Thanks to over one hundred fifty years of continuous family occupation, John Jay Homestead benefits from an unusually high survival of its original collections. Approximately fifty percent of its exhibited furniture and over eighty percent of its exhibited art are original to the house. Hundreds of items that belonged to later generations of the family are also part of the collection, as are hundreds more that were donations from benefactors in the local community.
Archives and Special Collections
The archival collection at John Jay Homestead includes seventy-five linear feet of family documents, and thousands of historic photographs. The collection also includes approximately three thousand historic books. Click HERE to see Sarah Jay’s famous list of guests entertained at dinners held while her husband was Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and other items from our archives.
Furniture and Decorative Arts
John Jay’s cylinder-top desk and four chairs made to be used by the first United States Senate at Federal Hall in New York are among the furnishings in John Jay Homestead’s collection. Click HERE to see these and other fine examples of furniture and decorative arts in our collection.
Fine Art
Highlights from the collection include original oil paintings by Gilbert Stuart, John Trumbull, Thomas Cole, and John Singer Sargent, and a plaster bust of John Paul Jones by Jean-Antoine Houdon. Click HERE to see these treasures and other works of art in our collection.
