Alexander Hosack

Hosack was born in Elgin, Scotland, near the north-east coast above Aberdeen. Little else is known about him other than that he was a New York wine merchant who came to America to serve under Lord Jeffery Amherst during the French and Indian War.

There is more information on his son, Dr. David Hosack, who knew both Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, and attended Hamilton unsuccessfully after the duel in 1804. David was one of the founders of the New York Horticultural Society. He established a garden and study center named Elgin, for his father’s Scottish roots. Rockefeller Center is now located on the site. To read more, check out Victoria’s Johnson’s American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic.

Alexander’s grandson, also named Alexander, became a physician and treated Burr in the final years of his life. The painting descended down in the family until it was given to Hammond-Harwood House in 1979 by Alexander‘s great great great grandson, John Hampton Barnes. The painting was included in The Works of Colonel John Trumball by Theodore Sizer, Yale University Press, 1967.

Artist John Trumball does have a connection to Annapolis. He visited the State House in 1822 and saw the room where Washington resigned.  In 1824 he completed the painting of Washington’s resignation after executing a series of sketches and talking with several Annapolitans who were present.

By Rachel Lovett, Curator