Preservation Long Island is delighted to announce the recent acquisition of an exceptional signed and dated portrait by the well-known Sag Harbor artist, Orlando Hand Bears (1811–1851). The oil on canvas, painted in 1834, depicts Ephraim Niles Byram (1809–1881), a prominent figure in the history of Sag Harbor and greater Long Island. Thanks to the generosity of numerous friends and donors, Preservation Long Island was able to acquire the portrait at Christie’s Auction of Important Americana on January 24, 2025.
An astronomer, clockmaker, woodworker, bookbinder, philosopher, horticulturalist, and mechanic, Ephraim Byram’s portrait offers significant educational and interpretive potential at Preservation Long Island’s Custom House in Sag Harbor and the Exhibition Gallery at our headquarters in Cold Spring Harbor. The artwork will be featured in our 2026 exhibition highlighting Long Island’s woodworking craftspeople.
Born in Sag Harbor, New York, in 1809, Ephraim Niles Byram became a renowned clockmaker and astronomer, developing a reputation as a self-taught mechanical genius. He was a known for his precision and accuracy and contributed to the Sag Harbor community through his various endeavors, including building tower clocks, operating a brass foundry, bookbinding, creating and repairing nautical tools, and crafting architectural elements for local residences.
In 1834, the same year Byram sat for local artist Orlando Hand Bears, he created the celestial globe painted alongside him. The globe is a representation of the night sky as seen from earth and was used by Byram for his celestial observations. It remained in his personal possession his entire life and was eventually donated to what is now the Sag Harbor Whaling & Historical Museum. As Sag Harbor’s whaling trade boomed during the first half of the nineteenth century, prosperous individuals began demanding luxury goods, including portraits. Orlando Hand Bears painted various Sag Harbor ship captains, merchants, and their families, and may have been taught by Hubbard Latham Fordham (1794–1872), another Sag Harbor painter and a distant cousin.
Byram is a man of great significance to the history of the village of Sag Harbor and greater Long Island. His life closely intersects with the history of Preservation Long Island’s Custom House, the office and residence of Sag Harbor custom collector, Henry Packer Dering (1763–1822). Following Sag Harbor’s designation as a federal port of entry at the first meeting of the United States Congress in 1789, the seaport experienced dramatic growth. Byram’s work was integral to the success of Sag Harbor’s shipping and whaling industries—the community’s chief economic drivers throughout the first half of the nineteenth century. His extant business accounts document him making and repairing navigational tools and other nautical instruments for the port’s many seafaring vessels.
A man of many talents, Byram’s biography further connects to Preservation Long Island’s preservation advocacy work and focus on regional historic architecture. Byram fabricated the clock towers for two important buildings in Sag Harbor: The Methodist Church (2024 Preservation Awardee) and the iconic Presbyterian or “Old Whaler’s” Church. He also crafted interior architectural elements for the Benjamin Huntting III House, now the home of the Sag Harbor Whaling & Historical Museum.
Byram’s portrait is a fantastic example of Long Island’s artistic heritage and is a particularly wonderful canvas by well-known local artist. Very few of Bears’s works are signed, and the inscription on the reverse of this portrait not only identifies the artist, but also the sitter and the date. Preservation Long Island is thrilled to add this important piece of Long Island history to our collection, and we look forward to sharing its many stories in the years to come.
