CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Nature Through Kaleidoscopes
Nature Through Kaleidoscopes
Nature Through Kaleidoscopes, consisting of the temporary installation of two sculptures by Graciela Cassel, at Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum from August 2025 to August 2026. Orange Kaleidoscope is constructed from 56 mirrors and steel. It replaces the camera lens with the human eye, inviting poetic optical explorations within and beyond the urban landscape. Looking through it reveals its power to construct and deconstruct the surrounding environment, while the sculpture patiently awaits the viewer, ready to reflect and project their presence. Steel Metal. 56 mirrors. 59 x 59 x 72 inches. Radar Kaleidoscope looks to both sky and land, interweaving science, mathematics, and nature into an amplified image. It captures and reinterprets the surrounding landscape, transforming it into multiple perspectives that offer a fresh view of the world. These diverse interpretations invite viewers to experience their environment as if gazing into an entirely different realm. Steel, Mirror. 74 x 38 x 28 inches
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Wish You Were Here…
Postcards of Pelham Bay Park and the East Bronx
Before email, twitter, and social media there were postcards! Tour bygone places and spaces of the east Bronx through postcards dating to the turn of the 19th century. Views of historic inns, beaches, street, and park scenes from the collection of Thomas X. Casey offer insight into changes in landscapes and lifestyles over the past century. Tom Casey’s collection includes more than 6,000 vintage Bronx postcards dating from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century. Casey is co-author of Northwest Bronx and Bronx Views, and a founding member of the East Bronx History Forum. He has lectured at the Bronx County Historical Society, Kingsbridge Historical Society, Westchester Genealogical Society, New York Public Library, City Island Historical Society and local public schools. View the online exhibition here.
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Gaston Lachaise Peacocks
Peacock (Short-tailed), 1920; Peacock (Long-tailed), 1928
Bronze with gilding, cast in 2002 at the Modern Art Foundry, New York
The agricultural industrialist James Deering commissioned Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935) to create the short-tailed peacock in 1920 for Vizcaya, his country estate south of Miami. Architect Philip Goodwin commissioned the long-tailed peacock in 1928 for a fountain at his estate in Syosset, Long Island. The formal gardens of Bartow-Pell were conceived and constructed circa 1916 by the prominent architectural firm of Delano & Aldrich and recently restored in 2013.In a poetic twist, Goodwin worked for Delano & Aldrich between 1914-1916. Both are on loan to the museum through 2025 courtesy of the Lachaise Foundation and in cooperation with the public art program of the New York City Parks Department.
Please click here to make a donation, and help cover the costs of maintaining the artwork for public view.
Armchair Tour of the Servants’ Quarters
Tour the attic space with Isaac Goodman-Boyd
The third floor attic space served as the living quarters for many Irish immigrant women who resided at the mansion and served the Bartow family between 1840 and 1880. The space is sparsely decorated with four beds, a washstand, mending baskets, and an ironing workstation, as well as steamer trucks that could have held meager possessions for the young women who fled their country during the potato famine of the 1840s. All of this provides a stark contrast with the elegantly appointed period rooms on the first and second floors. This interpretive space speaks to immigration issues so that visitors can make connections between historical events and today. Family life, leaving home for a better future, and the struggles of daily work resonate with both new immigrant populations and those who have called America home for generations.
View Video Here
Armchair Tour of the Double Formal Parlors
Tour the Double Formal Parlors with Carlie Berlin
Typical of the Greek Revival style, the double parlors are mirror images, creating symmetry and harmony as well as providing a grand space for formal entertaining. Each room, however, features a different decorative motif in the finely carved window and door pediments. Eagles, a patriotic symbol of the American ideal of unity and strength, adorn the south parlor, and winged cherub heads grace the pediments in the north parlor. Ornamentation also includes palmettes, acanthus leaves, and lotus leaves. Sliding mahogany pocket doors offer flexibility, transforming a large space into individual rooms that are more intimate and more economical to heat. Through the door on the north wall, servants had immediate access to the kitchen and serving areas.
View Video Here
Slavery in the North: Pelham’s Hidden Hometown History
