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My two major interests have been the art of 18^th-century France and that of imperial Russia. French 18^th-century art was my earlier interest and the Russian collection only started as I was en poste in Russia … As the influence of French artists and artisans was very strong in old St. Petersburg and Moscow, it seems quite natural that these two artistic expressions should be brought together here.

Marjorie Merriweather Post

Marjorie Merriweather Post was born on March 15, 1887 in Springfield, Illinois, the only child of Charles William Post (known as C.W.) and Ella Merriweather Post. Her father championed healthy living and found his fame in a nutritious substitute for coffee called Postum. Soon after, he formulated Grape-Nuts, establishing the nation’s first breakfast food industry. In 1905, Marjorie married her first husband, Edward Bennett Close, and her father built the couple a house in Greenwich, Connecticut, where the Closes’ two eldest daughters were born -- Adelaide in 1908 and Eleanor in 1909.

Marjorie, a graduate of Mount Vernon Seminary, began to develop her interest in art and architecture by attending courses at a nearby private school. In 1912, her mother Ella died, and two years later her ailing father C.W. died, making Marjorie the sole heir to the Postum Company at the age of 27. The Closes purchased their next home – the five-story Beaux-Arts Burden Mansion, one of the finest houses on Fifth Avenue in New York. It featured a Louis XVI-style drawing room and dining room, which Marjorie furnished with the help of interior designer Mitchell Samuels of French and Company and the respected art dealer Sir Joseph Duveen, a specialist in Old Master paintings and decorative arts.

Sir Joseph became Marjorie’s mentor and encouraged her to attend courses on tapestries, porcelain and furniture, sponsored by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Marjorie bought three of her first major pieces through Duveen, including the Beauvais tapestries designed by François Boucher that now hang in the French Drawing Room at Hillwood. She also acquired important Rubens and Gainsborough paintings, which she later sold, as well as a notable selection of 18^th-century fine French furniture.

In 1919 the Closes divorced, and soon after Marjorie married financier Edward F. Hutton. The couple went on to build properties in Palm Beach, Long Island and the Adirondacks – the Long Island estate (also called Hillwood) was situated on 177 acres and the 207-acre Adirondacks camp surrounded by water, called Hutridge, displayed Mrs. Post’s collection of Indian artifacts. In 1923, E.F. Hutton became the chairman of the board of the Postum Cereal Company, which was expanded into a larger line of food products that included Birdseye Frozen Foods at the encouragement of Marjorie, a shrewd businesswoman who foresaw the value of prepared food in an age of increasingly independent women. At this time, the company became General Foods Corporation.

In 1923, Marjorie gave birth to her third daughter Nedenia, known today as the actress Dina Merrill. The Huttons constructed a luxurious 14-story apartment building on the former site of Burden Mansion, and in 1926 moved into a palatial penthouse apartment in the building. The largest apartment ever constructed at the time, it included 54 rooms with accommodations for 18 staff members. Fast becoming an experienced collector, Marjorie began acquiring works for the penthouse, including 18^th-century French decorative furniture from top New York dealers such as Sir Joseph Duveen, who sold her a Louis XV jewelry coffer inset with Sèvres porcelain plaques by Martin Carlin [no longer in her collection at Hillwood] and a Louis XVI commode by Riesener. She acquired important paintings from Wildenstein & Co., such as the celebrated portrait The Duchess of Parma and her Daughter Isabelle by Natier in 1922. In those years, she also acquired her cherished roll-top desk by the German master cabinetmakers Abraham and David Roentgen.

As the importance of her collection grew, Marjorie began to commission various scholars to prepare a catalogue of her holdings in 1924. That same year, she sold her Palm Beach home and began construction of Mar-a-Lago, a 114-room mansion located on 17 acres between Lake Worth and the Atlantic, designed by architect and Ziegfeld set designer Joseph Urban. In 1931, the couple also christened Hussar V (later renamed the Sea Cloud), which was touted as the largest private sailing yacht in the world. In 1935 the Huttons divorced and in 1936 Marjorie joined the Board of Directors of General Foods, becoming one of the first women to join the board of directors of a major American corporation. That same year, she met Joseph E. Davies, an accomplished Washington lawyer, and they married and settled in D.C. Soon after, President Franklin Deleano Roosevelt appointed Davies ambassador to the Soviet Union, and the couple moved to Moscow in 1937.

Marjorie immediately became enamored with Russia and its fine and decorative arts, becoming a pioneer collector of Russian imperial works of art long before they were widely recognized or appreciated in the West. Following the Bolshevik Revolution and assassination of Nicholas II and his family, the imperial family’s personal belongings and liturgical treasures confiscated from churches were being sold at "commission shops" by Soviet authorities to fund the revolution and industrialization of Russia. At this time, Marjorie began the nucleus of her Russian collection, and she developed her passion for pieces with connections to the Romanovs and other royal families.

In 1940, after Davies’ ambassadorial career ended, the couple moved back to D.C., where they bought an elegant Georgian mansion and Italianate garden designed by American Beaux-Arts architect Charles A. Platt. Marjorie extensively renovated the house, called Tregaron, creating a "Treasury Room" with display cabinets for her most exquisite Russian pieces. She continued to enlarge her Russian collection, buying from leading dealers such as Alexander Schaffer of A La Vieille Russie, Viktor Hammer of the Hammer Galleries in New York and Emanuel Snowman of Wartski in London. Marjorie sold her Long Island home, now the C.W. Post College, in 1947. The Davies divorced in 1955, dividing their collection of Russian objects, many of which Marjorie purchased following Davies’ death, including the grand state portrait of Catherine the Great, which hangs in the Entry Hall at Hillwood.

Marjorie bought Hillwood in 1955 and immediately decided her home would be a museum that would preserve and exhibit her collection for the inspiration and education of the public. She once said: "I am particularly attracted by the beauty of an object, its craftsmanship, history ... When I began [collecting], I did it for the joy of it, and it was only as the collections grew and such great interest was evidenced by others, that I came to the realization that the collection should belong to the country."

She hired French and Company and architect Alexander McIlvaine to redesign and expand Hillwood, formerly called Arbremont, and she requested that nearly every room on the first floor feature built-in lighted display cases. The principal decorator for the interior of the 36-room mansion was the esteemed New York firm of French and Company, as well as McMillen, Inc. She hired the respected landscape architects Innocenti and Webel to design the elegant French parterre and noted landscape architect Shogo J. Myaida to design the Japanese-style garden – one of first installed in the U.S. following World War II.

In 1957, Marjorie moved into Hillwood, which was fully equipped as an exhibition space, as well as an ideal venue for her philanthropic and social events. Known for her elegant parties and generous hospitality, she brought out her best antique porcelain and finest silver for guests, who often exceeded 200 and included leading politicians, socialites and celebrities. In 1958, Marjorie married Pittsburgh executive Herbert May and after they divorced six years later, she reclaimed her maiden name, which she used for the rest of her life. In her latter years, Marjorie continued to entertain at Hillwood, Mar-A-Lago and in the Adirondacks. She also continued to actively collect.

In 1958, one year after she moved to Hillwood, Marjorie hired Harvard-educated scholar Marvin Chauncey Ross, former curator of Byzantine art at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, as a full-time curator of her collections. Under his leadership, a museum-quality recording system was instituted, as well as a publishing program and formalized conservation and acquisitions procedures. Ross assisted with researching and selecting pieces, including another Riesener commode purchased from Duveen Brothers, Inc., and he brought experts to examine the collection. He also built the core of Hillwood’s research library, published major scholarly texts on Russian decorative arts, gave lectures across the country and trained Hillwood’s first docents.

In 1969, Marjorie left Hillwood to the Smithsonian, with the condition that she maintain life tenancy and that her collection "be recognized as a significant cultural heritage." The Marjorie Merriweather Post Foundation of the District of Columbia, under the direction of Marjorie’s daughter Adelaide, eventually resumed operations of Hillwood, opening the estate to the public in 1977. During the partnership with the Smithsonian, Marjorie acquired several important pieces, including Konstantin Makovskii's A Boyar Wedding Feast (1883) and Madame Augusto Rosso’s collection of Russian icons and decorative objects, now on view in the dacha at Hillwood (which was bequeathed to the Smithsonian). It wasn’t until Marjorie was in her 80s that she found one of the most superb gems of her collection -- the gold and diamond I.W. Buch chalice, one of the finest in the world.

In 1973 Marjorie died and, at her request, her ashes were placed in a monument installed in her rose garden. She bequeathed Mar-A-Lago to the government for a winter White House, it was returned to the Hillwood Foundation in 1980 and purchased in 1985 by Donald Trump who later converted it into a private club. She also donated her Adirondacks camp to the state of New York. The residence is now privately owned.

Throughout her life Marjorie generously funded numerous charities and was an ardent supporter of her country. In 1932, she received the "Cross of Honor" from the United States Flag Association and was awarded a medal from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for heading a women's watchdog committee to uphold the ethics of judges, lawyers and public officials. Marjorie was known for her annual American Red Cross International Ball, for setting up soup kitchens in New York during the Depression and for contributing to the Soviet War Relief of World War II, the Boy Scouts of America and the National Symphony Orchestra's "Music for Young America" program.

Marjorie twice funded a field hospital in France during World War I and was awarded the French government's highest civilian award, the Cross of a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, on behalf of her "long demonstrated friendship towards France." She donated her yacht, the Sea Cloud, to the U.S. Navy in World War II, and she entertained Vietnam veterans at her Hillwood estate in Washington in the 1960s. Over the years, she donated millions of dollars to charities. She quietly gave $100,000 to build the Kennedy Center and bequeathed endowments of $100,000 each to her alma mater Mount Vernon College, the National Symphony Orchestra, C.W. Post College and the American Red Cross.

"While she always lived like a queen," wrote The New York Times, "she has always given like a philanthropist." Her obituary in the Congressional Record quoted Senator Jennings Randolph who said, "[T]here was a gentleness yet firmness in Mrs. Post’s life. She was thoughtful and helpful to thousands of people, yet she was a strong woman of sound business sense … She achieved much for herself and for other people. She was a patron of the arts and a patriot of her country. Perhaps we shall never know again such a dynamic woman so devoted to beauty and so dedicated to wholesome service."