1909 Hudson-Fulton Celebration Official Ball Invitation – Foreign Dignitaries – Brooklyn Academy of Music

1909 Hudson-Fulton Celebration Official Ball Invitation – Foreign Dignitaries – Brooklyn Academy of Music. 

Original invitation and accompanying information card for the Reception and Ball held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on September 30, 1909, honoring visiting foreign dignitaries attending New York's great Hudson-Fulton Celebration.

Far more than simply another social event connected with the festivities, this was the only official ball of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration. Approximately 1,500 guests attended, including some 400 members of the naval and official guest party representing nations from Europe and the Americas. The receiving line was headed by New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes and Mrs. Hughes. Hughes would later become U.S. Secretary of State, Chief Justice of the United States, and the Republican nominee for President in 1916. Among the distinguished naval guests was Rear Admiral Seaton Schroeder, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Atlantic Fleet. 

For the occasion, the Brooklyn Academy of Music was dramatically transformed. A temporary level dancing floor was constructed over the seats of the great auditorium, nearly matching the height of the stage, while the Academy was elaborately decorated for the evening. The accompanying information card advised guests that the entire Academy had been engaged, with the Opera House devoted to the reception and ball, the Concert Hall providing special music, the foyer serving as a promenade, and supper offered in the Banquet Hall.

The invitation is beautifully engraved with images of Henry Hudson's Half Moon and Robert Fulton's Clermont at the top, dated respectively 1609 and 1807, symbolizing the two anniversaries commemorated by the celebration.

An especially desirable pair of original pieces from one of the most prestigious social events of the 1909 Hudson-Fulton Celebration. Original, of course.