A Frightful Sight

Washington Irving's famous tale, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," inspired this startling scene.

Ichabod Crane, wild-eyed in fear, throws up his hand to fend off an attack by the headless horseman. Although the head is just a greenish pumpkin catching a bit of moonlight, the scene becomes even more sinister as twisted tree branches seem to turn into writhing snakes. Irving's colorful characters and improbable yarns created a mythology for an American public that had few literary traditions.

And whatever happened to Ichabod Crane?

"Ichabod did not make his appearance at breakfast; dinner-hour came, but no Ichabod.… An inquiry was set on foot, and after diligent investigation they came upon his traces. In one part of the road leading to the church was found the saddle trampled in the dirt; the tracks of horses' hoofs deeply dented in the road, and evidently at furious speed, were traced to the bridge, beyond which, on the bank of a broad part of the brook, where the water ran deep and black, was found the hat of the unfortunate Ichabod, and close beside it a shattered pumpkin. The brook was searched, but the body of the schoolmaster was not to be discovered."

—Washington Irving

Source: Gwen Everett. Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).

Pictured: John Quidor, 1801–81, The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane, 1858, oil, 26 7/8 x 33 7/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible in part by the Catherine Walden Myer Endowment, the Julia D. Strong Endowment, and the Director's Discretionary Fund.