Tiffany chandelier
In 1888, when sugar magnate Henry O. Havemeyer and his wife, Louisine, built their home on the corner of East 66th and Fifth Avenue in New York City, they decided to enlist interior design help from one of their friends: Louis Comfort Tiffany. Four years later, Tiffany had placed his signature artistic touch on the Havemeyers’ entryway doors, windows, mantle and andirons, decorative objects, and more. Above Henry’s desk in the library was one particular Tiffany jewel: a chandelier with a crown-like metal frame, colored glass globes, and a beaded chain connected to the central post. “Much of it is inspired by Celtic and Viking art,” explains Carole McNamara, Senior Curator of Western Art at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA). “Tiffany had this amazing ability to see connections in very disparate source material.” The incredible fixture stayed in the Havemeyer home until 1930. When the home was slated for demolition, the quick thinking of Emil Lorch, founder and Dean of U-M’s School of Art and Architecture, brought the Tiffany pieces to Ann Arbor. For many years, they were stored on North Campus. In 1992 they were displayed briefly on UMMA’s first floor, but mostly they were locked out of sight. That is until UMMA’s recent expansion and restoration created a permanent display space for the Tiffany objects — including the chandelier. Now, the chandelier presides over one of the most well-appointed conversation outlooks found in any museum. And that’s where it will stay. “It’s part of the building’s fabric now,” says McNamara.
24 n LSA fall 2009
Ford Presidential Library
1976 Bicentennial bowl
There follows two tales of two cities. The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum have one administration, but the library is housed in Ann Arbor, the museum in Grand Rapids. President Ford’s office at the Library, located on U-M’s North Campus, features furniture Ford used for 25 years while he served as a U.S. Representative and then as the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives. Ever since the Ford Library opened in 1981, this ceremonial office has been a highlight for visitors. The former president used it for conferences and for meetings with U-M leaders when he visited campus. “The office has a small side chamber that was used by the two or three Secret Service members who traveled with the president,” says Ford Presidential Library Director Elaine Didier. “It is furnished with the desk and leather chairs Ford used in his Congressional office.” In addition to historical furnishings, Didier says gifts from the 1976 Bicentennial are displayed in this office. These include a silver bowl with gold lining from the Franklin Mint, a replica of the Liberty Bell in Lucite block, and a book about the artwork in Buckingham Palace signed by Queen Elizabeth II. Gifts from heads of state from other countries, photographs, and reproductions of significant documents also fill the room, including a handwritten letter Ford penned to his mother on Delta Kappa Epsilon stationery when he was a U-M student. Davi Napoleon, (’66, M.A. ’68, Ph.D. ’88) is a theater columnist for www.thefastertimes.com, a feature writer for Live Design, and author of Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater.
(Top) Sam Hollenshead; (bottom) Martin Vloet, U-M Photo Services
University of Michigan Museum of Art