'Immigrant gifts': Alphonso Trumpbour Clearwater, colonial silver and the limits of 'Americanization', 1906–1933.

This article focuses on Alphonso Trumpbour Clearwater (1848–1933) and his significant role in shaping the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection of American silver, as well as his influence on the American Colonial Revival movement. Clearwater, a judge and antiquary from Kingston, New York, amassed a collection of 653 pieces of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century American silver, which he bequeathed to the Met, becoming its foremost American silver benefactor. His collecting was deeply intertwined with his identity as a descendant of Dutch and Huguenot settlers, reflecting a selective vision of American heritage that excluded many immigrant groups, as evidenced by his public support for restrictive immigration policies. The article also explores Clearwater’s complex relationships with museum curators, rival collectors, and elite societies, highlighting tensions between his aspirations for social acceptance and his outsider status within established collecting circles.