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| Mansions of the Gilded Age Symposium at Lyndhurst |
Mansions of the Gilded Age
A Symposium curated by Gary Lawrance
Sunday, May 22, 2016
To be held at the historic Lyndhurst Estate in Tarrytown, New York
The Symposium will feature six esteemed speakers on topics
of Gilded Age architecture, interior design, fashion, travel, and society.
Gary Lawrance, Architect, Author, and Historian: Houses of
the Hamptons 1880-1930
Robert B. King, Author/Photographer and Historian: Lost
Vanderbilt Homes along Fifth Avenue
Ulysses Dietz, Chief Curator of Newark Museum: Jewelry in
the Gilded Age
Caroline Rennolds Milbank, Fashion Historian: Gilded Age
Fashion
Leighton
Hammond Coleman III, Spedden Family Archivist: The World of Daisy Corning Stone Spedden: Edwardian Diarist, Titanic
Survivor, & Children’s Book Author
Tickets to the Symposium are $20. Tours of Lyndhurst are
also available.
Following the event, for an additional $15, an exclusive
Wine & Cheese reception will be held in the newly restored Lyndhurst observation
tower, with its spectacular views of the Hudson River and the Manhattan skyline
(please note, no wheelchair access, stairs only).
For more information and tickets:
Gary
Lawrance
Architect,
Author, and Historian
Topic: “Houses
of the Hamptons 1880-1930”
Gary
Lawrance is an architect from Stony Brook, New York, specializing in detailed
models of fine residences and landscapes in the Hamptons and Long Island's
north shore. Since completing his architectural thesis on the country house architecture
of Long Island's Gold Coast in 1982 at the New York Institute of Technology,
Old Westbury, Mr. Lawrance has lectured on the lost architecture of the Gilded
Age for historical and garden societies, and preservation and arts groups and
consults with preservation groups, scholars, and homeowners in researching the
historical background of their properties. He has written articles on
architecture and society for Architectural Digest and Quest magazine,
co-authored the bestselling book "Houses of the Hamptons, 1880-1930", Acanthus
Press 2007, and writes for his two blogs, Mansions of the Gilded Age and Houses of the Hamptons, in
addition to founding and contributing to the very successful Mansions of the Gilded Age Facebook Group.
Robert B.
King
Author/Photographer
and Historian
Topic: “Lost
Vanderbilt Homes along Fifth Avenue”
Robert King is an award-winning author, with
extensive photography and research in documenting historic homes such as those of
the Vanderbilt family, the Otto H. Kahn Estate, Ferguson’s Castle, and other mansions
of Long Island’s Gold Coast and the Hudson River. He has done extensive
lecturing, television, and radio work, as well as teaching college courses on
the topics of: "The Great Estates of the Gilded Age" (1880-1930), the
Vanderbilt family, and the embassies of Washington, D.C.
Ulysses Grant Dietz
Chief Curator of Newark Museum
Topic: “Jewelry in the Gilded Age”
Ulysses Grant Dietz, Great-great-grandson of Ulysses S. Grant, has been
the curator of Decorative Arts at the Newark Museum since 1980, and chief
curator since 2012. He received his BA from Yale University in 1977, and his MA
in Early American Culture from the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program
in 1980. Mr. Dietz restored the Newark Museum’s 1885 Ballantine House, which
became the centerpiece of the decorative arts department in 1994. Mr. Dietz has
published numerous articles on decorative arts, as well as books on the Museum’s
studio and art pottery, and its 19th-century furniture collection.
Caroline Rennolds Milbank
Fashion Historian
Topic: “Gilded Age Fashion”
Caroline Rennolds Milbank’s work in
fashion history has included stints as an auction house expert (Sotheby’s and
DoyleNewYork), appraiser, and consulting curator. She contributed essays to the
catalogues of and curated the costume components of the exhibitions: Art and the
Empire City: New York 1825 – 1861, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000 and
Noble Dreams, Wicked Pleasures: American Orientalism, 1870 – 1930, the Clark
Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 2000. She was co-curator of the
exhibitions Elegance, Glamour and Style: Fashion and Its Photography, The Bruce
Museum, Greenwich, 1998; and The Couture Accessory at the MFIT in 2004, the
latter based on her book of the same title; and also selected the Worth evening
gowns included in the exhibition John Singer Sargent: portraits of the
Wertheimer Family, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2000.
Walter G. Ritchie,
Jr.
Topic: “Furniture
of the Gilded Age”
Walter G.
Ritchie, Jr. is a decorative arts consultant and independent scholar
specializing in nineteenth-century American furniture and interior decoration.
He writes, lectures, and teaches courses on a variety of decorative arts
subjects in addition to organizing decorative arts exhibitions for museums;
researching and developing furnishings plans for the restoration of period
rooms in house museums; and cataloging furniture and decorative arts for
auction houses. Mr. Ritchie has taught courses at both the undergraduate and
graduate levels on subjects including American and European decorative arts and
the restoration of historic interiors, as well as offered courses as part of
certificate programs in appraisal studies. He has lectured at a number of
museums including the Smithsonian Institution; written a weekly antiques
column; and contributed articles to a variety of arts and antiques magazines.
Leighton
Hammond Coleman III
Spedden
Family Archivist
Topic: “The World of Daisy Corning Stone Spedden:
Edwardian Diarist, Titanic Survivor, & Children’s Book Author”
Leighton
Hammond Coleman III
presents a glimpse of the Gilded Age & The Titanic through the lives of the
Corning, Stone, Spedden family members via the prism of his best-selling
children's book "Polar The Titanic Bear”, the award winning true story of
a Steiff toy bear that survived the Titanic, originally penned in 1913 by Daisy
Corning Stone Spedden, his Great Grand Aunt. Graduate of several
prestigious institutions, including NYC’s Parsons School of Design, Leighton is
currently the appointed Historian for The Village of Head of The Harbor, NY,
where he works as a niche interior designer with projects all over Long Island
and New York City.
Websites:
