Category: Late 19th Century Interior Design

The Harvard Alumni Association invites you to a collection series:
Presidential Pathways: A Walking Tour of Harvard
Featuring Michael Weishan, Author, PBS Host, President of the FDR Suite Foundation.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
11:00 am -1:00 pm (Registration and meeting time 10:45 am) Meeting location: John Harvard Statue, Harvard Yard
This behind-the-scenes walking tour follows the student [...]

Who said you couldn’t put Humpty-Dumpty back together again? Several day’s worth  of hard work later, the Suite has emerged with its new coat of paper, remarkably transformed, looking for the first time in over a century very nearly like a Victorian room:

What’s next? Window treatments, and – hopefully – more generous contributions from [...]

An epic campaign ended today as the first rolls of  historic wallpaper were applied to the walls of the FDR Suite study. You may remember all the trials and tribulations we had in piecing together the pattern from fragments I discovered last summer behind the large radiator. Then Kari Pei, Head of Design at Wolf-Gordon [...]

One of the things that amazes me most about this project is that every now and then, a piece of the puzzle drops mysteriously from the sky, as if by preordained writ. I noted in a previous post how a strange and unlikely attraction to a tiny spot in Big Sur led me to Lathrop [...]

I was sitting in the Suite a few weeks ago, looking around, and I must admit to being quite impressed. With furniture mostly in place, pictures on the walls, mementos scattered everywhere, the place is really starting to become a real Victorian room with personality. This last is truly the key, because our quest is [...]

I’m delighted to announce that New England’s premier bedding manufacturer, Gardner Mattress, has agreed to donate custom mattresses for the FDR Suite bedrooms. While this may not sound like a world breaking-news event, finding a qualified company to make mattresses for our period beds had turned out to be quite a challenge.
Why, you ask?
As Gardner [...]

We have a new arrival in the Suite this week. A wonderful burgundy and gold late 19th-century daybed that looks as if it were made and upholstered for the room. As beautiful as it is though, it almost didn’t make the cut: I had initially passed on the purchase two months ago. We did, after [...]

Hello All!
Thanks to your support and generosity, things keep marching along. Further additions for you to contemplate:

Just slightly crinkled from the crate: here’s the first piece of wall decoration in Lathrop’s bedroom, where the narrative theme will be hunting, horses and football: a ca 1890 tapestry depicting a Renaissance chase. Machine woven, this lovely textile [...]

My apologies for not posting any news for the last several weeks, but these have been busy, heady days. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we’ve been able to begin the process of furnishing the Suite, slowing rolling back the years to May, 1904.
I thought you might be interested in seeing some of the [...]

It seems like ages, but here, at last, are some of the first views, post renovations. The walls are still bare, and the furniture a bit sparse, but we’re getting there!
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A thousand thanks to all of you who have helped us move this project forward! Special kudos to our alumni donors  and project supporters (you [...]