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Title	Hyde Park Post Office Mural: John and Samuel Bard, ca. 1789
Creator	Dows, Olin, 1904-1981
Date.Original	1940
Contributors	Mural commisioned for Hyde Park, NY post office by WPA Section of Fine Arts Art in Public Buildings Program, photographed by C.B. Ross and Edward Campeau
Publisher.Original	Dows, Olin, 1904-1981
Description	Hyde Park Post Office Mural Panel 6. From "Murals in the Hyde Park, New York Post Office" published by Town of Hyde Park Historical Society: In the late 1780s. Dr. John Bard and Dr. Samuel Bard examine their new Italian melons, fertilized with gypsum. The latter's pockets bulge, as usual, with plants. A flock of wild pigeons fly across the sky. These two men were New York's most distinguished physicians-- Dr. John, a friend of Benjamin Franklin and a member of his Club, was the firs president of the New York Medical Society; with Dr. Peter Middleton performed the first dissection for instruction and the first diagnosis of and successful operation for extra-uterine pregnancy recorded in the colonies. As... public health officer he fought yellow fever and recommended the purchase of Bedloe's Island as quarantine station. Dr.Samuel, who studied in Edinborough (sic), was on his return instrumental in founding the Medical School of Kings College, later the College of Physicians and Surgeons [and] was its first professor of medicine and President. He also was the first to agitate for a hospital. He encouraged the local use of clover as a crop as well as other horticultural improvements and was first president of the Society of Dutchess County for the Promotion of Agriculture (1806). Although Loyalists, the Bards were highly respected by both sides, Dr. Samuel taking care of President Washington in 1789 with Dr. John as consultant." In a manuscript for a pamphlet on the Rhinebeck murals, Helen Myers describes Dr. Samuel Bard's interest in animal husbandry. Bard and Chancellor Robert Livingston attempted to improve local wool production by experimenting with the interbreeding of domestic sheep with the "fluffy" Merino variety, imported from France and Spain. Bard described his findings in an 1811 text titled "Advice for Young Shepherds; of Facts and Observations on the Character and Value of Merino Sheep: With Rules and Precepts for their Management, and the Treatment of their Diseases, as Well as of Sheep in General." Myers also notes that Dows has depicted, in the upper right corner of the composition, a darker side of the exploits of the gentleman farmer: five figures of slaves picking apples in John Bard's orchard of over 500 apple trees.
Subject.LCSH	Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y. : Town)--History--Pictorial works
Subject.TGM	Melons Physicians Farm produce Farming Fertilizers
Subject.AAT	murals
Personal Name	Bard, John, 1716-1799 Bard, Samuel, 1742-1821
Corporate Name	Hyde Park Post Office, Hyde Park, NY
Location	Hyde Park (Town) - Dutchess County - New York
HRVH Topic	Agriculture Science & Technology People
Resource Identifier	bc_dows.murals.056.a
Publisher.Digital	Bard College Archives
Date.Digital	2012-07-23
Format.Digital	image/tiff
Digital.Collection	Bard College Dows
Holding Institution	Bard College Archives, Stevenson Library, Bard College
Contact Information	1 Library Road, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504 (845) 758-7396 http://www.bard.edu/archives/digitalcoll.htm
Rights	Prior written permission required to use any photograph from the Bard College Archives.
Technical Data	Original photographs scanned using Epson Perfection V700 Photo Scanner

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Hyde Park Post Office Mural: John and Samuel Bard, ca. 1789

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