Judge John Jay Libhart Artist, Naturalist, Jurist, Merchant

An exhibition of nearly three dozen paintings and drawings by Judge John Jay Libhart, and of artifacts associated with his life and work , opened at the Foundation November 21st and will continue through December. The Demuth Dialog is grateful to Lamar A. Libhart for this biographical essay of his great grandfather. “Born in York county, Pennsylvania, J. J. Libhart (1806-1903) was a painter of portraits, miniatures, landscapes, historical and still life scenes, as well as an engraver and sculptor. He studied with Arthur Armstrong and worked in Pennsylvania.” In 1972 a gentleman from Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, received the foregoing reply from the Frick Art Reference Library in New York, concerning companion portraits he had purchased at a public sale in York County in 1964. Both portraits were inscribed on the back: “John J. Libhart, pinx. 1831.” The portraits have since been added to the family collection. Painting, of course, was one of many accomplishments of Marietta’s Judge Libhart, one of the foremost “Renaissance Men” of 19th century Lancaster County. Self-taught in most areas and driven by a keen and inquiring scientific mind, Libhart became a successful, accomplished artist and engraver, Lancaster county’s authoritative ornithologist, a silk worm cultivator, inventor, naturalist, mineralogist, musician, and an associate judge of the Lancaster County Court. Having emigrated to America in the 1720’s - from the German Palatinate - the ancestors of John Jay Libhart settled in the Kreutz Creek area of Hellam, York County. His father, Henry Libhart (1765-1827) was a Justice of the Peace - appointed by Governor Thomas McKean in 1800 - and managed the family farmlands and mill. In 1812, the family moved to Marietta, then a bustling river town on the eastern shore of the Susquehanna, where John Jay Libhart remained for his lifelong career of achievement and service to both community and county. Libhart developed precocious artistic and mechanical talents, always innovative and productive in his pursuits. He did receive some lessons from the Lancaster artist Arthur Armstrong (1798-1851) when Libhart’s father rented the artist studio space in Marietta. Progressing well beyond the status of amateur, he became a recognized master in each area of chosen interest, notably painting and ornithology. Indeed, Libhart wrote the ornithology sections in the Lancaster County histories of 1844 and 1869 and is quoted throughout Dr. B. H. Warren’s Report on the Birds of Pennsylvania in 1890. About 1830 Libhart began completing considerable work in illustrating the scientific journals of Professor Samuel S. Haldeman of “Chicques” and “Locust Grove.” The men remained lifelong friends and colleagues. Having also exhibited a strong mechanical tendency, Libhart designed and printed bank notes, including those used in General Simon Cameron’s bank in Middletown, and he made newspaper vignettes and logos, all from dies and presses that he conceptualized and subsequently built. Libhart’s collections of natural history specimens had been filling every available space of his home for decades, and about 1840 he was persuaded by family and friends to bring the specimens and artifacts together for public exhibition. The result was the first public museum in Lancaster County: the Libhart Museum. It occupied the second floor of the former market house which stood at Center Square in Marietta. However, when the market house was razed about 1860 the collections were transferred to the second floor of the Marietta Town Hall. When that space was needed for additional school rooms several years later, the collections of birds - including a passenger pigeon - shells, paintings, local Indian artifacts, and fossils were presented to the Linnaean Society of Lancaster Country and eventually to the North Museum at Franklin and Marshall College. In 1840 - the same year that Libhart first opened his museum, the Marietta Lyceum of Natural History was founded with Libhart, Professor Samuel S. Haldeman, George Mehaffey, and Dr. Simon Rathvon as charter members; the Lyceum met in the Libhart Museum to debate and pursue scientific thought for some two decades. Governor John W. Geary appointed John Joy Libhart to the office of lay judge of the Count of Common Pleas of Lancaster County in 1867 to fill an unexpired term. Libhart was subsequently elected to the office on two successive occasions, holding the position until 1878 when it was scheduled for elimination by the State Constitutional Convention of 1874. Although leading a varied career in artistic pursuits, the natural sciences and business, Libhart is most frequently referred to as Judge Libhart to the present day. In 1836, Libhart married Harriet Goodman of Marietta and they had one daughter. Harriet died in 1838, and in 1842 he married Annie Rinehart of Marietta. Five children were born to this union. After his second wife died in 1852, he remained a widower. Libhart’s business interest in Marietta was the Libhart Drug Company. About 1845 he purchased the former Glatz Drug Store and operated the business until his death in 1883, after which it was continued into the 20th century by two of his sons, A. Canova and S. Haldeman. Until he was appointed to the bench, Libhart held most of the borough offices of Marietta including school director, postmaster, councilman, and chief burgess. He was also an early supporter and active member of the free school system of Lancaster County, and about 1845 he taught a class in drawing and painting at the academy of Professor J. P. Wickersham in Marietta. However occupied by public, business, or judicial duties, Libhart continued to produce portraits of family members, friends, and business associates, as well as paintings of natural history subjects until a few years before his death. Following his demise, Libhart was eulogized at the next meeting of the Linnaean Society of Lancaster County by his colleague and fellow Mariettan, Dr. Simon S. Rathvon, as “having been locally identified with the progress of art, science, mechanics, scientific literature, and music from a very early period of his life.” Dr. Rathvon further said that “no man in Lancaster country performed more uncompensated scientific, literary, and artistic labor than Judge Libhart.” - Lamar A. Libhart, Guest Essayist