Our online collection database provides access to Hammond Castle Museum’s diverse collection, including artwork, books and magazines, Roman antiquities, and stained glass, along with many other historical and personal artifacts collected by John Hays Hammond Jr.
Details: Carved balcony screen-balustrade in three parts, comprised of gilded wood. 15th c German Gothic Organ screen from the Marienkirche in Lubeck, Germany (church of organist Dieterich Buxtehude)
Details: Wooden figure head with red face. Flat on left side with large number 18 painted in black over original paint.
Similar in shape to a ship’s figurehead. Believed to be part of Hammond’s Sicilian peasant/festival carts. Used as decorative corbels, attached to the wall and below pantry bar shelf.
Details: One of pair of windows with an angels within Gothic point frame. Originally in Minstrel gallery as side panels of La Belle Verriere by Jacques Simon, 1929 (see H.M. 806) Post 1969, moved to office stairwell.
Signed on lower right: “FASCIMILE XIIIe SIECLE JAC SIMON REIMS FRANCE 1929”
One of Mr. Hammond’s primary collecting interests was Roman antiquities, consisting mostly of authentic pieces along with some reproductions.
Details: Carved in Rome 290-310 CE. Sarcophagus possibly never used, as evident by the roughhewn face of the child–features were not yet chiseled in. John Hays Hammond Jr. used this as a diving board for his courtyard pool.
Latest scholarship has identified the marble being from Greece. 1780, the Sassi brothers discovered the Tomb of the Scipios outside the walls of Rome. 1831, the underground Scipios tomb was excavated. 1828, Hammond bought it from Armando Pacifici. (2023 Dr. Robert Cohon)
Details: Courtyard Archway to Great Hall made of tufa (volcanic pumice) J. H. Hammond Jr. found this archway in a backlot in Naples. The arch is reportedly from a church in Ravello, Italy, south of Pompeii.
The blocks are made of volcanic pumice which originates from the area around Mt. Vesuvius. It is highly likely that this material came from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. which destroyed Pompeii and other Roman cities.
Details: Modern: epitaph of Flavius Mocianus, eques singularis (copy of AE (1954) 80). gray stone stele Funeral memorial, with portrait in low relief of a man in a toga leading a horse.
Underneath is an inscription Reportedly a calvary officer’s sepulchral marker from the time of Trajan, found at Mt. Albano near Rome.
While much of the collection and many historical photographs are available online, the archives, including Hammond’s scientific papers, personal letters, and records, are still being digitized and are not currently publicly available. If you are interested in gaining acess to any of the Archives, please contact our Director of Collections, Beth Welin at: [email protected]
We are working daily to add new items from the collection, and we invite you to click the button below to explore the many pieces already available for public viewing.
