175 Calendar

December 18: Gabriel Harrison, “the father of drama in Brooklyn,” who also had a career as a daguerrian photographer, and is described on his gravestone as “ARTIST, AUTHOR, ACTOR,” died on this date in 1902.

December 17: “Civic Virtue,” a sculpture by Frederick MacMonnies dating from 1920, was installed at Green-Wood a year ago today.

December 16: On this date in 1859, John E. Cook, a captain in John Brown’s army, was executed by hanging for taking part in the attack on the Harpers Ferry Arsenal.

December 15: On this date in 1900, Oswald Ottendorfer, editor and publisher of the German-language Staats-Zeitung newspaper, and funder of what is now the Ottendorfer Branck of NYPL on 2nd Avenue, died.

December 14: John Frederick Kensett, Hudson River School painter, died on this date in 1872.

December 13: Julius Walker Adams, Civil War officer who later submitted preliminary plans for the Brooklyn Bridge (with a lowball estimate of costs in order to get legislative approval), died on this date in 1899.

December 12: On this date in 1997, a pink lotus lamp by Louis Comfort Tiffany sold at auction for a lamp world record $2.8 million.

December 11: Elliott Cook Carter, Jr., composer who won two Pulitzer Prizes and one Grammy Award, was born on this date in 1908 and died last year.

December 10: On this date in 1881, Fannie Howe, a pug dog, died.

December 9: On this date in 1861, the powerful Joint Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War was established; one of its prominent members was Brooklyn Congressman Moses Odell.