It Happened Here: The Invention of Santa Claus

Holiday themed exhibitions are popping up around the United States, It Happened Here: The Invention of Santa Claus being two now on view at the New York Historical Society. “The modern Santa was born in the imagination of Clement Clarke Moore, a scholar who penned a whimsical poem about St. Nicholas, the patron of old Dutch New York, for the amusement of his six children at Christmastime,” and entering the American psyche from an apartment on 23rd street. The exhibition covers Santa in several guises – including Robert Walter Weir’s St. Nicholas (1837), which is shown in detail above.

It Happened Here runs to January 10, 2011.