Harper’s Weekly hailed the Great Russian Ball honoring the visiting Russians, held at the Academy of Music in New York City, as “the greatest ball ever given in this country,” even surpassing that celebrating the visiting Prince of Wales in 1860.  Delmonico’s, the city’s premier restaurant, catered the night’s supper at nearby Irving Hall.  Winslow Homer, who began his artistic career as an illustrator, provided Harper’s Weekly with a sketch of both the Supper Room and the Academy of Music .  The journal also reprinted a description of the evening from the New York Herald.

1)  November 21, 1863, p. 737
illustration, Russian Ball at the Supper-Room

2)  November 21, 1863, pp. 744-745
illustration, Ball at the Academy of Music

3)  November 21, 1863, p. 746, c. 1-3
article, “The Great Russian Ball”