Our Collection

Philipse Manor and St John's Church tour

In 1908, the future of Philipse Manor Hall was in jeopardy, due rapidly encroaching urban development and the building's impending obsolescence as the government center of an ever-growing metropolis. With so much doubt and uncertainty surrounding the site, several philanthropists banded together and raised $50,000 to preserve Philipse Manor Hall as a museum, eventually opening it up to the public in 1912.

Within that group of concerned citizens was the Smith Cochran family, leading global carpet manufacturers who owned a factory here in Yonkers. Eva Smith Cochran was instrumental in many philanthropic endeavors in Yonkers, including the preservation of Philipse Manor Hall. After saving the building, her son, Alexander, continued the family's support of the site, helping transform it from a municipal building to a place of historic and patriotic interests. From 1912 until his death in 1929, Alexander Smith Cochran would assemble a group of portraits of prominent Americans, including nearly all of the presidents from George Washington through Calvin Coolidge. When a particular portrait was unavailable for purchase, Alexander would have portraits commissioned to be completed.

Upon his death in 1929, Alexander Smith Cochran passed his collection to Philipse Manor Hall, where it has been exhibited in various forms ever since. The collection stands at 68 portraits, although the quality and condition of the portraits vary greatly.

THE ALEXANDER SMITH COCHRAN
COLLECTION OF AMERICAN PORTRAITURE

PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

George Washington by James Peale

George Washington by Rembrandt Peale

George Washington by Charles Peale Polk

George Washington by Rembrandt Peale, copy after John Trumbullauart

George Washington copy by Asa Warren after Gilbert Stuart

George Washington by James or Ellen Sharples

General Washington Calling on Colonel Rhalle by J. Beaufain Irving

John Adams by William Winstanley

Thomas Jefferson by Charles Peale Polk

James Madison attributed to Henry Inman

James Monroe by Charles Willson Peale

John Quincy Adams by Thomas Sully

General Andrew Jackson attributed to Charles Bird King

Martin Van Buren by Henry Inman

William Henry Harrison by Bass Otis

John Tyler by Francis Bicknell Carpenter

James K. Polk by Thomas Sully

Zachary Taylor by an unidentified artist

Millard Fillmore by Francis Bicknell Carpenter

Franklin Pierce by an unidentified artist, copy after George P.A. Healy

James Buchanan by William E. McMaster

Abraham Lincoln by Alban Jasper Conant

Abraham Lincoln by Mathew Henry Wilson

Andrew Johnson by Charles X. Harris

Ulysses S. Grant by William Edgar Marshall

Rutherford B. Hayes by Thomas Eakins and Susan Macdowell Eakins

James A. Garfield by David Benjamin Bechtel

Chester A. Arthur by Eastman Johnson

Grover Cleveland by Eastman Johnson

Benjamin Harrison by Eastman Johnson

William McKinley by William Edgar Marshall

Theodore Roosevelt by S. Montgomery Roosevelt

William Howard Taft by William Sergeant Kendall

Woodrow Wilson by Richard Norris Brooke

Warren G. Harding by George Edgerly Harris

Calvin Coolidge by George Edgerly Harris

FIGURES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY

Thomas F. Bayard by George B. Butler

Henry Clay attributed to John Neagle

William H. DeLancy by Jacob Eichholtz

Benjamin Franklin by an unidentified artist, copy after Joseph S. Duplessis

George III by an unidentified artist, copy after Sir William Beechey

Robert Gilmor by Gilbert Stuart

Alexander Hamilton by James or Ellen Sharples

James Hamilton by James Peale

Tobias Hasbrouck by John Vanderlyn, Jr.

General Henry Knox attributed to Edward Savage

Marquis de Lafayette by an unidentified artist after Ary Scheffer

Henry Laurens by an unidentified artist, copy after John Singleton Copley

Colonel Henry Lee by James Herring, copy after Gilbert Stuart

John Marshall by William B. Chambers

Zebulon Montgomery Pike attributed to Rembrandt Peale

Charles Pinckney attributed to Albert Rosenthal, copy after Gilbert Stuart

John Van S. L. Pruyn by Eastman Johnson

Arthur St. Clair by an unidentified artist, 19th century

John Stark by Samuel F.B. Morse

Daniel D. Tompkins copy by an unidentified artist after John W. Jarvis

Brigadier General George Trotter by Mathew Harris Jouett

Martha Washington copy after Gilbert Stuart

William Wirt by Chester Harding

Robert Young by Gilbert Stuart

ARTISTS

Eastman Johnson by Eastman Johnson

Gilbert Stuart attributed to Jane Stuart

Benjamin West copy after Benjamin West

John Trumbull by an unidentified artist, copy after John Trumbull

OTHER

Eva Smith Cochran by an unidentified artist

Unidentified Man by an unidentified artist, previously thought to be Benjamin Franklin by Mathew Pratt

Unidentified British Officer by an unidentified artist