Keeping Irons in the Fire at Hermann-Grima House
By Katie Burlison
A display of food prepared during a cooking demonstration in the Hermann-Grima hearth kitchen. Image courtesy of Hermann-Grima + Gallier Historic Houses.
As the official records of men and women enslaved by the Hermanns or Grimas at the St. Louis Street property (now 820, formerly 96) show no evidence of a blacksmith working on the property, the forging of tools and building hardware for the household was likely done elsewhere in the French Quarter or by an enslaved blacksmith on one of the family’s plantations elsewhere in Louisiana. Could it have been the enslaved man Celestin, a “good Horse Shoer and Blacksmith” of “superior character,” offered for sale on October 4, 1845?² Or perhaps teenaged “William or Billy”, whose enslaver was also a blacksmith and who attempted self-emancipation in 1852, could have forged the hardware. M. Dupas of Magazine Street offered a $15 reward for his capture, describing him as having “two or three burns or scars on the face…not over 5 feet in height, but very strong” and “well known.”³ An unnamed “superior blacksmith” in a “choice lot” of enslaved men, women, and children forced to travel down to New Orleans from Virginia in 1853 may have crafted many of the city’s andirons, hinges, and shutter latches.⁴
Advertisement for enslaved blacksmith, “William or Billy.” Daily Picayune, February 5, 1852, p. 3.
During the occupation of New Orleans in 1865, as they did with many of the city’s most luxurious private homes, the Union army conducted an “inventory of furniture and articles in the house” at 96 (now 820) St. Louis Street. While the inventory primarily consists of carpets, furniture, glass, lighting, books, mirrors, and gilt and porcelain “ornaments”, a few fireplace accessories are listed: “one lot of fenders,” “one pair of bellows,” “two sets of shovels and tongs” and “one lot of kitchen utensils”. Unfortunately, the items are not grouped by their location on the property—save for the kitchen utensils and “two beds in room over kitchen”—so it is unclear whether the fenders, shovels, and tongs were made of brass for use indoors or iron for use in the outbuildings.⁵ Marie Grima’s July 27, 1880, inventory of the house’s furnishings includes no mention of any fireplace tools or ornaments. This could be because she did not consider them valuable enough to list, or that they had been discarded or damaged beyond utility.
Eastman Johnson, Washington’s Kitchen, Mount Vernon, 1864. Oil on board. Courtesy of Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association.
Hermann-Grima + Gallier Historic Houses (HGGHH) collection comprises dozens of hand-wrought iron artifacts, such as hinges, locks, latches, ladles, forks, and andirons. In today’s interpretation of Hermann-Grima House’s (HGH) history, 19th-century cooking implements are displayed in the well-appointed hearth kitchen, and several of these are used in historic cooking demonstrations between October and April. During the period of the Hermann and Grima families’ ownership, there had to be an almost constant source of heat and fire for cooking, cleaning, ironing, and many other tasks in the kitchen and neighboring work rooms on the first floor of the slave quarters. The operation of this space, essential to life and labor in this household and primarily the domain of enslaved cooks, ironers, and launderers, required certain elements to function. Of these, andirons would often go unnoticed, hidden by the wooden logs they support in service of the cooks’ or launderers’ unending labor. When HGGHH staff recently relocated one pair of hand-wrought iron andirons in HGH’s 1830s kitchen, the resulting examination inspired further investigation into other related examples.
Each of the three pairs of wrought iron andirons in HGGHH’s collection to be discussed here have been used periodically in the interpretation of the kitchen, laundry room, or scullery. While they have more similarities than differences, their variations likely will reveal the most informative details. It is important to note that none of these pairs of andirons are original to this site; however, they were all purchased in Louisiana or acquired from local donors before 1990. Since such utilitarian artifacts as these have not historically been as highly valued by collectors as decorative objects made from more costly materials, it is likely that these three examples were made and/or used nearby.
Unknown maker, Pair of andirons, 19th c. Wrought iron. Museum purchase, 1973.12.1a-b. Image courtesy of Hermann-Grima + Gallier Historic Houses.
In 1973, during a period of in-depth research and archaeological investigations of HGH’s hearth kitchen, propelled by the late Restoration Committee Chair Avery Bassich, the museum purchased the first pair of andirons (1973.12.1a-b) under discussion from an antiques shop in New Iberia. Smaller in scale and of simpler design than the other two examples, in 1973; they dated them to 1860; simple design, 15 x 12 x 5 in. They differ slightly in size, reinforcing their hand-wrought nature.
New Orleans master blacksmith Darryl Reeves examines an early-19th-century andiron (1985.16.1).
Measuring 22 inches high by 22 ½ inches deep, the second pair of andirons (1985.16.1-.2) were donated by a local collector in 1985 and inspired this extended study. For several years they had been used in HGH’s hearth kitchen, until recently when they were replaced with a later reproduction. New Orleans Master Blacksmith Darryl Reeves, who has spent decades preserving and reproducing historic ironwork, examined one of the old, damaged andirons, which the museum had dated to around 1830 when they were first acquired in 1985. After briefly but closely studying the andirons' construction, Mr. Reeves noted that they were likely made decades earlier. He pointed to the iron’s fibrous grain patterns and method of joining pieces together as evidence of the earlier date; particularly remarkable was the minimal number of iron bars used in their fabrication. Currently, the museum’s curatorial team is researching further the construction and provenance of this pair to learn more about them.
The museum purchased the final pair (1988.12.1-.2), believed to date to the 1820s, from a local culinary antiques store. They measure 19 inches high by 11 inches deep. Each has two hooks in the front and one in the back to hold spits for cooking. Distinguishing them from the other andirons are the irregular diamond or triangle designs incised on the vertical front shafts. While the design resembles fundamental patterns found in nature, if the maker was a free or enslaved blacksmith of African descent, he could have adapted the diamond pattern from a range of cultural sources—from decorations on Northeastern Nigerian Ga’anda knives and gourds to the Haitian Vodou symbols of Bawon Samedi and Ogou, among others.⁶
Unknown maker, Pair of andirons, early 19th c. Wrought iron. Museum purchase, 1988.12.1-.2. Image courtesy of Hermann-Grima + Gallier Historic Houses.
Unknown maker, Pair of andirons, early 19th c. Wrought iron. Gift of Mrs. F.T. Morgan, 1985.16.1-.2. Image courtesy of Hermann-Grima + Gallier Historic Houses
Unknown African American blacksmith, Pair of andirons, Saunderstown, RI, c. 1700. Wrought iron. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Rodman Robinson III, 1979.379a-b. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
These types of items often are not valued or even preserved like others made of brass or bronze that have been kept inside and rarely used. Today, more museums are making efforts to center stories around objects used daily and often taken for granted, like this pair of andirons in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA, acc. 1979.379a-b).⁷ The MFA identifies them as possibly having been made around 1700 by an enslaved blacksmith working on the Naragansett Bay, Rhode Island, plantation of Rowland Robinson.
While the names of the blacksmiths who wrought each of the two-hundred-year-old household necessities may not be known now, the presence of certain motifs originating from African cultures allude to the possibility they were made by enslaved or free people of African descent. Many variations of 19th-century andirons for working kitchens can be found around the world, but their basic shape, function, and construction methods have remained remarkably unchanged over the past three centuries. In this way, today’s craftspeople are tightly connected to their historical counterparts.
Bibliography
Baptiste, Costaguinov. 2023. “A Visual Guide to Vèvè: Vodou Symbols & Cosmograms · Visit Haiti.” Visit Haiti. March 3, 2023. https://visithaiti.com/art-culture/veve-vodou-symbols-cosmograms/.
Beavers, Richard C. and Teresa R. Lamb, Hermann-Grima Historic House Ironing Room and Mystery Building Archaeological Testing. New Orleans: Department of Anthropology, University of New Orleans, 1993.
Berns, Marla, and Barbara Rubin Hudson. The Essential Gourd: Art and History in Northeastern Nigeria. University of California Museum of Cultural History, 1986. Exhibition catalog.
Ingersoll, Thomas N. “The Slave Trade and the Ethnic Diversity of Louisiana’s Slave Community.” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association 37, no. 2 (1996): 133–61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4233285.
Joyce, Tom. Life Force at the Anvil: The Blacksmith’s Art from Africa. Asheville, N.C.: University of North Carolina at Asheville, 1998. Exhibition catalog.
Daily Picayune – accessed through NOPL Historical Newspapers Database
¹Guyol 20/660, COB 57/260
²Advertisement, Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), October 2, 1845: 3. NewsBank: America's News – Historical and Current. https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AMNEWS&docref=image/v2%3A1223BCE5B718A166%40EANX-NB-122428020390DB68%402395207-1223E0A81B057B00%402-123B9672D314E5E2%40Advertisement.
³Advertisement, Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), February 5, 1852: 3. NewsBank: America's News – Historical and Current. https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AMNEWS&docref=image/v2%3A1223BCE5B718A166%40EANX-NB-1225E3B448E69850%402397524-1224711DE1C42270%402-12931E55031E8009%40Advertisement.
⁴Advertisement, Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), March 23, 1853: 4. NewsBank: America's News – Historical and Current. https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AMNEWS&docref=image/v2%3A1223BCE5B718A166%40EANX-NB-122490A5E7511FE0%402397936-122470ED7A291960%403-124989178BCF9516%40Advertisement.
⁵Felix Grima debts and property inventory. Grima Family Papers, 1856-1921, MSS 99.377, Williams Research Center, The Historic New Orleans Collection.
⁶Marla Berns and Barbara Rubin Hudson, The Essential Gourd: Art and History in Northeastern Nigeria. UCLA: Museum of Cultural History, 1986, pp. 134-136, Figs. 109, 111-114; Costaguinov Baptiste, “A Visual Guide to Vèvè: Vodou Symbols & Cosmograms,” https://visithaiti.com/art-culture/veve-vodou-symbols-cosmograms/
⁷Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. acc. 1979.379a-b.