Wednesday, January 25, 2023 – A LEGACY OF BEAUTY SEEN BY MILLIONS

By admin

FROM THE ARCHIVES

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2023


ISSUE 895

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM

FLOWERS AND ART

REMEMBERED

EPHEMERAL NEW YORK
NEW YORK TIMES

The story behind the flowers in the lobby of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art

When you walk through the front doors of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, you enter a Neoclassical lobby that’s an architectural treasure in its own right—with dramatic archways, a marble floor, and a ceiling that seems to soar to the heavens.

But amid the coolness of the stone and marble, there’s a feature of the museum’s “Great Hall” that adds an aura of warmth and life: the giant urns that contain beautiful oversize fresh flower arrangements.

These lovely blooms change weekly; they tend to reflect the seasons. And just like every work of art displayed at the Met, there’s a story behind them.

The flowers were the idea of philanthropist Lila Acheson Wallace. In the late 1960s, she funded an endowment that would allow Met administrators to purchase and display weekly “starburst” flower arrangements throughout the lobby.

“An ephemeral addition to an otherwise timeless space, the florals change every Tuesday thanks to the generosity of a single donor, Lila Acheson Wallace, whose endowment in 1967 funded fresh flowers in perpetuity,” reported the New York Times in 2016.

Wallace herself reportedly wanted the flowers to convey to visitors, “we’re expecting you—welcome.”

Wallace, who with her husband founded Readers’ Digest in 1922, was a major benefactor of the Met. Museum-goers may recognize her name above the entrance to the Lila Acheson Wallace wing, which opened in 1987 to exhibit modern art.

Though she passed away in 1984, her endowment continues to grace the Great Hall and bring a sense of the present to a building famed for its antiquities.

For some years in the 1980’s I worked for a travel agency doing corporate business trips for employees of Reader’s Digest.

Reader’s Digest, based in Pleasantville, NY was a large worldwide privately owned business.

Lilia and DeWitt Wallace, aside from owning the publishing business were art collectors.  Their headquarters was famous for the impressionist art on the walls of all the offices. From the staff I learned that the environment was lovely and lots of amenities that other 1980’s offices did not offer.

Some of my time at the agency, we booked trips for staff to Paris.  Mrs. Wallace was on of the donors (mostly American) to fund the restoration of Giverny, Monet’s home outside Paris.

I did visit Giverny shortly after it opened and a plaque to the American’s generosity  was on the wall.

In the late 1990’s and corporate restructuring the art collection was sold and only memories remain of the long closed campus.

Every time I visit the Met, I smile at the flower arrangements and the plaque acknowledging Lila Wallace.

Judith Berdy

To read about the sale of the art:
https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/15/nyregion/reader-s-digest-parts-with-cherished-art.html

PHOTO OF THE DAY

PLEASE SEND YOUR RESPONSE TO:
ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM

TUESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

CAN STREET BRIDGE
ARON EISENPREISS AND ANDY SPARBERG GOT IT RIGHT!

One of the more ornate features of the West Side Elevated Highway was the bridge constructed over Canal Street and opened to the public in February 1939. In November 1982, the bridge was ripped down and sold for scrap. I’m not sure of the exact date of the photography above (courtesy the Library of Congress) but it’s clearly after the entire elevated highway was closed. Notice the weeds growing from the highway partition!

Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated

EPHEMERAL NEW YORK

JUDITH BERDY

THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.

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