Joan Geismar

Manhattan

A Dutch Brick.

This small, somewhat deformed yellow brick (a "clinker") was recovered 30 years ago during excavation of a derelict, 92-foot, merchant ship that was used as cribbing to structure the landfill that expanded Manhattan east of Pearl Street during the 18th Century. It was one of many such bricks that served first as ballast and then as a means to sink the ship, but only one of a few saved. To me it represents the extraordinary engineering techniques employed by 18th-century British Colonials as well as the land- and money-making activities of New York City's 18th-century Merchant elite.