Maine Antique Digest, April 2017

36-E Maine Antique Digest, April 2017

FEATURE -

36-E

Nancy McClelland’s Homage to

George Washington and Old New York

Jennifer Carlquist

n January 22, 1932, more than 3000

luminaries from the arts, academia,

politics, design, and NewYork soci-

ety gathered at the Waldorf Astoria for the

Society of Beaux-Arts Architects’ annual

ball. Departing from the society’s usual

Francophilia, the theme was “A Pageant

of Old New York,” in honor of the 200th

anniversary of George Washington’s birth.

Guests arrived inperiodcostume as directed

by their invitations (fig. 1), which included

a list of local costume shops. The

New

York Times

reported on the parade of “rare

silks, satins, brocades, metal cloth and vel-

vets, richly embroidered and lace trimmed”

costumes; “true to the last detail, not a frill,

puff or pannier was missing.”

Better-born knickerbockers could dip

into their own closets for the 18th-cen-

tury garb of their ancestors. E. Coster

Wilmerding, a major figure on Wall Street

and in the Social Register, dressed in the

clothes that his great-grandfather John

Coster Gerard had worn at the court of

Louis XVI and later at Washington’s

inaugural ball. His was one of several

costumes worn that had been on loan to

local museums and were recalled by their

owners for the gala.

As reported by the

New York Times

“The committee has arranged to produce

in glittering pageantry notable episodes”

from New York history.

Against back-

drops designed by the illustrator and pup-

peteer Tony Sarg, guests reenacted events

such as the arrival of Henry Hudson, the

purchase of Manhattan, and the signing

of the Declaration of Independence. Pre-

sumably little mention was made of Colo-

nial New York’s abundance of Loyalists.

The climax was a reenactment of Wash-

ington’s inauguration at Federal Hall (see

fig. 6) on April 22, 1789, followed by the

first inaugural ball.

From elaborate decorations to period

fare, the ball was lauded as “one of the

most brilliant and historically accurate

functions yet arranged by its sponsors.”

Not surprisingly, in attendance that

evening was Nancy McClelland, Ameri-

ca’s foremost antiquarian-decorator (fig.

2). McClelland began decorating in 1913

while working at Wanamaker’s NewYork

branch. She founded her own firm in

1922. McClelland earned national renown

for beautiful, historically inspired interi-

ors. Mount Vernon and the Morris-Jumel

Mansion (Washington’s Manhattan head-

quarters) were two of the dozens of his-

toric houses that she advised and helped

furnish from the 1920s through the 1950s.

McClelland’s restoration work was

an outgrowth of a scholarly interest and

trade in historic wall coverings. Her 1924

opus

Historic Wall-Papers: From Their

Inception to the Introduction of Machin-

ery

served as the standard reference for

50 years.

McClelland helped reintroduce

the design cognoscenti to patterned walls,

which had been all but banished by Elsie

de Wolfe and her many disciples. A trade

journal described the Nancy McClelland,

Inc. shop (fig. 3), in 1929:

“Racks show innumerable samples of

old papers of all ages block-printed or

painted. A suite of rooms furnished com-

plete, show the application of the papers,

as well as large panels and scenic papers,

and in the main gallery, arranged like

scenes in a theater, are huge frames 15

by 9 feet that run upon wheels on a plat-

form displaying 40 or 50 full sized exam-

ples, which, under the guidance of what

you may call a ‘scene shifter’ constitute

an exhibition of antiques in wall paper

that cannot be seen anywhere else in the

world.”

McClelland’s stock was generally acknowledged to be the most

important collection of antique wallpapers in the country. Clients for

these rarities included the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Art Institute

of Chicago and such wealthy collectors as Electra Havemeyer Webb and

H.F. du Pont. Alongside the antique originals, McClelland launched a line

of reproduction wallpapers, carried contemporary patterns, and designed

several of her own.

The most important original design by McClelland was a panorama

titled

The Prelude to a Nation: The Story of Washington

, which she

began around 1930

. Much like the Beaux-Arts Ball held two years later,

the panorama was as much a “Pageant of Old New York” as a tribute

to George Washington. The panorama depicted the events surrounding

Washington’s 1789 presidential inauguration in five narrative tableaux:

Washington arriving in New York via the Federal barge, walking to the

first Presidential Mansion on Cherry Street, the ceremonial procession

through Lower Manhattan, Washington taking the oath of office at Fed-

eral Hall, and his later visit to St. Paul’s Chapel

(figs. 4 and 5). “All details

have been carefully taken from incontestable documents,” according to a

1932 catalog, “both as to personages and topography, in order to procure

this amazing accuracy.”

Close attention was paid to costumes, particu-

larly the various military uniforms.

McClelland assembled the architectural images with the help of his-

toric print sources.

Trinity Church, the Presidential Mansion, Federal

Hall, and St. Paul’s Chapel were all depicted in period engravings. Many

scenes were reengraved in the early 1900s by the Society of Iconophiles

(fig. 6), an exclusive New York club for professional and amateur histo-

rians. McClelland was an indefatigable researcher and had ample access

to these print sources through her connections to collectors and curators.

McClelland wrote copy describing the wallpaper set as a mural “suit-

able for use wherever a scenic paper has a place, and is particularly adapt-

able as a background for Colonial furniture.”

She intended the paper to

have “

the quality and the gaiety” of 18th-century French scenic papers.

She planned to have it block-printed in France, which proved cost pro-

hibitive in the depths of the Depression. Undaunted, McClelland com-

missioned Robert Engler, a decorative painter and paperhanger in New

York, to execute the design. Engler and a team of artists used stencils

and a paint-by-number system to mimic the look of block-printing. They

managed to produce six sets before the

stencils wore out.

The colors “vibrate with red, white,

and blue,” according to one description.

The

Brooklyn Eagle

reported that the

Pre-

lude

was “characterized by its clear, fresh

eighteenth century coloring, its spirited

action and careful attention to histori-

cal detail.”

Altogether, the

34 unique

panels, each

18¾" wide, covered about

53 linear feet. At full height the paper

measured 10½', but like the 18th-century

originals the panels could be trimmed at

the top as needed.

The

Prelude

panorama was first exhib-

ited in 1932 at the Grand Central Palace

(an exhibition hall then adjacent to Grand

Central Terminal), and in that same year

it was shown at the Arnold Constable

department store’s Colonial exhibition,

the offices of the

New York Sun

, and the

Permanent Exhibition of Decorative

Arts and Crafts at Rockefeller Center.

Patrons could order from samples shown

at Nancy McClelland, Inc., and other

wallpaper firms such as Thibaut and

W.S. Lloyd Co. Individual panels could

Figure 1. Invitation to the 1932 Beaux Arts Ball, Nancy

McClelland Papers, Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design

Museum.

Figure 2. Nancy McClelland (1876-1959) in 1927 in

Country Life

Figure 7.

The Prelude to a Nation

as installed at the John

Brown House, Providence, Rhode Island. Courtesy Rhode

Island Historical Society.

Figure 3. Nancy McClelland, Inc. showroom, 15 East 57th Street, New York, 1920s. Nancy

McClelland Papers, Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

The most important original

design by McClelland was a

panorama titled

The Prelude to a

Nation: The Story of Washington