American Art Collaborative

White damask table napkin from Henry Walters' yacht, Narada, with dot-and-floral motif and the word Narada in chain-stitch cursive at a 45-degree angle from the lower corner. In 1896 Henry Walters purchased a 224-ft. steamyacht from the Philadelphia banking heir Anthony Joseph Drexel, Jr., which he named Narada, after a wandering Vedic sage found in early Hindu texts. Henry, like J. P. Morgan, William Rockefeller, and numerous members of the Vanderbilt family, was a prominent member of the New York Yacht Club. With other club members, he sponsored entries into the America's Cup, and was elected vice-commodore. The Narada was scrapped in the 1930s, but the Walters Art Museum owns this napkin, as well as the yacht's chronometer (WAM 58.266): an extremely accurate timepiece used to help calculate location while at sea.