The Bordentown Historical Society presents the opening of its Joseph Bonaparte exhibition on Sunday, May 1.
The exhibition highlights the fact that Joseph Bonaparte, the former king of Spain and brother to Napoleon Bonaparte, built his Point Breeze mansion in Bordentown, where he lived off and on between 1816 and 1839. It also marks the re-opening of the historic Friends Meetinghouse for the first time since the pandemic began.
The exhibition includes furniture, paintings, and other artifacts displayed at the mansion and commemorates the recent purchase of the past Point Breeze estate by the D&R Greenway, City of Bordentown, and State of New Jersey.
The opening event will also feature remarks and a book signing by Patricia Tyson Stroud, author of the popular biography of Joseph Bonaparte, “The Man Who Had Been King” (University of Pennsylvania Press).
In a related essay, Stroud, who has a private writing practice in Philadelphia, notes the following about the subject of the exhibition:
At Point Breeze, the Comte de Survilliers, as Joseph Bonaparte liked to call himself, received his neighbors and curious people who came to admire his collection of paintings by European painters, as well as his friends and relations. He met the most prominent men and women, jurist and congressman Joseph Hopkinson (1770-1842), of Bordentown; (banker Nicholas) Biddle, of the State of Andalusia, on the other side of the Delaware; the English reformist author Frances Wright (1795-1852), during her stay in the United States; and Stephen Girard (1750-1831) of Philadelphia, Francophile, banker and shipowner, the richest man in the United States. Prominent politicians associated with Joseph were President John Q. Adams; Henry Clay (1777-1852), Adams’ Secretary of State; and Daniel Webster (1782-1852).
Point Breeze was also a rallying point for all the exiled French generals, most of whom had served under Joseph Bonaparte when he was King of Spain. In 1824, when General Lafayette (1757-1834) made his triumphal journey across the United States, he stopped twice at Point Breeze, disembarking from a 16-oared boat which he presented as a gift from Girard to Bonaparte.
Joseph Bonaparte’s wife, Julie Clary Bonaparte, was the daughter of François Clary, a wealthy merchant from Marseilles, and his wife Rose. In delicate health, Julie dreaded crossing the ocean to join her husband. However, she left her two daughters, Zénaïde and Charlotte, to visit their father. Charlotte arrived in 1821, then Zénaïde in 1823 accompanied by her husband and cousin, the naturalist Charles-Lucien Bonaparte (1803-1857), the son of a younger brother of Joseph, Lucien (1775-1840). In the summer, Joseph often traveled with his daughters and many friends and relations, to Ballston Spa and Saratoga Springs, his hunting lodge in upstate New York. He never left without a picnic set with gold plates, a silver corkscrew, and an elegant vanity case with small silver flasks and manicure accessories.
Joseph Bonaparte Exhibition opening, Bordentown Historical Society, 302 Farnsworth Avenue, Bordentown. Sunday, May 1, 11 to 4 p.m. Free with suggested donation. For more information, visit www.bordentownhistory.org.
Joseph Bonaparte is the focus of an exhibit by the Bordentown Historical Society opening May 1.,
