imported>Geoffroi: removed Category:Ghost story writers; added Category:American ghost story writers using HotCat

2025-08-25T19:51:49Z

removed Category:Ghost story writers; added Category:American ghost story writers using HotCat

← Previous revision		Revision as of 19:51, 25 August 2025
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	[[Category:Arts and Crafts movement artists]]		[[Category:Arts and Crafts movement artists]]
	[[Category:Concrete pioneers]]		[[Category:Concrete pioneers]]
	[[Category:~~Ghost~~ story writers]]		[[Category:American ghost story writers]]
	[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]		[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
	[[Category:University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni]]		[[Category:University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni]]
	[[Category:20th-century American architects]]		[[Category:20th-century American architects]]
	[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]		[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]

imported>GoodDay: Intro

2025-02-17T23:45:08Z

Intro

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{{Short description|Archeologist and designer in the US}}
{{about|the American archaeologist|the former Anglican Dean of Perth, Western Australia, and fraudster|Henry Mercer (priest)}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Henry Chapman Mercer
| image = MercerLG.jpg
| image_size = 255 x 340 pixels
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth-date|June 24, 1856|June 24, 1856 }}
| birth_place = [[Doylestown, Pennsylvania|Doylestown]], [[Pennsylvania]], United States
| death_date = {{death-date|March 9, 1930}} (aged 73)
| death_place = [[Bucks County, Pennsylvania]], United States
| nationality = [[United States|American]]
| field = Tile
| movement = [[Arts and Crafts Movement]] influence
| works = [[Pennsylvania State Capitol]] (floors)<br>[[Monte Carlo Casino|Casino at Monte Carlo]]<br>[[Kykuit]]<br>[[Grauman's Chinese Theatre]]
}}'''Henry Chapman Mercer''' (June 24, 1856 – March 9, 1930)<ref>{{cite web|last=Levenson|title=This Was Doylestown, 1930|date=19 February 2011 |url=http://doylestown.patch.com/articles/this-was-doylestown-1930?ncid=M255|accessdate=February 28, 2011}}</ref> was an American [[archeology|archeologist]], artifact collector, tile-maker, and designer of three distinctive poured concrete structures: [[Fonthill (house)|Fonthill]], his home; the [[Moravian Pottery and Tile Works]]; and the [[Mercer Museum]].

==Biography==
[[File:Mercer Museum.JPG|thumb|left|The Mercer Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania]]
[[File:Fonthill Castle.JPG|thumb|left|Fonthill Castle]]

Henry Mercer was born in [[Doylestown, Pennsylvania]] on June 24, 1856. Mercer first traveled to Europe in 1870. He attended [[Harvard University]] between 1875 and 1879, obtaining a [[liberal arts]] degree. Mercer went on to study law at the [[University of Pennsylvania Law School]] between 1880 and 1881, and he [[read law]] with the firm of Freedley and Hollingsworth. The same year he began studying at the University of Pennsylvania, he became a founding member of the Bucks County Historical Society.<ref name=factsheet /><ref name=resume>{{cite web|url= http://www.mercermuseum.org/assets/Education-Documents/Learn-and-Do/Pre-and-Post-Visit-Materials/FH-Concrete-House-Pre-Post-Visit.pdf|title=A Mercer Resume(PDF)|publisher= The Bucks County Historical Society|accessdate=March 29, 2013}}</ref>

Mercer, however, never practiced law;<ref name=factsheet>[http://www.mercermuseum.org/fact_sheets.htm The Bucks County Historical Society: Fact Sheets] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100409073516/http://mercermuseum.org/fact_sheets.htm |date=2010-04-09 }}</ref> he was admitted to the Philadelphia County Bar on November 9, 1881, but departed for Europe the same month.<ref name=chronology>Dyke, Linda F. Henry Chapman Mercer: An Annotated Chronology The Bucks County Historical Society (1996)</ref> From 1881 to 1889, he traveled extensively through France and Germany.<ref name=resume />

The [[University of Pennsylvania Museum]] appointed Mercer as the Curator of American and Prehistoric Archaeology in the early 1890s. He was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1895.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Henry+C.+Mercer&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2024-03-12 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> Leaving his position with the Museum in the late 1890s, Mercer devoted himself to finding old American artifacts and learning about German pottery. Mercer believed that American society was being destroyed by industrialism, which inspired his search for American artifacts. Mercer founded Moravian Pottery and Tile Works in 1898 after apprenticing himself to a Pennsylvania German potter. He was also influenced by the American [[Arts and Crafts Movement]].

Mercer is well known for his research and books about ancient tool making, his ceramic tile creations, and his engineering and architecture. He was among the paleontologists who investigated [[Port Kennedy Bone Cave]]. He wrote extensively on his interests, which included archaeology, early tool making, German stove plates, and ceramics. He also published a collection of tales of the supernatural, ''November Night Tales'' in 1928.
He assembled the collection of early American tools now housed in the Mercer Museum. Mercer's tiles are used in the floor of the [[Pennsylvania State Capitol]] Building in [[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania]] and in many other noteworthy buildings and houses. In the Pennsylvania State Capitol, Mercer created a series of mosaic images for the floor of the building. The series of four hundred mosaics trace the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from prehistoric times, and is the largest single collection of Mercer's tiles. Other collections of tiles by Mercer can be found at [[Kykuit]], the [[John D. Rockefeller|Rockefeller]] estate in [[Pocantico Hills, New York]]; [[Grauman's Chinese Theatre]] in [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]], California; the [[Monte Carlo Casino|Casino at Monte Carlo]] in [[Monaco]]; the [[St. Louis Public Library]]; and the former Morton (Richmond) High School Building in [[Richmond, Indiana]].

Besides making mosaics, Mercer also painted, drew, and wrote poetry. Sometimes, he blended these interests together, such as in the [[pastel]] painting ''October'', which also showcases his fascination with rural life.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Shunnarah |first1=Mandy |title=10 Pieces of Unexpected Art from Historic Artists' Homes and Studios |url=https://savingplaces.org/stories/10-unexpected-art-hahs |publisher=National Trust for Historic Preservation |date=April 29, 2024}}</ref>

Mercer was an outspoken opponent of the [[Plume hunting|plume trade]].<ref>Mercer, Henry C. (1897) [https://archive.org/stream/fashionsholocaus00merc#page/2/mode/2up Fashion's Holocaust]. Reprinted from ''City and State'' (February 3, 1897).</ref>

[[Henry Ford]] stated that the Mercer museum was the only museum worth visiting in the United States, and the Mercer Museum was apparently Henry Ford's inspiration for his own museum, [[The Henry Ford]], located in [[Dearborn, Michigan]]. The Mercer Museum houses over forty thousand artifacts from early American society. Mercer died on March 9, 1930, at Fonthill, the house he designed and constructed from [[reinforced concrete]] in 1908-1912.

The Bucks County Historical Society now owns [[Fonthill (house)|Fonthill]], which is open to the public, and the Mercer Museum. The [[Moravian Pottery and Tile Works]] is owned by the [[Bucks County, Pennsylvania|Bucks County]] Department of Parks & Recreation and operated as a working history museum by The TileWorks of Bucks County, a non-profit organization. These three buildings make up "the Mercer Mile". All three buildings were designed and constructed by Henry Mercer in the early part of the 20th century.
{{clear}}

==Publications==
* ''The [[Lenape Stone]], or the Indian and the Mammoth'' (1885)
* ''The Hill-Caves of Yucatan'' (1895)
* ''The Antiquity of Man in the Delaware Valley and the Eastern United States'' (1897)
* ''Guidebook to the Tiled Pavement in the Pennsylvania State Capitol'' (1908)
* ''The Bible in Iron'' (1914)
* ''November Night Tales'' (1928)
* ''Ancient Carpenters' Tools'' (1929)

==Gallery==
<gallery mode=packed heights=150>
File:MonorovianTileWorks.jpg|[[Moravian Pottery and Tile Works]], Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
File:Details on exterior wall of Moravian Pottery & Tile Works.jpg|Tile on wall of the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works
File:Pennsylvania State Capitol Floor Mercer Tile 001.jpg|Steel industry mosaic (1902–06), Rotunda, Pennsylvania State Capitol, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
File:Hispanic society, corte grande 02.JPG|Corte Grande, (1904–08), [[Hispanic Society of America]], New York City.
File:Hispanic society, corte grande 08 pavimento.JPG|Center mosaic (1904–08), Corte Grande, [[Hispanic Society of America]], New York City.
File:"Thomas" tiles.jpg|Vestibule mosaic (1908), [[Bryn Mawr College Deanery]], Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
File:Deanery Dorothy Vernon Room Bryn Mawr College.jpg|Dorothy Vernon Room (1908, demolished 1968), Bryn Mawr College Deanery, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, [[Lockwood de Forest]], designer.
File:Idlewild Media PA fireplace w tiles.JPG|Fireplace surround (c. 1920), [[Idlewild (Media, Pennsylvania)|Idlewild]], Media, Pennsylvania.
File:Alpha omega Mercer Tile.jpg|Alpha and Omega mosaic (c. 1925), Narthex, [[Church of St. James the Greater (Bristol)|Church of St. James the Greater]], Bristol, Pennsylvania.
File:Joslyn Fountain Court.jpg|Fountain Court, [[Joslyn Art Museum]] (1931), Omaha, Nebraska.
</gallery>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* Cleota Reed, ''Henry Chapman Mercer and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works'' (1996)
* Dyke, Linda F. ''Henry Chapman Mercer: An Annotated Chronology'' The Bucks County Historical Society (1996)
* Kurt Eichenberger, ''Design and Construction Techniques of an American Vernacular Architect: The Work of Dr. Henry Chapman Mercer'', [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]] Master of Architecture Thesis (1982)

==External links==
* [http://www.mercermuseum.org Mercer Museum & Fonthill Castle]
* [http://www.buckscounty.org/government/MoravianPotteryTileworks/MoravianPotteryandTileWorks The Bucks County Moravian Pottery & Tile Works] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210514122653/https://buckscounty.org/government/MoravianPotteryTileworks/MoravianPotteryandTileWorks |date=2021-05-14 }}
* [http://cpc.state.pa.us/history/artists/henry-chapman-mercer.cfm Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee's Mercer Biography]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mercer, Henry Chapman}}
[[Category:1856 births]]
[[Category:1930 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Doylestown, Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:American archaeologists]]
[[Category:19th-century American architects]]
[[Category:American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law]]
[[Category:American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Arts and Crafts movement artists]]
[[Category:Concrete pioneers]]
[[Category:Ghost story writers]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American architects]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]

Henry Chapman Mercer - Revision history

imported>Geoffroi: removed Category:Ghost story writers; added Category:American ghost story writers using HotCat

imported>GoodDay: Intro