Tiffany & Co. Copper Building Plaque for the Riverside General Hospital

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Tiffany & Co. Copper Building Plaque for the Riverside General Hospital

About the Item

A Tiffany & Co. copper plaque made for the Houston Negro Hospital in 1926 dedicated to the memory of lieutenant John Halm Cullinan. The Houston Negro Hospital was created in 1926 when the earlier black Union-Jeremiah Hospital was no longer capable of accommodating the rapidly growing black population of Houston, Texas. African American community leaders began a campaign to garner support from local physicians when oilman Joseph Cullinan, who had earlier supported the existing hospital, donated $80,000 to construct a new facility. The city of Houston donated three acres of land in the Third Ward for the new fifty-bed hospital. Construction began in 1925. The dedication of the hospital was held on June 19, 1926, a major holiday in Texas known as "Juneteenth," which commemorates the day Emancipation occurred in the state. At the dedication a bronze tablet from the Tiffany Company was unveiled stating that the building was erected "in memory of Lieutenant John Halm Cullinan," Joseph Cullinan's son who had died during World War I. The tablet also declared that the hospital was "dedicated to the American Negro to promote self-help, to insure good citizenship, and for the relief of suffering, sickness, and disease among them." The hospital officially opened in July 1927 and became the first non-profit hospital for black patients in Houston. The hospital also provided work for black physicians who were not allowed to admit patients in the “black wards” of other Houston hospitals. Black physicians such as Drs. Thelma Patten Law and George Patrick Alphonse Forde emerged as community leaders in resisting the white control over the institution while they honed their medical skills and worked to insure the hospital’s financial stability. The entire hospital staff was black as well which was rare in the United States at that time. Isaiah Milligan Terrell retired from his presidency at Houston College in 1925 to become the first superintendent at the hospital. The hospital offered memberships to families for $6 a year, granting eligibility for all members for free hospital care. This prepaid system continued until 1938. The Houston Negro Hospital Nursing School was established in 1931 next to the hospital. This was the first educational institution created for the training of black nurses in Houston. Houston Negro Hospital was not successful in its first few years as it lacked patients partly because many black Houstonians preferred to rely on treatment at white hospitals which they felt were better staffed and equipped. Several improvements were implemented at Houston Negro Hospital in the 1930s including a new x-ray department and laboratory which raised confidence in the level of treatment patients received there. Throughout the Great Depression a number of hospitals in Houston and across the nation closed due to financial troubles but black community leaders rallied behind Houston Negro and were able to keep the facility open. The hospital also received support from the general community when in 1937 it began receiving community chest (now United Way) funds and a $524,000 trust when Joseph Cullinan died. Remodeling occurred between 1949 and 1952 and again throughout the 1980s. In 1961 a new wing was added to the hospital, costing over $1,000,000. With this addition the hospital’s name changed to Riverside General Hospital. The hospital buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the hospital continues to operate today. The plaque reads: "This building erected A.D. 1926 in memory of Lieutenant John Halm Cullenan 344th F.A., 90th DIV., A.E.F. One of the millions of young Americans who served in the World War to preserve and perpetuate human liberty without regard to race, creed or color is dedicated to the American Negro to promote self-help, to inspire good citizenship, and for the relief of suffering, sickness and disease amongst them".

Creator:
Tiffany & Co. (Maker)
Dimensions:
Height: 25.25 in (64.14 cm)Width: 17.5 in (44.45 cm)Depth: 0.75 in (1.91 cm)
Style:
American Colonial (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Copper,Engraved
Place of Origin:
United States
Period:
1920-1929
Date of Manufacture:
1926
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Houston, TX
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU1060612466473

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Tiffany & Co.

Tiffany & Co. is one of the most prominent purveyors of luxury goods in the United States, and has long been an important arbiter of style in the design of diamond engagement rings. A young Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed to his future wife, Eleanor, with a Tiffany ring in 1904. Vanderbilts, Whitneys, Astors and members of the Russian imperial family all wore Tiffany & Co. jewels. And Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis preferred Tiffany china for state dinners at the White House.

Although synonymous with luxury today, the firm started out rather modestly. Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young founded it in Connecticut as a “stationery and fancy goods emporium” in 1837, at a time when European imports still dominated the nascent American luxury market. In 1853, Charles Tiffany — who in 1845 had launched the company’s famed catalog, the Blue Book, and with it, the firm’s signature robin’s-egg blue, which he chose for the cover — shifted the focus to fine jewelry. In 1868, Tiffany & Co. gained international recognition when it became the first U.S. firm to win an award for excellence in silverware at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. From then on, it belonged to the pantheon of American luxury brands.

At the start of the Gilded Age, in 1870, Tiffany & Co. opened its flagship store, described as a "palace of jewels" by the New York Times, at 15 Union Square West in Manhattan. Throughout this period, its designs for silver tableware, ceremonial silver, flatware and jewelry were highly sought-after indicators of status and taste. They also won the firm numerous accolades, including the grand prize for silverware at the Paris Exposition of 1878. Among the firm’s glittering creations from this time are masterworks of Art Nouveau jewelry, such as this delicate aquamarine necklace and this lavish plique-à-jour peridot and gold necklace, both circa 1900.

When Charles Lewis Tiffany died, in 1902, his son Louis Comfort Tiffany became the firm’s design director. Under his leadership, the Tiffany silver studio was a de facto design school for apprentice silversmiths, who worked alongside head artisan Edward C. Moore. The firm produced distinctive objects inspired by Japanese art and design, North American plants and flowers, and Native American patterns and crafts, adding aesthetic diversity to Tiffany & Co.’s distinguished repertoire.

Tiffany is also closely associated with diamonds, even lending its name to one particularly rare and exceptional yellow stone. The firm bought the Tiffany diamond in its raw state from the Kimberley mines of South Africa in 1878. Cut to create a 128.54-carat gem with an unprecedented 82 facets, it is one of the most spectacular examples of a yellow diamond in the world. In a broader sense, Tiffany & Co. helped put diamonds on the map in 1886 by introducing the American marketplace to the solitaire diamond design, which is still among the most popular engagement-ring styles. The trademark Tiffany® Setting raises the stone above the band on six prongs, allowing its facets to catch the light. A lovely recent example is this circa-2000 platinum engagement ring. Displaying a different design and aesthetic (but equally chic) is this exquisite diamond and ruby ring from the 1930s.