portrait, and a dozen watercolors by landscape artist Edward Lange (1845-1912) are also included in the collection

Textiles

A wealth of bed hangings, samplers, coverlets and domestic linens form a representative collection of textiles (235 pieces) that features two woven jacquard-type coverlets that are among the oldest examples of this type in America.

The 20th Century

Collecting the 20th century is something of a departure for the Society, which for most of its existence, has concentrated on the interpretative range of its historic house museums from the mid 17th century to 1830. The acquisition of our Gallery in 1989, however, fulfilled a long-perceived need for a facility for changing exhibitions, and the exhibits held there have broadened the Society's collecting interests, which now address the late 19th and 20th centuries. Emphasis on collecting 20th century has largely been placed on ephemera, given space limitations. Ephemera is defined as everyday documents and artifacts such as programs, brochures, broadsides, magazines, postcards, trade catalogues, posters, invitations, timetables, maps, calendars, souvenirs and other such items.