^TM
1636 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103 | Phone: 215-636-9872 |Fax: 215-636-9873
 

HAPPY 100^th BIRTHDAY TO ONE OF THE SOCIETY’S FOUNDERS
May 14, 2008

Margot Gayle, who was one of the founders of the Victorian Society in America in 1966, will be celebrating her 100^th birthday in May of this year.  Many of you already know that it was around her kitchen table that the first meeting establishing the Society was held.

To honor Ms. Gayle for her many years work as one of New York City’s eminent preservationists, the New York Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America will be hosting a party on her birthday, May 14, at the Century Association in New York City.

If you would like to take part in the planning of this celebratory event, or would like information about attending, please contact Chapter President Jeff Sholeen, or click on this link.
 

A Victorian Semester & The Return of the Pre-Raphaelites

Public Programs at the

The University of Delaware
and The Delaware Art Museum
Winter/Spring 2008

In conjunction with the Delaware Art Museum’s exhibition, The Return of the Pre-Raphaelites—the homecoming of its nineteenth century British art—the University of Delaware’s English department is offering a series of lectures and films. Free and open to the public, these programs will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Mondays, throughout the semester, in Kirkbride Hall, Room 006.

For more information on the lectures at the University, contact:
Philip Flynn, Professor of English, at pflynn@udel.edu, or call 302-831-2212

Additionally, several related events will be taking place at the Delaware Art Museum. Some are free with paid museum admission, while others will charge a small admission fee.

Delaware Art Museum
2301 Kentmere Parkway
Wilmington, DE 19806

Or click on the Dante Gabriel Rossetti image of Lady Lilith, or on this link.
 

CALL FOR PAPERS:

The 12^th Annual Salve Regina University Conference on

Cultural and Historic Preservation :

Creating and Preserving the American Home, 1820-1920

October 23-25, 2008

Throughout the nineteenth century, designers, tastemakers, owners and occupants began to explore the definition of the American home. During this period, new house forms, innovative methods of construction and improvements in technology provided alternative ways of conceptualizing and expressing what was distinctly “American” about the home.

Early definitions of the American home stretched previous boundaries in various ways. Writers and architects like Andrew Jackson Downing and Alexander Jackson Davis turned to the American landscape as the antidote to urban and rural conditions. Catherine Beecher and others projected new models of household organization. Immigrants and newcomers established their own understanding of the American home, often blending Old World and New World values. By the end of the nineteenth century, early preservation efforts had embarked on a process of selection in an effort to codify the image of the American home. The resulting American house thus represented a wide spectrum of ideas that had meaning to various groups and classes of individuals.

Salve Regina’s 12^th Annual Conference on Cultural and Historic Preservation will examine all aspects of the American home, its construction, its meaning and its preservation. Proposals for papers or panels may examine such subjects as: the image of the American home; American landscape and the home; upper, middle and lower-class communities; the early roots of suburbanization; construction technology and mechanization within the home; immigrant communities and corporate housing; houses on the American frontier; the role of the tastemakers and architects; nationalism  and patriotism and the American Home; the image of the reality of the home; and the roots of the preservation movement.

We welcome submissions from scholars of all academic disciplines, as well as from younger scholars and graduate students. Proposals should include 250-word abstracts and CVs. Please send proposals by March 1, 2008, to :

Catherine Zipf

Salve Regina University

100 Ochre Point Ave.

Newport, RI 02840

CatherineZipf@salve.edu

Facing the Late Victorians: Portraits of Writers and Artists

from the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection
 

The Grolier Club, New York City

Free to the public

February 21 through April 26, 2008

Exhibit Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
 

The Grolier Club will present an exhibition that examines noted Victorians through portraits. Facing the Late Victorians: Portraits of Writers and Artists from the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, curated by Margaret D. Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Delaware, will provide the opportunity for visitors to come face to face with famous British poets, painters, novelists, playwrights and illustrators.

The exhibition features portraits of dozens of well-known figures such as George Bernard Shaw, J. M. Barrie, H. G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, and John Singer Sargent, who dominated the world of the arts, along with pioneering children’s book authors and illustrators, such as E. Nesbit and Kate Greenaway. Many of these are rarely seen images, such as the unpublished sketches of themselves that Rudyard Kipling and Aubrey Beardsley included in letters to friends.

For more information call the Grolier Club at (212) 838-6690.
 

From the Metropolitan New York Chapter

 Free Illustrated Lecture

The Proper Decoration of Book Covers: The Life and Work of Alice C. Morse
by Mindell Dubansky, preservation librarian of the Thomas J. Watson Library of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tuesday, February 12, at 6 p.m.

At Donnell Library Auditorium, 20 West 53^rd Street, Manhattan, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Nearest subways: E & V to Fifth Avenue. This lecture is sponsored by the Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America.

For information call (212) 886-3742 or visit the website www.metrovsa.org.

From the Philadelphia Chapter

Learning from Victorian Bed and Breakfasts

Useful tips for every homeowner about how to restore, manage, and decorate your home, Victorian or not, for comfort and convenience, from innkeepers who have run their homes as successful bed and breakfast establishments.

Dane Wells, who with his wife Joan (former Executive Director of the V.S.A.) ran the award-winning Queen Victoria Inn in Cape May, NJ for 23 years, will discuss what they and thousands of other B&B innkeepers have learned about making their Victorian homes comfortable for their guests. These insights will help any homeowner make their house easier to manage and more fun to live in.

The talk will be held at the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia. Frank Furness, the renowned architect of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and son of the Church’s first minister, designed the building. Completed in 1886, the sanctuary features a hammer-beam roof and stained glass windows by L.C. Tiffany & Co, and John La Farge. This fine structure is listed on the US National Register of Historic Places. Following the lecture a tour of the church will be offered for those interested.

Date & Time:      Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 2:00 pm

Location:            First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia

                         2125 Chestnut Street

                         Philadelphia, PA 19103

Cost:                $10 for Chapter members; $15 for non-members

Reservations:      David Ewaniuk, 215-538-1122 or E-mail, dewaniuk@comcast.net

From the Greater Chicago Chapter

Tiffany Treasures

A behind-the-scenes presentation on the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition, “Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall,” will be given by (Victorian Society in America member) Monica Obniski, recently a Research Assistant at the Met and closely involved with the installation. The program will be held at the Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago whose nearly untouched Arts and Crafts  interior from 1900 includes, among its many treasures, nine Tiffany stained-glass windows. Reception and docent-led tours of the Church are included.

When:               Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 6:30 pm

Cost:                $15 for Chapter members; $20 for nonmembers

Location:           Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago, 1936 S. Michigan Avenue

Let them know if you will be attending so that they can plan the refreshments.

Contact: Toby Trabert ~ 708-763-9265    Email: GCCVSA@aol.com

Located near the historic village of East Aurora, New York, is one of the area’s most beautiful bed and breakfast inns, a grand old Victorian with Italianate influences.

Like the surrounding western New York area, it contains much history - dating back to the early settlement of the area. 

Now owned by VSA member Peter Dunlop, The Lilacs sits majestically atop serene landscaped surroundings, and is the essence of a country estate.

For more information visit them on the web at:
THE LILACS

President Lincoln’s Cottage  at the Soldiers’ Home

Now Open to the Public

On February 19, 2008, President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home opens to the public for the first time, giving Americans an intimate, never-before-seen view of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and family life. Designated a National Monument by President Clinton in 2000, President Lincoln’s Cottage served as Lincoln’s family residence for a quarter of his presidency and is the most significant historic site directly associated with Lincoln’s presidency aside from the White House. President Lincoln’s Cottage is located on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in northwest Washington, D.C. and has been restored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

In addition to President Lincoln’s Cottage, the Robert H. Smith Visitor Education Center adjacent to the Cottage, features related exhibits and media presentations.  The restoration of President Lincoln’s Cottage and the establishment of the Robert H. Smith Visitor Education Center took seven years and cost over $15 million.

Visit the website for the Cottage by clicking here.

Are you campaigning to save a threatened building? 
Seek a VSA Letter of Support.

Let us know what you think of the e-newsletter and what you like to see in it.

visit us on the web at www.victoriansociety.org

The Victorian Society in America
1636 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
info@victoriansociety.org