Riding With Lafayette, a 19th-Century Superstar

Marquis de Lafayette, the French aristocrat who helped George Washington defeat the British army, drove in style.

The military leader returned to America more than 40 years after the war for a valiant victory tour of America. Starting November 16, the New-York Historical Society is opening a new exhibit on Lafayette that includes a wagon from his tour, one of only three known to have survived.

"He really was a hero and superstar of the age," though he's not a household name today, the curator of decorative arts at the New-York Historical Society, Margaret Hofer, said. "In 1824, his name was on everyone's lips."

During his 13-month trip to all 24 states in 1824-25, Lafayette relied on citizens to chauffeur him in their private vehicles, since there was no official vehicle taking him around. In June 1825, Dr. Leonard Jarvis drove Lafayette in his basket wagon about 10 miles northwest, to Windsor, Vt., from Claremont, N.H.

The carriage is on loan from the Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages. Made of woven willow with silk-lined curtains, the rectangular-shaped carriage "looks quite homespun to our eyes, but in fact it's a top-of-the-line vehicle for the day," Ms. Hofer said.

Lafayette rattled over mountainous Vermont roads, making "nearly always more than nine miles per hour," Lafayette's personal secretary observed.

Elsewhere, the trip had other bumps. In May 1825, Lafayette spent a night ashore on a mattress after an Ohio River steamboat he traveled on was shipwrecked.

Ms. Hofer said the exhibition shows how Lafayette's tour was a turning point in Americans' effort to create a national identity for themselves. "It was a period of reflecting back on the revolution," she said.