Hampton celebrates historic 1817 harp

Mansion marks the 200th birthday of the instrument Eliza Ridgely played there

Eliza Ridgely, once the mistress of the Hampton estate in Towson, is best known as the “Lady with a Harp.” The original painting of that name, now in the National Gallery of Art, depicts a 15-year-old Ridgely plucking the strings of the instrument.

But according to historians, the harp in the painting is not the one Ridgely loved to play. It’s a prop, a fill-in. The real thing — a double-action pedal harp given to Ridgely from her father in June 1817 — lives on in the Towson national historic site, and this month it turns 200.

Saturday afternoon, guests were invited to a celebration of the harp’s 200th birthday in the site’s orangery, which included a harpthemed birthday cake and a harp recital by Elaine Bryant and her pupil, Vivian Stewart, 16. The harp, which has lived in the mansion since 1828, is one of a kind, according to the site’s curator, Gregory Weidman.

“When it was made, it was a new and very innovative type of harp. It only had been invented seven years before by Sebastien Erard in London,” Weidman said, adding that it’s one of the oldest harps in the United States.

Marilyn Newman, 70, and her husband Michael, 71, traveled from Port Royal, Va., to celebrate beginning of the harp’s third century. Around three years ago, the couple donated a manuscript with more than 220 pages of sheet music that Ridgely composed. They bought it on eBay not long after Marilyn Newman’s genealogical research revealed that she is related to Ridgely. They’re distant cousins, she said. “It was really exciting,” said Marilyn. “I had already taken eight years of harp when this happened.”

Vivian Stewart has also developed a connection with the 19th-century musician and heiress. More than 400 pieces of Ridgely’s sheet music for piano, voice and harp are at the mansion, and she has been studying them. And playing Ridgely’s music has been even more exciting for Vivian, she said, since she is around the same age as Ridgely when Ridgely first got her harp.

“It’s really cool,” said Vivian, who played two of Ridgely’s songs at the event. “It’s nice to learn all kinds of things.”

But Ridgely’s instrument — which hasn’t been tuned in over 25 years, on the recommendation of conservators — sat untouched and on display.

“It would fall to pieces if anyone played it,” said Bryant.