 Okay, hopefully you're all seeing a nice title slide that says short story Sarah and Eleanor To quickly describe myself. I am a white man in my 30s. We'll say 20s maybe sometimes I have a increasingly unmanageable wave of brown hair I'm in a room with a blue wall and a white wall with some artwork on the walls So again as I'm as Kristin mentioned I am with a crop top from publishing associate in the department of crop From publishing our department. We've been researching and in publishing on Cooper Hewitt's history along with the invaluable assistance of design historian and Cooper Hewitt Justine Marjorie Missinter for a number of years now specifically looking at the lives and work of Eleanor and this Sarah and Eleanor Hewitt So here they are Pictured two portraits one of Sarah Hewitt and one of Eleanor Sarah wears a hat and a walking suit Eleanor is seated and wearing a gown So who were Sarah Eleanor Hewitt? They are the founders of Cooper Hewitt a way of founding the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration at Cooper Union in the 1890s The collection of that museum is the cornerstone of Cooper Hewitt's collection today They were intelligent ambitious and creative women and have distinct vision for museums and design education in the United States Pictured two portraits one of Sarah one of Eleanor and their and their childhood Sarah Eleanor and their siblings grew up in a multi-generational household. They had private tutors and governesses Sarah attended Miss Torrey School in New York and later finishing school at Miss Porter School in Connecticut where Eleanor also attended From their childhoods. They were well educated and they traveled with their family and encouraged in intellectual and creative pursuits Pamela Horne Cooper Hewitt's director of crop top from publishing. We'll be talking about that more in the breakout rooms Let's talk about their family a little bit As I said the two children grew up in a multi-generational household maintain and maintain family connections throughout their lives Pictured three portraits on the left Peter Cooper is an older white man with glasses and a impressively bushy beard in the middle Abram Hewitt a well-dressed in a well-dressed suit and also a beard gazes to the right and on the and on the right Sarah Amelia Hewitt in a dress embellished with lace and her hair done up gazes to the left Peter Cooper was their grandfather and he was an industrialist and philanthropist He founded the Cooper Union advanced for the advancement of science and art in 1859 and encouraged his grandchildren children and grandchildren to Continue in a philanthropic minded way Abram Hewitt their father served as mayor of New York and pushed his children to pursue academic and cultural challenges Sarah Amelia Hewitt in addition to being the mother of six children Gardened and pursued philanthropic endeavors and shared her passions with her children Two examples of books given by Abram to his children demonstrating their cultural Education and cultural development pictured two books on various spreads On the left the books pages are richly illustrated with imagery and text in gold and deep color on the right The books pages are populated with several illustrations of dogs in various poses and costumes And what is a beautiful is a beautifully illustrated edition of William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale illustrated by 19th century British artist Owen Jones And the beauty of this work of his volume speaks to the value of literature and culture in the Hewitt household And the dogs are also beautifully printed if a little more whimsical and appropriate for their childhood 9 Lezingtain Avenue in New York City was the Hewitt home base where Sarah and Eleanor lived their entire lives Located near Gramercy Park, and they were well positioned to interact with other members of New York society in the late 19th century Pictured a photograph of a four-story house situated on the city corner on the right a lavishly decorated interior ballroom furnished with chairs mirrors and musical instruments Interiors such as this ballroom is where the Hewitt's hosted an array of events from informal gatherings with friends to charity programs and performances They performed as part of a lady's charity orchestra as well as performed amateur theatricals in the private theater in the back of this image And just foreshadowing how they would come to develop that decorative arts museum Mrs. Hewitt I'm gonna misquote her but she later would Think of walking around her house and seeing missing objects and then later go to the museum and find them there Ringwood Manor or excuse me in addition to 9 Lezingtain Avenue with the Hewitt's owned a number of other properties Particularly Ringwood Manor their country stayed in Ringwood, New Jersey, Sioux Judy, historian at Ringwood will leave the breakup room on that So through this rich and lively family life, Sarah and Eleanor came of age as their own in the society of Gilded Age New York Pictured two portraits one of Sarah and one of Eleanor Sarah and a photograph wears a hat and a walking suit Eleanor in a painting wears a white dress with a pink waist accent Sarah and Eleanor often appeared in the city's press very helpful to us as historians They were both avid documentors of their lives and Sarah maintained a clipping service to preserve their mentions pictured three pieces of ephemera at the left a poem of 12 lines titled to Miss Sally Hewitt At Center an illustrated an illustration of two women playing of the violin at right the cover of a magazine featuring a photograph of Eleanor and a gown The poem on the left found from town topics was authored by the mysterious poet named the Rhymester Who writes of Sarah in the first two lines quote? I'd like to know what Sally knows and what she does and it's not worth knowing and quote Which I think demonstrates the magisterial personality that Sarah has was cultivating in New York at the time From a newspaper clipping of the time also is an illustration that captures the sisters Musical prowess and notes the development of a ladies charity orchestra complete with exacting rules for tendons and evidence That they developed with other young women in society Once a week a weekly illustrated society magazine captured Eleanor on the cover and her costume for the banner of Apollo that decade So moving on to the museum itself Pictured the Cooper Union Foundation building a large urban building with an imposing facade as I mentioned Peter Cooper founded the Cooper Union and in doing so with his family steeped them in education Just the idea of education the spirit of that their whole lives Classes at Cooper Union were free and they were offered to men and women The sisters attended lectures there and again were steeped in kind of the educational spirit of the institution in The 1890s this has just had an idea for a museum. They were inspired by their travels in Europe as well It's wanting to elevate American taste and design They So they decided to establish a decorative arts museum at Cooper Union They were inspired by the Union Central the Arts Decorative the Museum of Arts Decorative in Paris Which was a museum modeled on? Artist engaging actively with with objects and art to inspire their own work Pictured at left a handwritten announcement on paper at right the title page of a book featuring the title and a medallion featuring Peter Cooper This announcement which was handwritten by either Sarah or Eleanor announcing the museum reads to architects designers Decorators and artisans a free museum for the study of the arts of decoration And this document really captures the ethos of this of the institution. They were developing and it was free later In time it became Open later at night to go after work The hands-on kind of informal quality demonstrates kind of the approach to the museum structure The making of the modern museum was first the speech given by Eleanor in 1919 at the Wednesday afternoon club and was published here in 1980 as well And in this book Eleanor outlines the development as well as philosophy of the museum talking about the various donors they encountered and worked with As well as the philosophy behind their pedagogy and design Eleanor uses the term modernism of its use to describe why the museum was modern and that They were approaching it as a hands-on laboratory for working Matilda McQuaid acting curatorial director will be talking more about this teaching and objects in the museum's early collection in a break out room Pictured two photographs the museum galleries filled with objects. These are some of the earliest Images we know of the galleries in 1905 And demonstrate the types of objects that the sisters were acquiring from chairs to wall coverings fans And they demonstrate also how the original collection was displayed Organized mostly by object types But also kind of just how things fit in in the image on the left. You can see kind of pieces hung on the wall fitting into one another I Love in the image on the right. We have these fans picking out on the side Still part of our collect Fans don't be part of our collection. They're kind of fanning in and demonstrating a range of object types Pictured a floor plan of the fourth floor of Cooper Union with many small rooms that are labeled This is the floor plan of the museum from 1913 Again, it demonstrates how the Museum was organized you can see on the detail you can more easily see references to Smith work and mother coverings and you can also see details of Of centuries and how things were organized by centuries and geographies One thing I also think is interesting to note about this floor plan is Inclusion of work tables in the layout to really show how this was a museum was a place to Observe and enjoy but also kind of work can be inspired Therefore pictured are four images of the galleries from 1939 featuring an array of different object types These images show the long-term effect of the display as the Hewitt's and the museum a mass more objects for the museum's collection Again, it demonstrates in a range of object types including was a read which is wood wall covering bird cages prints and staircases in the lower Lower right. We have a nice staircase rail and again demonstrates how each How the objects were fit together as they could the bird cages above the prints efficient and Yeah, so that's That's kind of a quick overview of And the Hewitt's in the museum, and I'll hand it back to Kirsten to take us to the breakout rooms And hopefully everyone's seeing a title slide that says friends careers war and culture I titled this section this although I think we'll most to be focusing on their friends Although we will be getting into careers wars and cultures as well Again many that the Kennedy and publications associate So like like Sarah and Eleanor Hewitt the women of their social circle were brought into the privileged society of gilded age New York of the late 19th century But as their lives and careers progressed we're met with the tumult of the early 20th century I'm going to introduce a few figures from the Hewitt's lives and touch on some of the historical context at the time So we're gonna start with Bessie, Elsie and Anne Bessie is Elizabeth Marbury, Elsie DeWolf and Anne Tracy Morgan Bessie Marbury was a pioneering theatrical agent and producer who supported many American playwrights and composers such as Jerome Kern and Cole Porter She was also the international representative of playwrights like and Walters like Oscar Wilde Elsie DeWolf is famously the self-proclaimed first interior designer Although I think historians might a little bit disagree that may be more of a vibe than natural distinction We'll give it to her. She was socially well connected and an enthusiastic culture maker She advocated for bringing interior design out of the Victorian era to embrace lighter color palettes and simpler decorative touches. Her favorite color was beige Anne Tracy Morgan was the youngest child of financier JP Morgan And she used her position to support her friends' careers and also the philanthropic endeavors and we'll be talking about her more Elsie was introduced to Bessie by Sarah and Eleanor in 1886 and they stayed a couple for several decades I pictured these two women together because they frequently lived in proximity to each other In 1903 they purchased the Villa Trianon near Versailles Refashioned it to their tastes and it became their hub in Their cultural life in Paris and they became affectionately known as the Versailles triumvirate Her also involved in the establishment of the Colony Club a New York women's social club in 1903 which was Elsie's first big commission as an interior designer after a prior career as an actress It's often difficult to kind of collect the Work of an interior designer and we're lucky to have these two pieces attributed to Elsie the side chair on the left is the side chair in the Louis the 15th style and on the right is a rectangular table in the style of Art Modan or front yard deco We've gone to Caroline Caroline King Durr Pictured white black and white photograph of a woman formally dressed seated in a decorative chair and looking to the left Not to play favorites, but to Caroline's probably my favorite and figure from the Hewitt circle She was an author a poet an editor and an artist Her and her writing possesses a self-deprecation and wit that I feel feels very humble and contemporary She was very close friends with the Hewitt's She mentioned she mentions dropping into their house analyzing to the avenue for dinner and her writings praising Mrs. Hewitt And in later years she used ringwood manner has her personal writing retreat Picture three images of black and white photograph of a group of women sitting at a table than two colorful illustrations Caroline was the decorative arts and etiquette editor at Vogue for a number of years Here she has pictured with the editorial staff in 1923 She is the second from the right in the first row seated. This picture also includes After the women centred in the lighter garment the women to the left of her is Carmel Snow who we go went on to become the famed Editor of Harper's Bazaar The other two images are from a ringwood guest books I mentioned it's the ringwood estate and there are four volumes of guest books that the Hewitt's had their guests sign over the years And the first two are mostly signatures and messages relating to the friends of Abram Hewitt and Peter Cooper Then the second volume is starts to explode with color and poetry As the Hewitt's and their friends took over the estate Caroline is responsible for much of this whimsy Here we have The center image is of a surreal a surreal illustration of called the Dashhound nursery in which dogs had appeared on the edge of plants and then a figure in this image on the right Caption the distressed poetess is a woman in distress at a table with pages all around her distressed in her poetry I think these images reveal the the creativity and cleverness of her artistry and poetry While all the Hewitt's friends and acquaintances Contribute in some way to the museum because they were very persuasive many of their friends made specific contributions to the collection or the museum's operations Lucy and Elizabeth Elizabeth Keane and Lucy Keane were of the prominent Keane family of New Jersey Family so circles were entwined with the Hewitt's often attending the same functions having written up later in the press seen her two portraits of women On the left woman is set before dark back actually on the right woman is set before dark background and looks the camera her Hares and up and she's wearing lace garment with a high neck on the right a woman that looks to her side And is wearing a more suited garment In addition to gifting a number of fans the museum's collection They also gifted many children's books including some illustrated by British artist Walter Crane But you'd hear three covers of those books including the absurd ABC flower wedding and the hidden in the willow all Interpretly illustrated with illustrations and overlapping typography Next we have Louisa and Georgina Louisa into junior Schuyler Schuyler name has become even more well-known the last few years next to thanks to someone named Linda and well Miranda But yes, these are those scholars. They were the descendants of that lineage being the great-granddaughters of Alexander and Eliza Hamilton They're both philanthropists particularly Louisa who Did a lot for welfare and access to health care In 1915 Louisa was awarded an honorary doctorate from Columbia for that work. She did in 1916 The sisters gifted the Cooper Union Museum over 100 objects including painted fans and jewelry pictured here are three Examples of those objects one image is a pair of earrings with black dangly features One is a chest with inlaid wood and painted and another is a fan Withinlaid wood and lacquered from the mid 19th century Constance and Sue Constance Constance person's hair and Sue Dwight Bliss Contruded to the museum as volunteers and then later taking over leadership roles after Sarah's death in 1930 Constance championed a penny for Fleury, which was the museum store and an effort to raise money for the students Give them an income and Sue after Sarah's death became the director of the museum So everything was going great and then World War one happened As world or one broke out in Europe in 1914 the women's careers continued to flourish in the United States Sarah and Eleanor continued to build the museum's collection Elsie published the house and good taste in 1913 Bessie started the American play company in 1914 producing her first show in 1915 and producing Cole Porter's first musical to make it to Broadway see America first in 1916 it was not a hit, but I think he did okay for himself In 1917 the United States entered World War one upending American life and shifting the women's focus And Tracy Morgan specifically relocated to a Bella Ron court just apologize. I miss pronunciation Bella Ron court France and established American friends of France to support the war effort and the Villa Trianon was also converted into a temporary hospital I'm pictured here are three photographs That were glued into the Ringwood guest book of Caroline's trip to visit and at the time one picture is of has a few structures With the garden in front the center image is a Caroline standing in the field with some soldiers and then on the Left is an image of soldiers enjoying a performance And the bottom is an illustration titled Sally's accounts also from the Ringwood guest books one possibly not Specifically addressing more time efforts. I think it speaks to the scarcity of thing of materials and resources at the time It's an image of a woman shoveling piles of bills on one side is a large pile So it's unpaid on the other side is a small pile. It says paid So during the During the interwar period of Bessie published her memoir my crystal ball in 1923 and in a stunning turn Elsie part Elsie who had been partnered with Bessie for 40 years married Charles Mendel in 1926 becoming Lady Mendel Sarah and Eleanor both passed away between 1924 1930 and Constance and Sue began overseeing the museum By 1939 tensions had once again began to grow in Europe toward war pictured here a woman with White hair and a voluminous ball gown stands before a mirrored wall inscribed on the upper left in the ink is Elsie in 1939 Elsie pictured here in 1939 In a Cecil beaten photograph when Cooper's collection hosted her annual Carnival Ball in Paris in July This was seen as the last cultural event in France before being consumed by war And because this is hopefully a fun presentation. I've included the gown she wore to that particular party the mainbuckle gown and it's a Belted of gown with its beige with a flowing skirt and sparkles and Again, not to play the favoritism, but Caroline is my favorite. So I'd end with her She published two articles in vogue in 1949. They're based on oral history. She gave Press part of a larger project with Barnard College in The first Title the years behind me. She said quote having always longed to grow up. It appears to me now That I've never grown up, but I no longer care and quote and then in another article in which she tried to kind of having lived through the gilded age tried to Encourage less judgment around the personalities next they had become to seem as being kind of frivolous In the article tell in the non eccentric 90s She said a quote that thing is easier than the burlesque of a period that people who did not belong to that period But in reality those days like every period like every epoch had their own or dignity There has always been good taste as well as bad taste in the surrounding of a community that had a shared position in social life of the nation and End quote. So as a historian, I always like to keep that quote in mind that these are all people of their time and while it may be tempting to kind of look at them in a certain way or Easy to kind of pick apart while on their eccentricities. It just remember like they're all people and and friends So that wraps up this part I'll stop sharing my screen So anyone have any questions? Is the distressed poetess available on a postcard? I need that in my life. Not at present, but I we could probably make that happen I have a question that was sent in Before the program by someone who wasn't able to attend Um, and it's about the sisters um and the Vanderbilt's Their question is I've seen photos of the girls at the Vanderbilt fancy dress balls Did they get along with the Vanderbilt's or were they only invited because of their family family's fortune and influence? Um, I I believe they were friends. Um, and Vanderbilt was part of this circle as well I don't think she was as close to the huwits as some of the others were um, yes, they were um Friends, you know the same circle. So yes How many extant designs by Elsie DeWolf roughly exist? I didn't know that she made her own furniture I actually um That's a great question. I don't know exactly how many exactly this I it did a lot of searching to find other museum collections and born it was not able to find many Um, I wonder if it's an issue of attribution Or if they're just not really held in the United States, and maybe there's more in europe because she designed that as well But um, yeah, I was excited to find those objects in the collection. They're actually donated by um people The house on 90th street right next to the museum. So nice to have our neighbors give us that gift So as an interior designer our project and for if you do residential They're not extant projects at that point. So mostly somebody else moves in everything moves out And the furniture stays with the client. So wouldn't be It's they don't they don't unless they're unless it's like, you know at the Met Museum where they have where they buy an entire room And they plunk it down um There are no There's a 99.9 percent chance that there's nothing extant Yeah, and from my somewhat limited understanding of her interior design process She was more of a little bit of a sketcher and more of a shopper So that kind of design was a decorator. So it's right. Yeah the decorators are and so there's lots of you know We all make a lot of furniture probably 50 percent of what I do is may is you know custom furniture But that doesn't mean it's museum quality furniture. So it's a different Uh, it's a different thing. So it's hard. It's hard Interior design is hard to capture other than photographs Yes Did the sisters have any like with their friends that you were talking about did they ever travel Abroad anywhere together or did they have a favorite spot to travel to? Um, their favorite spot to travel to was Paris Um, in a hotel they stayed in there that they stayed in every time Um, I can't think of a specific story where they were traveling with friends But I would imagine that happened. Um just Given how quickly they were going to Europe how frequently their friends were going to Europe If not traveling together meeting up. I'm sure they say that the village ran on a few times Yeah, I think that definitely helped happen Thank you Yeah, thank you All right, I think we are just about out of time. Matthew. Thank you so much. Thank you all And a reminder to the group. Um, Matthew will be leaving and we will be staying in this room And we will be visited by another speaker. We'll have three more speakers throughout And our next speaker is, um, Susan Schudy Hi, Susan Thanks Cecilia. Hi everybody. I'm Sue Schudy. I'm the historian for Ringwood Manor I'm a white female with long brown hair and I'm in a cream color brew with a large number of pieces of artwork on the wall behind me I'm going to be talking about the Hewitt sisters and their influence. Um at the Hewitt country estate, which is known as Ringwood Manor For those of you who don't know Ringwood Manor is located about an hour northwest of New York City On the screen right now. There's a map of northern New Jersey and its proximity to Manhattan The top left arrow shows where Ringwood Manor is and the bottom left arrow shows where their home in New York City was And again, it's about an hour outside of New York City The property was purchased by the Hewitt sisters grandfather Peter Cooper and their father April mess Hewitt in 1854 They purchased 22,000 acres of property in northern New Jersey and this was supposed to be an addition to their very large ironwork in conglomerate But mrs. Hewitt arrived at the property and she took a look around and decided that this would make a better country or summer estate for the family And she took a small existing home on the property and began expanding it over the course of 50 years and The the image on the screen right now is how it ended up It is a long Three-story building in Victorian style architecture. It has 51 rooms in it all of these pitched roofs Out about 10 different chimneys and the entire exterior is covered in a white stucco smet And it sits atop a rolling hill situated in the Ramapo mountains of northern New Jersey And this is a modern image of Ringwood Manor taken from a drone an aerial shot And you have a better idea of the rolling hillsides that surround the building and again more of an overview of that long low 226 foot long mansion The Hewitt family really loved the property it was a weekend It could be a weekend getaway they could stay for weeks at a time their friends and family could come and join them It was not far outside of the city So it was a great place for them to have a country estate The image that is on the screen right now shows Mr. and Mrs. Hewitt's riding in a horse-drawn carriage on the property at Ringwood Manor in 1868 And they're surrounded by five of their six children Number six was not born until 1871 And it gives you a sense that these are really very young children They're all toddlers or under the age of 10 in this picture So the Hewitt children really grew up at Ringwood Manor and they were encouraged to really enjoy the property And be outdoors and be athletic So even the daughters were participating in things like fishing Horseback riding tennis hiking carriage driving sailing and swimming and so much more And when Sarah and Eleanor Hewitt grew up and became young women and adults They really were very influential on the property and we still see that today So I'm going to first talk about Miss Sarah Hewitt or Sally's influence at Ringwood Manor And that is in particular to the carriage barn and the driving roads here The image on the left is a portrait of Sarah Hewitt in a walking suit and the right Sarah Hewitt is sitting on horseback She's riding side saddle with both of her legs on the left side of the horse Which was very typical for women at the time And she rode though both side saddle and a stride which meant that she wore pants sometimes Which was a bit controversial And this was a very athletic pursuit She would actually go side saddle riding over the grounds of Ringwood Manor at a full gallop Jumping over obstacles like fencing and rock walls And it required a lot of balance and a lot of core and leg strength And to go along with her love of equestrian sports and riding and carriage driving She created the carriage barn on the property and every time her mother expanded Ringwood Manor Sarah Hewitt would expand the carriage barn And so we have two historic photos on the screen on the left hand side It's showing the carriage barn on the eastern end of the building It's a very Victorian structure with a steeply pitched roof and a lot of dormer windows Again with the exterior covered in a concrete stucco And on the right hand side, you're looking at the western end Same thing that steeply pitched roof line with concrete stucco on the exterior And the reason it's very difficult to get a good photo of the entirety of the barn is It is enormously large So the photo that is on the screen now shows the south facade of the carriage barn in its entirety It's 190 feet long And it held 30 different horse drawn vehicles that Sally Hewitt acquired during her lifetime It housed 12 different riding horses, which were usually thorough reds or stallions And all of the associated equipment things like Rains and harnesses and saddles and horse blankets So everything that was riding and carriage driving related was in this building The interior spaces are definitely marked with Sally's love of her horses and her sport And that's through some of the unique features that are seen in the interior So we have three modern photographs on the screen of the interior of the building The top left is showing the long corridor where all of the horse stalls are There's about 12 different horse stalls in this carriage barn And you'll see that there's wood on the ceiling and the walls This particular wood is heart of cypress It's all wood paneled throughout the entirety of the carriage barn And cypress was used because of its water resistant properties To the right the right photograph shows a 10 foot tall quarter sewn oak pocket door There are pocket doors throughout the carriage barn and they separate the individual spaces So the area where the carriage is restored is separate from where the horses were living in the stall And the harnessing rooms and so on and so forth And the bottom image on the left hand side is showing this cylindrical Thing that's coming down and descending from the ceiling of the carriage barn into the stalls And there's one that goes into every single stall This is a gravity fed hay chute that Sally added to the building The second floor has a haylock the hay would be shoveled down the holes The holes would drop down the hay chutes and then the horses could actually eat the hay in their stalls Which was always fresh and dry for them Her influence is also seen in the carriages out part of her collection She custom ordered many of her carriages from the Brewster carriage company of new york city Which was considered the premier carriage company of the time The left hand image on the screen is a sketch of what's known as a Brewster bell fainting carriage And the right hand photograph is a in in real life. This is what was created And this bell fainting carriage was a carriage that she would have driven herself and she designed it to go really fast So some of the customization she added were larger wheels And a stronger suspension which would ride more smoothly over the rough carriage roads here at ringwood manor So you can imagine her zipping along these carriage roads riding at top speed in this type of carriage This is another one of the carriages in the collection at ringwood manor that she customized It's a spring victoria. This is a pleasure riding carriage So her coachman would drive her and her friends around in this carriage Parking it on little hills or next to ponds and you would have picnic lunches out of it The carriage has beautiful wicker details all along the side And there's even a wicker picnic basket on the back of that carriage And the way she customized this particular one is the seat where the coachman would sit on the right hand side of the Carriage has a small lever next to it and you would actually turn that level lever and it would apply brakes This carriage actually had a braking system Installed on it, which was very unusual for carriages at that time All of this culminated in a scholarly article that she wrote It's called some suggestions for the repairs of country roads It was published both in harper's weekly magazine and also the united states journal of agriculture And in it she actually references ringwood. I've highlighted the passage on this screen In the first paragraph and it says I speak from some practical experience acquired in road making in a very wild and heli region of Northern New Jersey So here she is kind of, you know, taking all of her knowledge and putting it out there for the public so they can use it And and institute it in their carriage roads Switching gears elinor hughett or miss nelly was very involved in garden and landscape design at ringwood Which was very different than what her sister was doing the photograph on the left hand side of the screen is a portrait of elinor hughett As a young woman, she's sitting in a chair and a highly embellished Dressed with a hat that has feathers on top of it And on the right hand side This is a a drone or an aerial view of the italian sunken garden, which is directly behind ringwood manor Elinor hughett was influenced by many different people in her garden and landscape design The first person who influenced her was her mother Mrs. Hughett said she couldn't paint a picture, but she could create one At ringwood manor and so her mother and elinor were both working on the garden and landscape design here But elinor was also being influenced by friends who happened to be very well-known landscape architects and designers So people like andrew jackson downing a j davis fredrick wall onestead Beatrix jones forrand and many others were good friends of the hughett's and they were Corresponding with one another or they were visiting The hughets at ringwood manor and they were discussing different landscaping ideas And elinor was taking a little bit from everyone and utilizing it here at the property The slide currently shows on the left hand side a very early sketch of ringwood manor at the top And the design for a kidney shaped garden right in front of it, which unfortunately was never built But this is very much in the style of a j downing and on the left or excuse me on the right hand side There is a letter to the hughett family from a j davis who's actually talking about a stone bridge and the design for a stone bridge Which hughets did take his advice and built on the property and it's still here today Elinor was similarly very influenced by her travels around the world places like italy and france and the uk And she's looking at estates and garden designs abroad and then bringing back those ideas and utilizing them at ringwood as well So on the screen right now are on the left hand side was a very early watercolor drawing And painting of the italian sunken garden design, which is very geometric a lot of rectangles and circles are part of that design And on the right hand side, this is the finalized design for the italian sunken garden Again, it's it's built on geometric and symmetric properties. So you see a lot of geometry used in it There's circles and ovals and semi circles and squares and rectangles and quarter rounds All those types of things are part of the italian sunken garden This particular slide shows four historic views of the gardens at ringwood manor The top left and right are two different views of the italian sunken garden at different times after it was constructed The bottom two images are showing the tiered gardens Just as its name suggests, it's four tiers or four levels of gardens that are walled in with a rock masonry structure And it contained both flowers and vegetables You could stay within the garden and just view the the flowers and the vegetables from there Or you could kind of go up the tiers and have these beautiful views of the surrounding estate And these are the beautiful views of the surrounding estate Believe it or not, these surrounding views are actually part of the garden design The property was very much barren when the hewits got here And so they were very much influenced by a family member That's gifford pincho. He was the first united states forester and he helped them plan all of these plantings So what you're seeing in these photos of these rolling hillsides with these lush forests These are all actually second and third generation growth These were not originally here when the hewits started But they had the forethought to plant them so that a hundred years later it would look like they had always been there You'll also notice some objects the top right and the and the bottom left have these iron objects cannons cog wheels And that leads me into the final aspect of the garden design that ellenor loved to do architectural salvage So the hewits were taking things from new york city from their travels abroad Historic objects things that had meaning or that were beautiful and bringing them back to ringwood The top left photograph shows the gates that came from columbia university before they moved into its present location in midtown Manhattan The bottom right hand corner is actually the columns from the old new york life insurance building in new york city as well And so that building was torn down the iconic new york life insurance building skyscraper was put up And the hewits saved the original columns and used them in the gardens And you have other features like wells and oil lanterns that dot the property even to this day And this all culminated in a wonderful feature about ellenor and the how the gardens at ringwood manor house and garden magazine in 1902 Published this feature on ringwood manner and the quote that is in it that i love it says There's a mysterious charm about the pleasure grounds of ringwood. You can find surroundings to fit every mood here And i think that's completely accurate And so that wraps up my very brief talk on ellenor and sarah's Influence at ringwood manner. Here's some information that you can find more about our historic site If you'd like to visit and if anybody has any questions right now, you'd be happy to answer them Sue is is ringwood open right now to visitors? So the property right now is open to visitors We're doing outdoor grounds and gardens tours and other thematic outdoor walking tours We also will be opening the carriage barn exhibit starting this weekend It'll be open every weekend from now through october But the manor house itself is under renovation right now and won't be open to the public until the fall But we normally are open to the public to visit. Yes Someone in the chat asked um our time tickets required for this summer I know it but there are advanced reservations required So you just have to register and all that detail is on our website ringwood manner.org about how you can visit us For some of our outdoor walking programs And everything is free I added a link to ringwood manner into the chat as well. Thank you. Thank you So I think we're just about out of time um But sue thank you so much for for sharing all of this Absolutely And if you're looking for a getaway from new york city for a day ringwood manner is a great day trip So come visit us No, it looks absolutely so beautiful All right, so our next speaker um Is going to be pamela horn um Pamela, are you here yet? I am. Oh great great great so um Pamela horn is the director of cross-platform publishing and strategic partnerships at the kubernetes And her presentation will look at the sisters travels in europe as well as their interest in fashion I'm looking forward to this one Okay So let me just set up Um, bear with me for one moment Okay Thank you. Cecilia Great to be here. Thank you all. So as Cecilia mentioned, um I'm director of cross-platform publishing and strategic partnerships I am a white woman with brown curly hair that falls below my shoulders Rang glasses and a gray shawl In my background is a white wall with lots of books and bookcases I publish, uh, the museum's books and exhibitions And website content and about eight years ago. I began working with our devoted design historian and trustee marjorie Miss inter we published meet the huits and short stories, which are blogs about the huit sisters The founding of the collection and their lives and today we are going to talk about collecting and traveling in huits style In this image the sisters sarah. Amy and elinor huitt are enjoying a gondola ride Fashionably dressed in venice italy. This photo was taken around 1890 by their younger brother erskine And it's the only photograph we have of the three sisters as adults The huits early travels to europe were part of their education While their father abram had business dealings the girls and their mother amelia shop for art decorative objects And the latest paris fashions Pictured here are The images of three worn scrapbooks the books with age bindings were compiled by the young sisters and are now housed at the cooper union library archives They attest to sarah and elinor's avid interest in the arts and the world around them They're packed full of sketches invitations programs and articles about the happenings in paris london and vienna The slide this slide shows two interior pages from the scrapbooks on the left is a pencil sketch of an architectural column Dated about Dated april 1886 and the page on the right shows various sketches of countryside bell frees and towers and a watercolor With a white owl in a green wash background sketches and watercolor drawings recorded places visited in their interests uh in their interest in architecture and design And this small sampling shows you a glimpse of their artistic training And this slide shows watercolors on the left of a bell tower and some other european countryside architecture and on the right of an intricate pattern that possibly looks like tile mosaics European travels were considered part of the assistors education Curious and discriminating they began to think about collecting for their dream of Opening a museum for the arts of decoration on the fourth floor of their grandfather's school to cooper union institute in new york city There's was a mission to educate a public in good design for american industry and create jobs for future designers Sarah and ellen were traveled together to museums met with dealers and began to buy books and drawings and rare textiles in 18 In rare textiles and in 1892 the missa de la decoratif Had a large exhibition Of women's work the image on the left is a poster from that exhibition That features text at the top with the title exposition de art De la femme and on the right is an image of the gallery from that exhibition with cases containing objects on display There is no doubt that sarin ellenor were enthralled by this show They enlisted the the directors of the missa de art decoratif to become their mentors and advisors on the organization of their museum as ellenor wrote in 1919 The directors of the missa de art decoratif singularly broad minded and perhaps secretly were amused by the youth and inexperience of their collaborators And were generous of thought and time While in paris they stayed at the hotel the hotel durin And you'll see a postcard featuring the hotel and the plus fondome in paris Which was designed by mazard in 1701 Over many years ellenor documented and methodically recorded information About the countries and cities and important homes and gardens that they visited throughout europe There are 23 small travel diaries housed in the kuperhuit design library. Here's an image of one on the right With a worn brown leather spine showing the title paris these slides Also now show the interior pages of the ring bound diaries um illustrating how precise The sisters were about documentation and sketching their surroundings Diaries were often jammed with business and calling cards and notes received and this slide provides a tantalizing glimpse of who and where they visited newspaper clippings and other ephemera The mission of their travels was collecting for their museum Um We found this article and map folded into one of the diaries titled Como sortir de paris? How do you leave paris? It details the dilemma that automobile drivers and cyclists face in selecting the route to leave paris A translation from an article that was tucked into their diary Reads moving side by side in a complete disorder. They circulate They are rather badly the first seeking to avoid the cyclist who neglects while turning to cling scrupulously to the line Engaging many perilous zig zags Sounds very harrowing the letter with the uh, sorry the ladder with the perpetual fear of danger and so on In 1908 the touring club was created to study and uh create designated auto rules On the right you see a 1905 reno town car owned by sarah huett the inscription on the plaque Uh of the dashboard reads miss sarah cooper huett nine lexington avenue new york usa And on the reverse reads miss sarah cooper huett hotel de rame plas fandom paris The huets paused their european travel during world war one and from 1914 to 1917 the sisters traveled by car train to historic homes gardens Colleges and other destinations from main to virginia Eleanor began taking photographs as they started to appear in the diaries on the left is a photo of a large home with columns and a Sitting on a great expanse of a lawn from one of their us trips And on the right is a calling card from the blue front garage in lexington virginia Uh on the left is the front of a postcard sent from eleanor from antwerp and on the Right we see typewritten address and message on the back of the postcard to miss elizabeth o'connor at ringwood manor new jersey usa The message reads july 24th 1924 in antwerp On the right is an image of an upright metal file cabinet with 50 drawers There are over 10 000 postcards in this cabinet in cooper huett's storage meticulously organized within many subject categories and contained in these file card drawers the postcards picture mostly arts and architecture a wonderful resource for study Very interesting is the postcard collection does document many places That existed during world war one and two on the left shows a castle Which is a château de pierre franc on a on a river that sits behind buildings with tiny storefronts This lies northeast of paris this postcard. It is an example perhaps Showing architecture that was no that was standing at the time of their visits, but has been destroyed since During the war and is no longer intact Now let's talk about what they were wearing Living in the gilden age elinor and sarah's wardrobes covered the gamut from clothes for elaborate costume parties To the latest in equestrian attire Here are sarah and elinor costumed probably by the house of worth for the great vanderbilt ball of 1883 Both sisters are strumming different types of Instruments guitars sarah on the left sits on the floor in her layered costume and dress and flowing coat And elinor stands in a tear fur trim dress Here is a carte de viste a small Photographed of sarah in a walking suit with hat by the house of worth in 1890 And on the right is the rust colored jacket cinched at the waist over cream blouse and floor lane skirt The costume as it is today is photographed and sits in the met costume institute On the left is a riding costume most likely Designed for elinor the riding ensemble with beige coat rust skirt job first under the skirt and knee-high gators Is from around 1896 On the right shows the side and back of an evening cloak by the house of worth with a magnificent Textile with a black background pink red and yellow tulips called tulip hollandaise And it was a prize winner at the 1889 paris exposition What were they wearing on the streets of paris well the two these two late afternoon jackets By the of the sisters the one on the left with puffy sleeves was designed by house of worth In 1895 and the one on the right by emil pinat From paris around 1898 This is a portrait of sarah in costume created for her 40th birthday wearing her favorite turquoise blue louis sank Riding jacket with a large textured metal buttons Down the front On the end on the cuffs wearing a white wig. She holds a brass horn On the right is the actual costume, which is housed at the museum of the city of new york The vest beneath is intricately embroidered with a floral pattern Hamlet just so you know, we have five minutes left. Thank you As they age their beautiful fashions were altered to fit them here on the left is a dress form in the sewing room at ringwood matter And on the right is the cover of an issue of vogue from 1931 uh inside the This particular issue is an article written by their longtime friend caroline durr called The undying quality of style pictured on the left is that article And uh on the right features princess vigo daughter of emi huid green Who gave a large collection of huid sisters costumes to the brooklyn museum in 1931? In 2009 the collection was transferred to the metropot museum costume institute for the 1931 vogue article she models the exquisite ball gown made by house of worth most likely For ellenore's first assembly These gowns and costumes and day dresses were carefully preserved and stored to perfection In the trunk room at nine lexington f which was like which is was as large as many a ballroom After wearing this ball gown After wearing this ball ground would have had its tool tail renewed after every ball with a fresh series of of flowers And it would have been reconstructed and re embellished in the huid family. They were carefully preserved They preserved their opera cloaks fall dresses dinner gowns and outdoor coats These were all left to them By the missus huid to their niece princess vigo for distribution to new york museums So that's a bit of their collecting and their traveling and fashion Do we have any questions? I have a question pam So hello, hello. Good to see you. Very good to see you Um, so the the name house of um worth kept coming up again and again and again so He was a couturier correct or that was for couture clothing and I was wondering if you know anything about The particulars of the client designer relationship and whether they were looking at books of these clothes or whether they were You know of such a high strata that they were really made to order It's a great question. So the house of worth is in london And it's a couture house That was made that were that made clothes for their clients They uh They would make appointments and uh when they traveled they would have their clothes You know specifically Made to to order I Pamela I have a question Yes, francis Uh, I was wondering is the idea of the young women traveling around so much um Would that have been sort of unusual for women of their Of their age. Was that like a bold thing for them to be doing? Well, sure as I I think during the time they traveled with um with their parents as escorts Um and then later on it very likely was not all the rage for people to be traveling alone But in their car, they had a chauffeur And they but they were you know their own women. So they you know took life by the by the reins and uh wanted to Wanted to see the world Thank you Thank you Thank you. Pamela. That's about as the all the time that we have. Thank you for joining us. Um, we will now be Um here from our final speaker Matilda McQuade Matilda are you here? I am here. Sorry drink of water So Matilda is the acting curatorial director at the Cooper Hewitt and her presentation Her presentation titled learning with learning from objects will focus on the Hewitt sisters as master collectors and educators Thank you Cecilia. So, um, I'm going to you're going to have to forgive my runaway powerpoint It seems to just advance on its own. So I'll try to tame it but um The heart and soul of the museum is um, it's the collection in my in my regard Um, and this collection was put together, of course by the Hewitt sisters with the great support of family friends And donors. Um, so I'm going to tell you a little bit about the background of the highlights of this collection And how they came to be part of the museum And then underscoring all of this how the Hewitt sisters intended this collection to be used From its inception, which was as a learning laboratory a fact that Still holds true today as we will see So this first image is of a clipping from the New York Times in 1897, which Shows, um, you know, which announces the opening or the inauguration of the galleries of the Cooper Hewitt Museum they actually They the museum actually opened in 1895 But it was inaugurated in 1897 We see here in 1897 this handwritten announcement that Matthew Kennedy had shown earlier Talking about really addressing the people the users of this new museum which were architects designers decorators and artisans and Advertising this as a free museum for the study of the arts of the decoration So and they really wanted this to be a place for inspiration and learning So again, that's the fourth floor of the museum I've mentioned this before that this looks to me almost like a humongous library or study center Especially with these, you know, working tables That were spread throughout meant to to work from To handle objects To to study by so they were and also they had I think something like four or five hundred scrapbooks that also whatever objects they didn't have They included more in these scrapbooks. So this was an area for intense study What I wanted to talk to you about But how did they build this collection and I mentioned that there were lots of donors There were family members that helped contribute to the museum This particular these two objects that are on the screen now Were from a collection From James Jackson Jarvis. This was a purchase The Hewitt sisters bought this in 1887 so long before the museum was even open So they had been amassing a lot of work and But some of the first objects to go into the collection Were from this particular From this collection. It was bought at auction So now the the textile department has something like 27,000 textiles in it So this was just the beginnings obviously I'd like to just kind of mention the the also the three-dimensional works that they collected because as I I said, this was a museum for interior decoration So they collected all aspects of the interior from furniture To bird cages as you see on the left this wooden gothic style bird cage That was from the collection of alexander wilson drake who was both an artist and collector Of these bird cages and so the Hewitt sisters bought 90 of them for 1300 dollars This cabinet on a stand on the right has is really an exemplary piece That shows this incredible marquetry or inlaid wood This was a gift of mrs. John and this cane who was also a a friend of the Hewitt sisters Her husband was on the advisory council which actually helped to Raise money for some of these acquisitions as well as advising on on the collection in general And here you see the bird cages and they're Sort of on this very high shelf above another collection of very important works on paper by Collected by Jean-Louis Duclu, which I'll mention in just a second But before that I want to jump in to the wall covering collection, which they purchased Started purchasing in 1900 they mainly collected kind of leather painted Wallpapers an example that you see on the left as well as band boxes and this wall covering that you is I mean the this picture that you see is actually a wall covering that's wrapped around this band box That would have been used to hold like a cravat Or upon it during the time The works on paper also includes these amazing Collection by Pian Castelli and as I mentioned before Jean-Louis Duclu This was a Purchase from with the advisory council Sorry With the advisory council Funding as well as from other individuals They the purchase was I think around $4,000 for the Pian Castelli collection And with the Duclu collection that was that was actually acquired over a period of time But again, you know really it made the the museum one of the kind of Most important museums in terms of collecting this kind of work in the country And here you see again more the the students really Studying tracing some of these drawings really a kind of close observation Another important figure in terms of the Hewitt sisters and and the museum was J.P. Morgan And he was not a collector, but he was obviously a very wealthy Philanthropist and so he Because he was a friend of the Hewitt family. He wanted to commemorate this friendship with A gift to the museum and so in 1902 he gifted a thousand textiles Ranging that really comprised three major collections that he bought at auction So every so this rank badge from Ming dynasty Um, which is this beautiful these two cranes that are flying over what looks like these kind of pools of spiraling water To this mantle From Peru From the 16th 17th century that is, you know, the striped colors That would have been worn To this beautiful 13th century valve at one of our kind of prize textiles that is you know, kind of Woven with this beautiful gold metallic thread So there are a thousand Textiles like this of similar quality that were given and this really forms the core of the collection today And here you see another image Of students really looking very closely observing learning sketching etc This this important textile collection And finally i'm going to end on Sort of this Some some textiles that were purchased from an a very important endeavor Of the Hewitt sisters and some of their friends and this was They they started a museum shop and maybe it's probably maybe the first museum shop It definitely is one of the first museum decorative arts and design shops Called opanier fleury And This was started in 1907 Or sorry 1905 And it was for the first few years You know kind of on the same it was at the museum itself The shop was meant to give work to people they They made they they painted furniture of all kinds. They had trays. They had jardinaires all of this was made by people Who used the museum collection as As a model for some of their or as an inspiration for some of their work So this was enormously successful. In fact, they they sold the shop in 1922 For a pretty good sum of money at the time Probably equivalent to you know today, you know several hundred thousand dollars Which was then put into a fund and that fund is what we have used to purchase primarily textiles for the last Sort of 75 to 80 years And here are just some examples of the range of textiles that we've collected from these beautiful embroidery samples to this textile by Raoul Dufy This kuba cloth And then the Our oldest piece in our collection these mitts From Han dynasty China Was also and it came with a bonnet These actually these mitts are so old. I don't think they haven't been on view since I've been at the museum Because they need to be kept in a fairly dark place And then the final piece that was actually Was bought was the this IBM Textile designed by Angela testa Which was a purchase and finally I want to end on this To show kind of this historic continuum how we still Learn from the collection every day This is our master's program and history of design and cure history design and curatorial studies That are looking at on the left works on paper and on the right these beautiful wood panels That our objects conservator is is talking about so This collection is not only displayed but is used every single day So I will stop here and see if there are any questions. I can't see the chat. So please just shout out or Cecilia you can also Tell me if there are any questions in the chat So I have a question just to start things off How much of the original collection is still At Cooper Hewitt So there's we have Most of the collection is stored off-site We We have we have a we have an off-site storage Not that far away. We do have some collection on site as you can see because our we have the master's program also In the museum itself so we can actually Um, you know, we need to keep some of our collection on site. So Okay, there's a breakout room chat anyway So most of it is is off-site, but we do have collections on site for for immediate use Hi Matilda Um, I have a question about the gift shop So you're saying that this was staffed by artisans and I was wondering whether these were students from the Cooper Union Yeah, so they were students from the Cooper Union volunteers A lot of different types of of people And and the works were made by, you know Probably some students there maybe non students as well, but all sort of definitely kind of inspired by the museum collection The sister the sisters seem unique in their Ability to travel around Europe collect things open checkbook Maybe, you know, it didn't have to be home too soon Were there other any other contemporaries that also Did this Buying around Europe. Um, and I think specifically well women the men could do it Um But the women any any any contemporaries that equaled the success of these sisters. Thank you I think that there were many people traveling and collecting at that time What was unique about the sisters and what they were doing is they really weren't collecting for themselves They were collecting for their museum and what was their museum for their museum was to Enable other women and men to develop careers in design So they weren't collecting for themselves as were many collectors them Thank you, brilliant Thank you Marjorie and just so everyone knows Marjorie is um one of the Premier historians around the Hewitt sisters that are so glad that she could join us today So we'd be happy to take a few more. I think we have time for two or three more questions Anything lingering? I see Maki said applauding Claire Spross from hunky dory and the lovely floral cocktail the bric-a-brac cheers I've made the mocktail version with um Earl gray simple syrup. So cheers to everyone I'm glad that um some of us are enjoying that. I see Susan has a question Susan if you'd like to unmute you're welcome to I did unmute. I came a little late. So excuse me if it's been covered um, I visited the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York, which was wonderful and one of the The printed material the text material said that the Hewitt sisters were opposed to votes for women Is that true and um, could you speak about that? Absolutely and thanks for asking Um, so, you know as a as a museum we're Definitely committed to inclusion and we want to but we do want to investigate that part of our history So I'm wondering if maybe one of our speakers wants to say a little bit more Um, I will address that. Um, thanks for that question Susan Yes, the the Hewitt sisters, um were involved in the anti suffragette movement There's a wonderful book by an author named Susan Goodyear um all about the new york women's league that was opposed to suffrage and um both The Hewitt sisters were involved in that effort The rationale behind it and the the idea of the women who were against women suffrage had a lot to do with Sort of preserving the family lifestyle that they were accustomed to so it was a more conservative viewpoint at that time And the hewitt women were attended were in an older age range at the time that they started participating in this effort and so for them it was looking at Sort of preserving what they had always known and kind of were accustomed to Versus sort of a radical change which felt very progressive to them Which is sort of strange knowing how progressive they were in so many other areas of their life But the more that you read about the anti suffragette movement the more you understand Why there were so many women sort of opposed to something that was in their own interests Which we can now look at through historic lens, you know being so many years removed from it and say Of course it was in their interest to have the vote So it's it's very interesting as historians to always look at the opposition viewpoint to better understand the entire goal Of the suffrage movement and the the move to vote for women as a whole So I would encourage you if you haven't heard of that book, um, please do look it up by susan good year It's an excellent examination of that movement that anti suffragette movement Well, it sounds like they wanted to preserve their own privileged lifestyle So You know that that is part of it that's absolutely part of it It also was that they really didn't identify with a lot of the issues that the suffragettes Were pushing as part of the right to vote which included things like child care and working conditions Because they were women who who didn't need to work for a living um on and in terms of child care They oftentimes had you know staff that would would handle that for them Whether it was nannies or governesses and things like that So it was a matter of the issues that were being focused on by the suffragettes Didn't necessarily resonate with them because you're right because of their privileged position. Absolutely Thanks so much susan and thank you for your question um So this has been wonderful. Do we have any one more lingering question anything else that we want to end on? Go ahead charlotte. Thank you all so much I had a question just because we were learning about how Eleanor played a role in terms of the landscape design at ringwood And so I was just wondering was she at all involved with the design of the garden that's at the mansion in new york No, the garden the the mansion that's in new york is is not the huot mansion It's actually the karnagy mansion the huot home at nine lexington avenue no longer exists It was demolished and so no unfortunately. Eleanor was not involved with the garden design at the the kupercute museum and the karnagy mansion That might be a good segue into Letting you know that when we do reopen we would love to have you at uh, you know the karnagy mansion and and sed garden And I just really want to uh, thank everyone again to our speakers Matthew natilda pan and sue. Thank you so much and to our education staff who hosted the breakouts and Really to all of you for all of your questions and your and your curiosity. So We're so lucky to have you and we're really looking forward to the forthcoming exhibition Have a great night everyone. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks everyone. Thank you. Oh, hi