Marjorie Merriweather Post

Magazine Antiques, March, 2003 by Frederick J. Fisher

Hillwood Museum and Gardens in northwest Washington, D. C., was once the twenty-five-acre estate of Marjorie Merriweather Post (P1. I), the only child of Charles Wil Barns Post (1854--1914), who founded the Post cereal empire. Adjoining the thickly forested Rock Creek Park, the estate is a testament to a patriotic midwestern woman who transcended her social station to achieve the status of American royalty. She established her taste and style during the twilight of the Gilded Age and carried it forward to the age of Camelot, always surrounding herself with resplendent beauty and achieving aesthetic harmony Driven by patriotic and philanthropic ideals, she also gave generously to significant causes as well as to needy individuals.

While Hillwood testifies to a regal style of life, its contents reveal that Marjorie Post was an inveterate collector of European luxury arts. Most significantly, she was a pioneer collector of Russian decorative arts, ultimately amassing the largest group of imperial era porcelain, silver, enamels, glass, and furniture outside Russia. Today this collection has garnered international standing for her museum.

Marjorie Post purchased the Hillwood property (see the frontispiece) in 1955 after she divorced her third husband, Joseph E. Davies (1876-1958), who had been the United States ambassador to the Soviet Union. The estate had been built in the American country place style in 1926 by a rich midwestern lady but Post transformed it into an opulent residence and showcase for her growing collection. She instructed her New York City architect Alexander Mcllvaine (1910-1985 and the interior design firms French and Company and McMillen Incorporated (1924-) to create a magnificent dwelling in which not only to live and entertain but also to display her collection in such a manner that the house could be transformed into a museum after her death. Well before she purchased Hillwood she realized that her collection was of museum quality and should be preserved intact for posterity in the environment she created for its display. In so doing she joined a small cadre of American museum founders who established house museums me ant to provide visitors with the opportunity to see and enjoy the art collections as their former owners had. While some will interpret this as an ultimate act of vanity, many visitors to these treasure houses find they are one of the most interesting and satisfying ways to experience works of art. For some, a domestic setting makes objects less intimidating than more formal museum environments.

Isabella Stewart Gardner, Henry Clay Frick, Henry E. and Arabella Huntington, Albert Barnes, Louis and Charlotte Hyde, and Henry Francis du Pont made of their residences and galleries distinctive institutions that have yet to be thought of as a particular genre of house museum.

Nonetheless, they differ greatly from the hundreds of house museums devoted to historically important people or styles. For lack of a better title I have dubbed them "art collectors' personal museums," and I feel strongly that they can be better understood and appreciated when thought of as a collecting phenomenon.

What drove these collectors of internationally distinguished fine and decorative arts to ensconce their collections in abodes that became museums? Certainly each of them approached the decision differently but most sought examples from their predecessors. Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) looked to the collection of Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli (1822-1879) in Milan, and Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919) to the Wallace Collection in London. Others found inspiration in the country houses of Great Britain. And still others, like Marjorie Post, took the advice of Mitchell Samuels (1880-1959), the owner of French and Company who wrote:

The best models for individual museums are in this country. Of course, the Huntington ranks as number one. Mrs. Jack Gardner's in Boston is number 2....The Tafi Museum in Cincinnati is quite charming and is particularly noted for the high quality of its collection. (1)

Visitors to collectors' personal museums are often challenged by the context, which transforms important art objects into what appear to be merely opulent household furnishings. Most often these great works of art are displayed as parts of decorative ensembles--magnificent suites of furniture; rare objects found on desks, tables, and mantels; and old master paintings hanging above fireplaces and sofas. These treasures may be perceived as less important than if they were professionally lit and exhibited in chronological order in formal museum fashion. Certainly museums are very successful in conveying the original context for which works of art were created, but what may have motivated their owners to acquire them, how they were enjoyed, and how they appeared in the scale, color, and light of their domestic environments is available mainly in the museums established by the collectors themselves. The magic and vitality of that personal attachment is often a less intimidating way of appreciating these works of a rt. A walk through Hillwood speaks volumes about the woman who created it and how she perceived herself through the possession of her vast and magnificent collection of objects, many with direct associations to European and Russian monarchs.