Made in New Jersey

Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr were bitter political enemies in the early 18th Century. Hamilton, the nation’s first Treasury Secretary from 1789 to 1795, supported Thomas Jefferson over Burr in the presidential election of 1800, foiling Burr’s ambitions. Burr settled for the vice presidency, but the enmity between Hamilton and Burr persisted. In 1804, with Burr’s career in ruins, the two men rowed across the Hudson River from New York to New Jersey to settle their differences with pistols. On July 11, 1804, on the bluffs of Weehawken, the two enemies fired at each other from ten paces. Hamilton missed, but the vice president’s shot found its mark.  Hamilton died the following day. This print, “The Spot Where Hamilton Fell,” is by Olive M. Adams, circa late 1800s and is usually displayed in the museum’s Alexander Hamilton Room.