Tammany Societies In 1772, the original Tammany Society was formed in Philadelphia. It was called the "Sons of King Tammany" but was later renamed the "Sons of St. Tammany". Soon, Tammany societies were organized in communities from Georgia to Rhode Island, and west to the
Ohio River. The most famous of these was New York City's Society of St. Tammany, whose members developed an influential
political machine known as "
Tammany Hall". A white marble statue of Tamanend adorned the
façade of the building on East
14th Street that housed Tammany Hall.
Tammany Festivals By the early 1770s, annual Tammany Festivals were being held in Philadelphia and Annapolis. The festivals were held on May 1, replacing the
May Day traditions of Europe but continuing popular folk traditions. For example, the Saint Tammany Day celebrated on May 1, 1771, in
Annapolis had a
may pole decorated with ribbons. People danced in American Indian style to music while holding a ribbon and moving in a circle around the pole. On May 1, 1777,
John Adams wrote of the Tammany festival in Philadelphia during the American Revolutionary War. Adams, who was in Philadelphia attending the
Second Continental Congress as a delegate from Massachusetts, wrote a letter home to his wife
Abigail Adams, which said: This is King Tammany's Day. Tammany was an Indian King, of this part of the Continent, when Mr. Penn first came here. His court was in this town. He was friendly to Mr. Penn and very serviceable to him. He lived here among the first settlers for some time and until old age. ... The people here have sainted him and keep his day. On May 1, 1778, General
George Washington and the
Continental Army held a Tammany festival while camped at
Valley Forge. The "men spent the day in mirth and jollity...in honor of King Tammany" (
Military Journal of George Ewing, 1928). After the end of the Revolutionary War, Tammany celebrations spread throughout the United States, including to
Savannah, Georgia. Local societies promoted annual festivals, usually held on May 1. Tammany celebrations were such important events that, in 1785, George Washington appeared at the Tammany festival in Richmond, Virginia with Virginia governor
Patrick Henry. The Tammany Society in New York City held its first festival in 1787.
Developments in 2003In 2003, two identical
concurrent resolutions were introduced in the
United States Congress (Senate Concurrent Resolution 39 and House Concurrent Resolution 123) that sought to establish "St. Tammany Day" on May 1 as a
national day of recognition. The Senate version was passed by unanimous consent. It was then referred for review in May 2003 to the Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Organization, which is a subcommittee of the
House Committee on Government Reform. The Subcommittee took no action on the resolution, and it has not been reintroduced.
Dramatic and literary representations, and musical references • In 1794,
Ann Julia Hatton's opera,
Tammany: The Indian Chief premiered on
Broadway and became highly popular. It featured the first major opera
libretto written in the United States that had an American theme, and it was the earliest drama about ethnic Americans. The opera premiered at the John Street Theatre, New York, on March 3, 1794, featuring English actress and 'grande dame' of American theatre,
Charlotte Melmoth. Melmoth refused to speak the opera's epilogue, as she disapproved of its patriotic sentiments. The
New York Journal called on the public to boycott the opera as long as Melmoth was still in the cast. • In 1826, Tammany was featured (as "Tamenund") in the conclusion of
The Last of the Mohicans (1826), a novel by
James Fenimore Cooper which became extremely popular in the
antebellum United States. The novel was part of his
Leatherstocking Tales, a series of works that explored the colonial past, with strong influence on American literary culture and the emerging nation's identity. (Tamenund is depicted as elderly, and a relic of the past, but in 1757 — the year in which the novel is set — he was in fact more than half a century dead.) • In 1912,
James E. Gaffney, a member of New York's
Tammany Hall, purchased the
Boston Rustlers baseball team and renamed them the Boston Braves, using Tamanend's image as their primary logo. • In 1932, Boston was granted an
NFL franchise which took the Boston Braves name and image from its landlord at
Braves Field. When the team moved to
Fenway Park in 1936, it renamed itself the
Redskins in homage to their new landlord, the
Boston Red Sox. The Redskins name and Tamanend image travelled with them when they moved to
Washington, D.C. in 1937. The team has since changed their name. • A statue of an American Indian identified as Tamanend is shown outside
Tammany Hall in the film
Gangs of New York (2002). • The musician
Joanna Newsom, in the song "Sapokanikan" from her 2015 album
Divers refers to both King Tamanend and Tammany Hall. • Though not named in dialogue, Tamanend appears at the end of the 1992 film adaptation of
The Last of The Mohicans, played by
Mohawk actor Mike Phillips.
Statues, monuments, and memorials •
Tamanend, an 1817 wooden sculpture by William Luke, was the figurehead of the warship
USS Delaware. The ship burned during the
American Civil War, but the figurehead was rescued and put on display at the
United States Naval Academy in
Annapolis, Maryland. In the 1930s, a bronze replica was installed on campus in front of
Bancroft Hall, where each day the Brigade of Midshipmen forms for Noon Meal Formation. One of the most cherished traditions at the academy is the painting of the statue in the days before football games or other prominent events. The original figurehead is in the
U.S. Naval Academy Museum. •
Tamanend, a 1995 bronze statue by Raymond Sandoval, is located at the intersection of Front and
Market Streets, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The plaque notes that "Tamanend was considered the patron saint of America by the colonists prior to American Independence."
Namesakes •
St. Tammany Parish (established ) is one of nine Louisiana parishes (counties) named for "saints;" it is the only one whose namesake is not a
Christian "saint" as recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. •
Mount Tammany is the name of the prominence on
Kittatinny Mountain on the northeast (New Jersey) side of the
Delaware Water Gap. • "Tammany Regiment" was the nickname of the
New York 42nd Infantry during the American Civil War. Its monument on the
Gettysburg Battlefield includes an 1891 statue of Tamenend by
John J. Boyle. •
Tamanend Middle School, Central Bucks School District, Pennsylvania, was named for him. •
Bracey, Virginia, was originally named St. Tammany. • St. Tammany Masonic Lodge #5, was chartered in Hampton, Virginia in 1759. •
Todd Tamanend Clark, poet and composer, was born in 1952 in
Greensboro, Pennsylvania. •
Tamanend's bottlenose dolphin, a species of dolphin inhabiting coastal waters along the eastern United States. ==See also==