Box (Freedom box)

Description

This symbolic gold box was presented to Commodore Daniel T. Patterson (1786-1839) of the United States Navy with a certificate bestowing the "Freedom of the City" of New York. Tthe lid's finely engraved imagery is a variation of the Seal of New York City. Patterson received these gifts during an award ceremony on July 2, 1832 conducted by Mayor Walter Browne at City Hall and witnessed by city council members, naval officers, and Patterson's family. Daniel T. Patterson left his Long Island home at the age of 14 to go to sea. Just three years later he was a prisoner in Tripoli. He served in the United States Navy as a captain of the southern fleet, a commissioner (1828-1832), a fleet commander noted for pirate chasing, and in 1836 commander of the Naval Yard in Washington until his death. In July 1832 Patterson was en route through New York City to command the nation's Mediterranean fleet. The impetus stated for the award of this gold box and the Freedom of the City was Patterson's service and strategic preparations for the defense of New Orleans in January 1815 during the War of 1812. There is a portrait of Daniel Patterson by John Wesley Jarvis, ca. 1815, now in the Chrysler Museum of Art [no. 65.34.6]. In 1936 the United States Navy named a destroyer "Patterson" in his honor with his descendants present at the christening.