Remembering Alexander Hamilton

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. July 12, 2013: What began ever so modestly on July 12, 1989, the 200th anniversary of Alexander Hamilton becoming the First U.S. Secretary of the Treasury with a simple idea by John Herzog, founder of the Museum of American Finance, and Arthur Piccolo, chairman of the Bowling Green Association, to place a wreath at Hamilton’s grave twice each year, marking the anniversaries of his birth and his death, has now established itself as a 24-year long tradition each July and January, with 48 wreaths now having been placed at Hamilton’s grave in Trinity churchyard.

On Friday, July 12, 2013, another wreath was laid at the tomb of Hamilton, America’s greatest immigrant, by a delegation that included Herzog and his wife Dianne, Piccolo, and representatives from St. Kitts/Nevis, the island of Hamilton’s birth.

Since the 1989 wreath laying, the Museum of American Finance, Bowling Green Association, Doug Hamilton and the Hamilton family, increasingly Trinity church, the governments of St. Kitts & Nevis, and most recently the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society have become integral to these events. Along the way there have been modest ceremonies, and some notable and elaborate especially on July 12, 2004, but there have been other occasions with the Coast Guard Band, various color guards formerly from both Governors Island, and Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn as well as its band. Various public officials and a number of Hamilton biographers have participated over the years, in blazing heat, pouring rain and frigid cold with snow on the ground.

2014 will mark the 25th anniversary of this tradition with the 49th and 50th wreaths in Hamilton’s honor. It will also be the 210th anniversary of Hamilton’s death and the 225th anniversary of Hamilton becoming the First U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.