Having grown up in New York with her parents, Henry and Louisine Havemeyer, and their collection of important Asian and European art, at the age of 19 Electra Havemeyer Webb decided to follow their example and begin her own collection of American art. Much of the Henry and Louisine Havemeyer collection is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and you can read a book about the collectors and their collections here. Electra started her own museum in 1947, originally for the family collection of horse-drawn carriages. She quickly realised that there was an opportunity to broaden the scope of the new venture and so began Shelburne Museum.
This “collection of collections” was designed to bring together both everyday and more formal art and craft, creating “an educational project, varied and alive” to inform, entertain and preserve and encourage exploration. Mrs Webb purchased and shipped a bridge, a 220-foot steamboat Ticonderoga, and a series of historic buildings, reassembling them in landscaped grounds. The buildings were used to house the various collections of textiles, paintings, decoys, folk art and toys.
Shelburne was the first museum to exhibit quilts as works of art. The finest quilts were not made to be used but to be shown on special occasions. Recognising that this made them works of art rather than simply utilitarian craft, the collection includes important historic pieces from 19th Century Vermont and New England.
To read more about this fascinating museum and its many collections head on over to https://shelburnemuseum.org where you can find out more and see some of their holdings as virtual exhibitions. You can also listen to the museum’s Spotify playlists that explore colour, pattern and whimsy in music.
Header image: from an exhibition at the museum in 2012 focusing on quilts made by men. “This quilt is believed to be made by a discharged soldier while recovering from wounds received in the Civil War.”
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