Richard Kip Haight (1798-1862)
Merchant, Traveller & Collector of New York City
He was born in New York and joined his father's successful hat trimming firm. As recalled by Scoville in Old Merchants of New York, Dick Haight possessed "creative genius" that further enriched the family business, "he has got up wonderful contrivances with machinery for making hat trimmings and I think he introduced into this city the machinery for making watered silks, moire antique".
He first travelled to Europe in 1821 visiting markets in England, France, Italy, Austria etc. for products to export to New York. He quickly became a popular face across Europe and after his marriage in 1828 he began to spend years at a time abroad with his family, collecting art, and absorbing foreign cultures. Between 1836 and 1838 he and his wife travelled through Arabia, Petra and Egypt after which she published Letters from the Old World. "He was a handsome fellow, and he knew it". In 1840, Philip Hone recalled in his diary how Dick Haight attended a dinner in New York dressed as a Turk, and on another occasion he was seen dressed as an Austrian officer in a private box at the Opera in Vienna. In 1843, a reporter from the New York Herald commented on him while he was summering at Saratoga Springs: "(Haight) is pretty well known as our eastern traveller, and may be easily distinguished here from his adoption of sundry eastern manners and customs, especially reclining beneath the trees after the Turkish fashion."
In 1828, he married Sarah, daughter of Captain Henry and Abigail (Smith) Rogers, of Smithtown, Long Island. They lived at 4 Lafayette Place before 1848 when they moved into their new mansion on Fifth Avenue at 15th Street that one visitor from England stated was, "unquestionably... the most elegantly fitted up" house in the city. In 1846 his personal fortune was estimated at $300,000. After he died, his widow moved to Paris. They had eight children, four (listed) lived to adulthood.
He first travelled to Europe in 1821 visiting markets in England, France, Italy, Austria etc. for products to export to New York. He quickly became a popular face across Europe and after his marriage in 1828 he began to spend years at a time abroad with his family, collecting art, and absorbing foreign cultures. Between 1836 and 1838 he and his wife travelled through Arabia, Petra and Egypt after which she published Letters from the Old World. "He was a handsome fellow, and he knew it". In 1840, Philip Hone recalled in his diary how Dick Haight attended a dinner in New York dressed as a Turk, and on another occasion he was seen dressed as an Austrian officer in a private box at the Opera in Vienna. In 1843, a reporter from the New York Herald commented on him while he was summering at Saratoga Springs: "(Haight) is pretty well known as our eastern traveller, and may be easily distinguished here from his adoption of sundry eastern manners and customs, especially reclining beneath the trees after the Turkish fashion."
In 1828, he married Sarah, daughter of Captain Henry and Abigail (Smith) Rogers, of Smithtown, Long Island. They lived at 4 Lafayette Place before 1848 when they moved into their new mansion on Fifth Avenue at 15th Street that one visitor from England stated was, "unquestionably... the most elegantly fitted up" house in the city. In 1846 his personal fortune was estimated at $300,000. After he died, his widow moved to Paris. They had eight children, four (listed) lived to adulthood.
