Driehaus Museum



One of the odder examples of the personal collection/donor memorial, the Driehaus is located in the Gilded Age Mansion built on Chicago's Magnificent Mile by the 19th-century banker Samuel N. Nickerson in 1879. Nickerson, who (according to Wikipedia) at one time owned more national bank stock than anyone in the US, wanted a fitting home for this family. The house was built in (basically) a hodgepodge of styles calculates to be impressive as a whole.

Over a hundred years later, the house had passed out of the Nickerson family and was somewhat run-down, but still had the commanding location in the very center of Chicago.

According to the Driehaus website, the 21st-century banker Richard Driehaus stepped in, completing a full renovation of the house and inserting his own personal collection (and name) into the museum:

"The Driehaus Collection of Fine and Decorative Arts stands testament to Richard H. Driehaus’s passion for the preservation and appreciation of historic design. Housed in the historic Samuel M. Nickerson Mansion, this diverse collection of European and American decorative and fine arts features artifacts created predominantly between 1880 and 1920, the period during which the Nickerson Mansion was occupied as a private residence.

When the Driehaus Collection was formed during the early 1970s, acquisitions focused primarily on Art Nouveau posters by Alphonse Mucha and his contemporaries. From that essential core, the collection has grown to include master works of design by such Belle Epoque luminaries as Louis Majorelle, the Herter Brothers, Édouard Colonna, John La Farge, Emile Gallé, and Josef Hoffmann. In addition to these important holdings, the Driehaus Collection is one of the country’s leading private collections of works by preeminent American decorative designer Louis Comfort Tiffany. In 2003, Mr. Driehaus founded the Driehaus Museum to publicly exhibit and preserve his collection. Today the Museum is a showcase for late 19th and early 20th-century art and design, displayed against the magnificent backdrop of the meticulously restored Nickerson Mansion."

In general, the museum is filled with Tiffany glass, a perennial crowd-pleaser, but this year it has also been almost totally turned over to Downton Abbey fever.

Is there a conflict between the image of the museum as a serious place of study and contemplation, and the apparent desire to get people in the door by appealing to popular culture references?

Check out their bathroom!!

http://www.driehausmuseum.org/

http://www.driehausmuseum.org/news/view/dressing_downton_tickets_on_sale

http://www.driehausmuseum.org/programs/view/meet_the_servants (see: http://www.askaslave.com/)

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g35805-d2165189-i47802509-Richard_H_Driehaus_Museum-Chicago_Illinois.html