Brooklyn Century Vase

About this Brooklyn Icon

The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.

The Brooklyn Museum’s two “Century Vases” prompt lively conversations about American history and settler colonialism, as well as a contemporary cultural landscape where people of color thrive and triumph. Karl L. H. Müller’s version is the original 19th-century model, manufactured by the Brooklyn-based porcelain firm Union Porcelain Works for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia. The vase’s images—which include scenes of the Revolutionary War, William Penn’s 1682 compromise that resulted in the seizure of Indigenous Lenape land, trophy heads of animals native to North America, and steam power and electricity—assert white settlers’ conviction in their own progress in technology, land cultivation, and governance.

Reclaiming this history, Roberto Lugo’s Brooklyn Century Vase depicts the artistic and cultural achievements of Black residents of Brooklyn. In place of an idealized portrait of George Washington, Lugo celebrates Brooklyn Dodgers player Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in baseball, and The Notorious B.I.G., who gave Brooklyn rap its authentic voice. Other icons of Brooklyn, including Jay-Z and the classic brownstone building, circle the bottom rim, reinforcing the borough’s status as a significant center of cultural production.