THE VICTORIAN SOCIETY IN AMERICA
205 S. Camac St, Philadelphia, PA  19107 ~ Phone: 215-545-8340 ~ Fax: 215-545-8379

EMAIL NEWSLETTER
 July 4th, 2004

Welcome to the  July  issue of the VSA's email newsletter.

The Declaration of Independence
by John Trumbull. [1756-1843]
U.S. Capitol Building Rotunda

The VSA recognizes its American heritage this July 4th weekend.

But while the Declaration of Independence itself was not a Victorian event, it was closer to our period of interest when the US Congress commissioned artist John Trumbull  [1756-1843] to produce the four large paintings for the new American Capitol to commemorate the Revolution.  The paintings still hang today in the Capitol rotunda.

For Trumbull, the most important of the series, and the one to which he first turned, was the Declaration of Independence.  He based the work on a smaller painting he had done between 1786 and 1793 that showed the drafting committee presenting its work to Congress.

When the new twelve-by-eighteen-foot canvas was completed in 1818, Trumbull exhibited it to large crowds in Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore before delivering it to Washington; indeed, The Declaration of Independence was the most popular of all the paintings Trumbull did for the Capitol.

The reigning British monarch at the time of the Declaration of Independence was George III.   While he opposed the bid for independence to the end, he did not develop the policies (such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend duties of 1767 on tea, paper and other products) which led to war in 1775-76 and which had the support of Parliament.  Thus history has not been kind to George as he is now chiefly  remembered not only for losing the American colonies but also for his madness in later life.

Victoria was the only daughter of the fourth son of George III, namely Edward, Duke of Kent, who died shortly after her birth.  She became heiress to the throne because the three uncles who were ahead of her in succession - George IV, Frederick Duke of York, and William IV - had no legitimate children who survived.

The Oval Office desk

By the time of Victoria's reign relations between the countries were much improved, and the desk still used by the President of the United States in the White House's Oval Office was a gift from Queen Victoria. She had it carved from the timbers of the H.M.S. Resolute, for presentation to President Rutherford B Hayes.

Every President from Hayes through Dwight Eisenhower used the desk, but it was at the request of President John F. Kennedy that it was first placed in the Oval Office, in 1961. 

After being on exhibit for 14 years at the Smithsonian Institution, the Resolute desk was put back into use by President Jimmy Carter. The desk was also used in the Oval Office by President Ronald Reagan and for a few months by President George H. W. Bush, who later opted to use the "partners desk" (a desk with drawers on both the front and back which could be used by two people, sitting across from each other).  On January 20, 1993, this historic desk was returned to the Oval Office for President Clinton's use.

GRAND TOUR

Tour of British Columbia, Canada, 2004
 

The deadline for receipt of payment is July 15th

Paper Publications

The new issue of 19th Century (2004-1) should be in your possession by now.  If you have not received the magazine in the next week or so, please let me know.

info@victoriansociety.org

The paper Newsletter will be issued in July.  The Victorian is now under the editorial stewardship of New England Chapter President and VSA Board Member, Ed Gordon, to whom goes our thanks and appreciation.  Chapter newsletters and other information for inclusion should be addressed to him at: EdwardWGordon@aol.com or call 617-789-3927.

NEW LIFE MEMBER

We are pleased to recognize Ms. San K. J. Lee, of West Palm Beach, Florida, as a new LIFE member of the Victorian Society in America.  We are extremely grateful for her generous support in becoming a permanent partner in our mission to keep the spirit of the nineteenth century alive.

Click here for roll of LIFE members.

THE VSA IS A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION

The Victorian Society In America is the only national non-profit organization committed to historic preservation, protection, understanding, education, and enjoyment of our nineteenth century heritage. 

* For our association to be recognized, you must visit Amazon using one of the VSA links, either in this newsletter, or on our website

 

THANK YOU

You can now make payments to the VSA directly online

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MEMBERSHIP PAYMENTS



Learn about membership

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OTHER PAYMENTS

For other payments and contributions to the VSA such as Back Issues, Annual Appeal, Chapter Dues, VSA Events etc.

click here

June 2004

The Victorian Wedding
http://www.lahacal.org/wed.html

The Victorian wedding is a topic of considerable interest to VSA members, as well as social historians, fashion historians, antique collectors and especially those who want to inject a sense of tradition and grace into their modern weddings.

To help address this interest, here is a website full of information.  It includes a chapter reproduced a 19th Century American etiquette book: "Our Deportment: or the Manners Conduct and Dress of the Most Refined Society" by John H. Young, A.M., F.B. Dickerson Publisher, 1882. The chapter addresses weddings, and is reproduced in its entirety, in facsimile.

previous websites of the month

 

NEW YORK CHAPTER
Awards Honor Varied Achievements

A Grassroots Preservation Award was given to the Adlon at 200 W. 54^th Street in New York City and Michael Laudati at the 37^th Annual Meeting of the Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America on May 26 at the Dahesh Museum. Laudati spearheaded the effort to replace a 1980s lobby modernization in his co-op with decorative elements reflecting the original 1912-13 design of George and Edward Blum.

Restoration of the cornice, parapet and balconies at another apartment building designed by the Blums in 1912, 780 West End Avenue, and interior restorations following water damage from a leaking roof at the 1891 St. Michael's Episcopal Church, 225 W. 99th St., New York City, were honored with Preservation Awards.  Walter B. Melvin Architects and Essex Works Ltd. were recognized for their work at 780 West End Avenue. Sharing honors with the church were Rohlf's Stained & Leaded Glass, Inc., John Canning Painting & Conversation Studios, Renfro Design Group, Inc. and the Gil Studio, Inc. Neither honored building is officially landmarked. The Eldridge Street Project was given a Preservation Advocacy Award for ongoing work since 1986 to preserve and restore a designated landmark, the 1887 Eldridge Street Synagogue.

The 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Henry Hope Reed. A prolific author and architectural authority, Reed was the founder and president of Classical America. The first curator of Central Park, he wrote Central Park: A Photographic Guide (1979) and, with Sophia Duckworth, Central Park: A History and Guide (1979). Among his other books are Beaux-Arts Architecture in New York: A Photographic Guide (1961) and The New York Public Library: Its Architecture and Decoration (1986).

The Publication Award went to David Von Drehle for his book, Triangle: The Fire That Changed America. The book provides newly discovered information, such as lost trial testimony, on the 1911 shirtwaist factory fire that claimed 146 lives.

Two exhibitions were honored. The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture received an award for Thomas Jeckyll: Architect and Designer, 1827-1887 and its catalogue. Sharing in the honor were Susan Weber Soros and Catherine Arbuthnott, curators and authors, and Sandra Fell, project coordinator. The National Academy of Design and curator Adrienne Baxter Bell were commended for George Inness and the Visionary Landscape.

Two Special Recognition Awards were presented. One went to the Mint Theater Company for staging neglected plays of the Victorian-Edwardian period. The other recognized the annual end-of-year Holiday Exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden, funded since 1991 by Robert and Victoria Zoellner.

Did you miss our Fall meeting in Detroit?  Or wish to review the events?
Click here for the itinerary of  a surprisingly cultural and historic area.

VSA IN THE NEWS
 

Ralph Hardee Rives
A permanent endowment has been made in honor of Ralph Hardee Rives former president of the [now defunct] North Carolina Chapter of the Victorian Society in America.  See report at Reflector.com. [scroll down]

VSA Twelfth Night Gala brings closet Victorians out in style
Online journal The Old Times this month reprints a description of the North Star Chapter's 10th annual Twelfth Night Gala gala in 1996.   This material was published in Lady's Gallery magazine at that time and an expanded version of The Old Times  review appears at www.victoriana.com/christmas/Twelfthnight2.htm with recipes, more photos and servants' instructions.

Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library invites applications for its 2005-2006 Research Fellowship Program. 

Approximately twenty-five residential fellowships will be awarded to scholars pursuing topics in American history, art, architecture, decorative arts, material culture, and design, with stipends of $1500 to $3333 per month.  NEH grants, Lois F. Mc Neil dissertation grants, and a variety of short-term fellowships are available for academic and independent scholars, graduate students and museum and public history professionals.

For more information, please visit www.winterthur.org, contact academicprograms@winterthur.org, call (302) 888-4640, or write to Gretchen Buggeln, Director, Research Fellowship Program, Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, DE 19735. Application deadline January 15, 2005.

DID YOU KNOW?

Two of the signatories to  the Declaration of Independence,  and former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing.

The town of Rotherham, in England, bears no grudges.  The Borough council manages parks across the town, many of them dating back to Victorian times.  Boston Park is one such, stretching over 23 acres.  It was opened in 1876 to celebrate the first centenary of the American Declaration of Independence.  It is named, not after original Lincolnshire namesake, but for Boston, Massachusetts, the scene of the Boston Tea Party of 1775 which set in train the events which culminated in the War of American Independence.

A retrospective of VSA Preservation awards now appears at:
Award Recipients

Feel free to browse.

Memorial Hall Tower at Harvard University

Cambridge, Massachusetts
COMMENDATION 2002

2003 ANNUAL APPEAL

The 2003 Annual Appeal raised over $17,000 for the Victorian Society in America helping our work to preserve, protect, and understand our nineteenth century heritage. 

We acknowledge and offer our great appreciation to all who contributed.  A list of donors is appended to this newsletter.

THANK YOU.

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Francis Scott Key (177-1843)

AND FINALLY..

Your staff of one at the email newsletter discovered the following attempt at levity from the 1880s:

Cook tells me you wish to go out tonight, Mary.  Is it urgent?"
"No, ma'am, it's my gent."

Who said those Victorians had no sense humor? 

web site links

[ Summer Schools Home ] [ London, UK ] [ London 2002 Review ] [ Ian Cox/Kit Wedd ] [ Scholarship Form ] [ Newport, RI ] [ Newport 2004 Gallery ] [ Richard Guy Wilson ] [ Application ]

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

UNTIL NEXT TIME
visit us on the web at www.victoriansociety.org

The Victorian Society in America
205 S. Camac Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
info@victoriansociety.org

Copyright 2004. Victorian Society in America. All rights reserved.