Endnotes for Life of a Mansion

blueprint of an ornate mansion exterior

Life of a Mansion: The Story of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

By Heather Ewing

Copyright © 2014 by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Published by Cooper Hewitt

 

Online Endnotes

  

General References

Dolkart, Andrew. Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. New York: Scala, 2006.

Lynes, Russell. More Than Meets the Eye: The History and Collections of Cooper-Hewitt Museum. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1981.

Beyer, Blinder Belle Architects & Planners LLP. Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Historic Structures Report. April 15, 2008. (copy in the Office of Architectural History and Historic Preservation, Smithsonian; author’s annotated copy in the Carnegie Mansion History Files, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Library.)

 

 

Introduction

p. 9

after a six-month European sojourn. “We have never been tied here so late by engagements.” Andrew Carnegie, writing from Skibo Castle, to “Principal,” October 27, 1902. Andrew Carnegie Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

“Why, I am fit as a brand new piston rod…” “Andrew Carnegie At Home,” Jennings (Louisiana) Daily Record, December 29, 1902, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88064676/1902-12-29/ed-1/seq-11/.

In the rear, giant full-size trees… “A Forest Transplanted: Giant Trees Moved to Andrew Carnegie’s Fifth Avenue Home,” New York Times, April 28, 1901; “Mr. Carnegie’s Big Trees,” New York Times, August 22, 1901.

“very pleased with the house” Mrs. Carnegie diary quotation from a letter by Margaret Carnegie Miller to Lisa Taylor, director of the Cooper Hewitt Museum, n.d. Carnegie Mansion History Project files, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. “After the design had been accepted,” Howard Russell Butler wrote in his memoirs, “Carnegie left no doubt in my mind that questions of design of all details were between the architects and Mrs. Carnegie.” Howard Russell Butler diary, p. 273 (frame 304), Howard Russell Butler Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

“The voyage has restored me…” Andrew Carnegie to W. T. Stead, December 14, 1902, Carnegie Papers, LC.

 

p. 11

Carnegie enjoyed nearly two decades… For Frick and Harriman, see Laurie Ossman and Heather Ewing, Carrère and Hastings: The Masterworks (New York: Rizzoli, 2011).

 

p.12

“one of the most lovable of men” David Nasaw, Andrew Carnegie (New York: Penguin Press, 2006), p. 52.

“begrimed with coal dirt” Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920), p. 39.

an annual income in dividends Nasaw, Andrew Carnegie, p. 113.

 

 

The Birth of a Child

p. 15

“the Little Saint” Burton J. Hendrick and Daniel Henderson, Louise Whitfield Carnegie: The Life of Mrs. Andrew Carnegie (New York: Hastings House, 1950), pp. 144–45.

In 1899 they went still higher Nasaw, Andrew Carnegie, pp. 113–14, 521, 578.

For information about 5 West 51st Street, see Shelley M. Bennett, The Art of Wealth: The Huntingtons in the Gilded Age (San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, 2013), pp. 66–67. The quote about the state of the house is from Butler diary, p. 255 (frame 286), Butler Papers.

an annual income of $20,000… The present-day value of $20,000 in 1887 was using the “Relative Values—US $” calculator at MeasuringWorth.com, http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/relativevalue.php.

 

p. 17

For Carnegie Hall history, see the Carnegie Hall website, http://www.carnegiehall.org/Article.aspx?id=4294968156.

“naturally thought of Andrew Carnegie” Butler diary, n.p. (frame 247), Butler Papers.

“I met Mr. Carnegie’s wink…” Butler diary, n.p. (frame 265), Butler Papers.

“I saw both sides of his character.” Butler diary, n.p. (frame 348), Butler Papers.

 

p. 18

For biographical information on Howard Russell Butler, see artist file, Frick Art Reference Library; and E. R. Squibb and Sons, Inc. Presents Howard Russell Butler, an Exhibition of His Oils, Pastels, and Drawings (Princeton, NJ: E. R. Squibb and Sons, 1977). Howard Russell Butler was also made a director of Carnegie’s Home Trust Company, the organization Carnegie established in 1901 to invest and distribute the money for his philanthropic activities. The records of the Home Trust Company are part of Carnegie Corporation of New York Records at the Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Carnegie Lake: “the worst thing” Butler diary, n.p. (frame 336), Butler Papers.

 

p. 19

“We now want to take root…” Hendrick and Henderson, Louise Whitfield Carnegie, p. 147. For Ross & Macbeth, see the Dictionary of Scottish Architects, http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/building_full.php?id=201325.

“a square of four city lots” Butler diary, p. 271 (frame 302), Butler Papers.

 

p. 20

“a fairyland of childhood” Hendrick and Henderson, Louise Whitfield Carnegie, p. 154. See also Joseph Frazier Wall, Skibo (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984). For information on the stained glass window in the entrance hall, see Reginald H. Sayre to Burton J. Hendrick, April 10, 1928. Burton Jesse Hendrick Papers (MS 1980), Box 16, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.

 

p. 22

“only one remove from goatville” Burton J. Hendrick, “The New Fifth Avenue,” Metropolitan Magazine (November 1905), pp. 233–47.

“pretty well thought out” Butler diary, p. 272 (frame 303), Butler Papers.

 

p. 25

“a plain home…” “Carnegie to Build a City Palace for One Little Baby,” n.d (ca. 1898), n.t.; photocopy in Cooper Hewitt files, Accession 06-225, Smithsonian Institution Archives.

“defeat his desire for domesticity” William T. Partridge memoirs. William Robert Ware Papers, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.

A record of all three competition entries is printed in the exhibition catalogue of the first Annual Exhibition of the Detroit Architectural Club, April 28-May 12, 1900; copy in the Research Library and Archives, Detroit Institute of Arts. http://www.dalnet.lib.mi.us/dia/collections/dma_exhibitions/1900-1.pdf

Babb, Cook & Willard… “Mr. Walter Cook, being another shrewd Scotchman, made a series of attractive elevations and told Mr. Carnegie that he failed to see how he could make any plans that would better Mr. Carnegie’s plans on which Mr. and Mrs. Carnegie had put such intense study. Mr. Cook was awarded the commission, and during the process of building induced Mr. Carnegie to modify considerably his projected house.” Partridge memoirs, Ware Papers.

“It is a somewhat remarkable thing…” Barr Ferree, “Talks with Architects. No. 7.—Mr. Walter Cook on the Large City House,” Scientific American Building Monthly, August 1901, p. 37.

Carnegie “had little idea” … “It was inevitable…” Butler diary, p. 280 (frame 311), Butler Papers.

 

p. 28

“the highlands of Fifth Avenue” “Carnegie a Pioneer in Upper New York: Erection of Handsome Homes on Northern Fifth Avenue Started by Him in 1898,” New York Times, August 17, 1919.

The records of Carnegie’s real estate transactions on the Upper East Side are kept in the Andrew Carnegie Papers, Library of Congress. For the development of Fifth Avenue, see Mosette Broderick, “Fifth Avenue,” in Jan Cigliano and Sarah Bradford Landau, eds., The Grand American Avenue 1850-1920 (San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1994).

 

p. 32

“It was a genuine pleasure…” Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie, p. 29.

a testament to the impact that Carnegie had… In 1906 Carnegie tried to sell the lot immediately adjacent to Burden House to General Lloyd Bryce, but he had an agreement with the Burdens and Hammonds that he would not divide the large corner lot into two parcels, and so they sued to prevent the sale. “Would Enjoin Carnegie in Real Estate Deal,” New York Times, February 28, 1906.

“time almost immemorial” “Carnegie a Pioneer in Upper New York: Erection of Handsome Homes on Northern Fifth Avenue Started by Him in 1898,” New York Times, August 17, 1919.

 

p. 33

For biographical information on Babb, Cook & Willard see Mosette Broderick in Robert B. MacKay, Anthony K. Baker, and Carol A. Traynor, eds., Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects, 1860–1940 (New York: Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities and W. W. Norton & Company, 1997), pp. 58–61.

to raise sheep in the Wyoming Territory. President’s Report, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston: A. A. Kingman, 1875), http://books.google.com/books?id=OAgXAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA201&dq=%22daniel+w.+willard%22+wyoming&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VycZUpGFHJG-9gSdwYFg&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22daniel%20w.%20willard%22%20wyoming&f=false.

entangling submarines. In 1895 Willard was advertising in the Redlands Fortnightly Club Bulletin as an architect, http://www.redlandsfortnightly.org/red_fn95.htm. For his theater designs, seeTheatre Arts (1919), vol. 3, p. 305, http://books.google.com/books?id=oSQOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA305&dq=%22daniel+w.+willard%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=HTUrT9mOBYOrgwe4t4ybAQ&ved=0CDoQ6AEwADgU#v=onepage&q=%22daniel%20w.%20willard%22&f=false. Richard Cockburn MacLaurin, Technology’s War Record: An Interpretation of the Contribution Made by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Its Staff, Its Former Students, and Its Undergraduates to the Cause of the United States and the Allied Powers in the Great War, 1914–1919 (Cambridge, MA: Alumni Association Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1920).

 

p. 35

In 1898, Babb and Cook… The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (1917), vol. 14, s.v. Cook, Walter, p. 344; The Brickbuilder (1908), vol. 17, p. 42.

“leaders of the profession in the East” H. Van Buren McGonigle, “A Half Century of Architecture: A Biographical Review, Part 2” (1934), reprinted in Pencil Points Reader: Selected Readings from a Journal for the Drafting Room, 1920–1934, ed. George Hartman and Jan Cigliano (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004), p. 336.

Babb’s hygiene Charles Baldwin, Stanford White (New York: Da Capo Press, 1971),p. 291, n. 4; quoted in Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects, p. 536.

Cook as principal or lead designer Howard Russell Butler noted that “Mr. Walter Cook became responsible for all design as the work progressed.” Butler diary, p. 273 (frame 304), Butler Papers. Abigail A. Van Slyck, Free to All: Carnegie Libraries and American Culture, 1890–1920 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), pp. 113–14.

 

p. 37

terrace Butler diary, pp. 279-80 (frames 310-11), Butler Papers.

 

 

The Mansion as Home

p. 39

“Carnegie veterans” “PS Do come to the first dinner Carnegie vets Dec 16th Lou & I want you & Anna & Bessie much to come on & stay with us First guests, first dinner in New Home.” Andrew Carnegie to his cousin “Doddie” Lauder, December 7, 1902, Carnegie Papers.

“to keep alive and cement” “Carnegie Veterans Dine,” New York Times, December 7, 1918. “Carnegie’s Housewarming: Kilts A-Twirling and Piper Playing in the New Mansion,” Sun, December 19, 1902.

 

p. 42

“servant wearing a waistcoat…” “Would See Mr. Carnegie: Many Persons Who Do Not Get Past His Secretaries,” New-York Daily Tribune, November 25, 1906, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1906-11-25/ed-1/seq-20/.

 

p. 43

For Bertram biographical information see Frank Pierce Hill, James Bertram: An Appreciation (Carnegie Corporation of New York, 1936), and the James Bertram Collection in the Carnegie Mellon University Archives.

 

p. 45

“sanctum sanctorum.” Butler diary, p. 272 (frame 303), Butler Papers.

Artist Elmer Ellsworth Garnsey… For background on Garnsey, see Iowa State Capitol Tour Guides, Pieces of Iowa’s Past, April 24, 2013, https://www.legis.iowa.gov/DOCS/LSA/Tidbits/2013/TBJMA014.PDF, accessed August 25, 2013

 

p. 46

featuring Carnegie’s favorite quotations… “Carnegie’s mind was constantly turning to religion. He gathered from all the religions of the world, the most important truths and axioms, and it was the part of Elmer Garnsey, under my arrangement with him, to inscribe these as a frieze in Carnegie’s new library (as they had been very inartistically done in his old one).” Butler diary, n.p. (frame 350), Butler Papers.

the first investment Carnegie ever made… Herman G. Scott (son of John Scott, Andrew Carnegie’s first partner) to Burton J. Hendrick, August 13, 1929. Burton Jesse Hendrick Papers (MS 1980), Box 16. Scott, whose father had cosigned the certificate, saw it hanging in the library when he visited the mansion in 1915. Carnegie had a photographic copy made and sent to him.

An ideal dinner… Carnegie gave his recipe for a healthy life in a March 22, 1906, letter to Charles Schwab; quoted in Nasaw, Andrew Carnegie, p. 639.

“He lived from boyhood onward…” Reminiscences of W. J. Holland, undated, Hendrick Papers, Box 19.

 

p. 48

“very vain of his exceedingly…” Burton J. Hendrick conversation with Orlando Rouland, June 14, 1928, Hendrick Papers, Box 19.

 

p. 49

Rolltop desk… “Carnegie Home Parts with Desk,” New York Times, September 18, 1976.

 

p. 50

“Surplus wealth…” Andrew Carnegie, “The Best Fields for Philanthropy” in North American Review (December 1889), p. 684.

For background on Carnegie’s library donations, see Abigail A. Van Slyck, Free to All: Carnegie Libraries & American Culture, 1890-1920 (University of Chicago Press, 1994), and Mary B. Dierickx, The Architecture of Literacy: The Carnegie Libraries of New York City (New York: Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and the New York City Dept. of General Services, 1996).

“boys and girls who have good within them…” Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie, p. 47.

Trained his energies instead… Nasaw, Andrew Carnegie, pp. 600, 713.

Berea College in Kentucky… “$200,00 to Berea from Mr. Carnegie,” New York Times, January 25, 1908.

 

p. 51

Carnegie Corporation of New York in its first years… Burton J. Hendrick conversation with Henry S. Pritchett, December 3, 1931, Hendrick Papers, Box 19. For a history of the foundation, see Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, The Politics of Knowledge: The Carnegie Corporation, Philanthropy, and Public Policy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), and “Foundation History” on the corporation’s website, http://carnegie.org/about-us/mission-and-vision/foundation-history/.

 

p. 52

“it savored too much of palaces.” Butler diary, pp. 290–91 (frames 321–22), Butler Papers.

oak ceiling… The Babb, Cook & Willard architectural drawings at the Smithsonian Archives indicate that the principal rooms feature English oak, and the secondary rooms, such as those on the ground, third and fourth floors, feature American oak. Anecdotal history has always put forward the idea that the English oak came specifically from Scotland. The construction specifications that might confirm such a story were catalogued at the Smithsonian in 1972 but have not been located.

 

p. 54

Margaret’s wedding… “Bagpipe Tunes at Carnegie Wedding,” New York Times, April 23, 1919.

 

p. 56

“would drink in the morning organ music.” Notes from Burton Hendrick conversation with James Bertram, January 21, 1932, Hendrick Papers, Box 16.

Organ specifications… Larry Trupiano, Factory Specifications of Aeolian (Votey) Organ, Op. 895 (1900). See also “The New York City Organ Project,” New York City Chapter of The American Guild of Organists, http://www.nycago.org/organs/nyc/index.html, accessed February 10, 2013.

Insufficiently grand bass register… Butler diary, p. 285 (frame 316), Butler Papers.

“music is a religion…” “Carnegie Rises Daily to Pipe Organ Music,” New York Times, December 28, 1905.

Carnegie donated thousands of organs… Simon N. D. North, ed. A Manual of the Public Benefactions of Andrew Carnegie (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1919).

 

p. 58

Edward F. Caldwell Lighting Collection, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Library. See also Stephen H. Van Dyk, “Caldwell & Company: Masters of Metal and Light,” on the Smithsonian Libraries’ website Shedding Light on New York: Edward F. Cadwell & Co.: http://library.si.edu/digital-library/collection/caldwell/introduction

 

p. 61

“From my little sitting room…” Burton J. Hendrick and Daniel Henderson, Louise Whitfield Carnegie: The Life of Mrs. Andrew Carnegie (New York: Hastings House, 1950), p. 129.

Guy Lowell… “Guy Lowell Dies: Noted Architect,” New York Times, February 5, 1927. See also Rebecca Warren Davidson, “Images and Ideas of the Italian Garden in American Landscape Architecture,” Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University, 1994.

Schermerhorn… William G. Crawford, Jr. “Schemerhorn, Richard, Jr. (1877-1962),” in Charles A. Birnbaum and Stephanie S. Foell, eds., Shaping the American Landscape: New Profiles from the Pioneers of the American Landscape Project (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009), pp. 304–7.

 

p. 63

The trees were most thickly… Butler diary, p. 274 (frame 305), Butler Papers. See “A Record of Large Tree Planting, Carnegie Park, 1902” (PR003-2016-61), New York Historical Society, and “A Forest Transplanted: Giant Trees Moved to Andrew Carnegie’s Fifth Avenue Home,” New York Times, April 28, 1902. For red geraniums, see “Mrs. Carnegie Dies; Steel Man’s Widow,” New York Times, June 25, 1946.

 

p. 67

“This made Carnegie furious.” Butler diary, p. 271 (frame 302), Butler Papers.

 

p. 68

“If you leave the size…” Ibid.

“He delighted in the society…” Undated recollection of F. J. Holland (director emeritus of the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh), to Burton J. Hendrick, p. 3, Hendrick Papers, Box 18.

“to avoid indigestible food…” Burton J. Hendrick conversation with Orlando Rouland, June 14, 1928, Hendrick Papers, Box 19.

Knights of the Cloth dinners… Peter Krass, Carnegie (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2002), pp. 447–48.

“that after dinner speaking …” John Burroughs to Andrew Carnegie, November 4, n.y. [1904], Carnegie Autograph Collection, 1867–1945, Box 2, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library. Grover Cleveland and Mark Twain were also among the invitees to the Morley dinner (although neither was able to attend). In the end, Carnegie’s friend Richard Watson Gilder had to serve as host, because a bad attack of gout confined Carnegie to his bed. The tablecloth from the dinner is in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York (Acc. # 59.71.1).

 

p. 71

“placed so as to get…” Butler diary, p. 271 (frame 302).

Margaret’s wedding… “Carnegie’s Daughter the Richest Heiress,” Boston Globe, August 12, 1919. In a letter to Lisa Taylor [date illegible], Margaret Miller stated that she was married in this breakfast room. Carnegie Mansion History Files, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Louise Carnegie stated in her diary that part of the ceremony was in the front entrance hall and part in the conservatory. See Hendrick and Henderson, Louise Whitfield Carnegie, p. 212; and Linda Thorell Hills, ed., Margaret Carnegie Miller, Her Journals (privately printed, ca. 2000), p. 15.

 

p. 72

Rockery… Howard Russell Butler’s sketch of the rockery (drawing #566) is located in RU 92, Smithsonian Institution Archives. Other details about the conservatory are gleaned from other architectural drawings in the same collection.

 

p. 73

“Our picture gallery here will surprise you…” Andrew Carnegie to John W. Beatty, December 17, 1902. Andrew Carnegie Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

Carnegie’s collection… The Taste of Andrew Carnegie, New-York Historical Society exhibition (May 2–August 4, 1991). Roche’s name is on the tablecloth in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York. See Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Department, CA-561, for a photo of the Carnegie coaching trip that Abbey was on.

Picture Gallery referred to as the music room… “Carnegie House Alterations,” New York Times, May 25, 1913.

“extensive alterations…” Mary Isabel Brush, “Country Homes Call New Yorkers,” Chicago Daily Tribune, October 5, 1913.

“Well, the party is over…” Hendrick and Henderson, Louise Whitfield Carnegie, pp. 208–9.

1927 wedding and 1931 deb party… “Louise Whitfield Wed to D.D. Odell,” New York Times, October 26, 1927; “Miss Whitfield Honored at Dance,” New York Times, December 19, 1931.

 

p. 75

“with Christmas eternally in her heart.” And “appropriate goodies…” Hendrick and Henderson, Louise Whitfield Carnegie, pp. 281, 300.

“Christmas means more to us this year…” Hendrick and Henderson, Louise Whitfield Carnegie, pp. 281, 300. See also William Mangold and Geoffrey T. Hellman, The Talk of the Town, “Eheu Fugaces!”, The New Yorker, April 30, 1949, pp. 26-27.

 

p. 77

billiard table… “Andrew Carnegie’s English Billiard Table a Rarity,” New York Times, February 1, 1903.

stuffed barracuda... Ralph Chapman, “Carnegie Residence to Be Used by Columbia Social Work School,” New York Herald Tribune, January 21, 1949.

 

p. 78

“Mother knew…” Hills, Margaret Carnegie Miller, p. 4.

“But when I did…” and “He went to church with Mother…” Ibid., pp. 4, 6.

Brass bed… Jay Dobkin, “Carnegie’s Fifth Ave. Mansion Houses School of Social Work,” Columbia Daily Spectator (vol cxi, No. 20), October 25, 1966. See also “NYSSW Facts about 2 East 91st Street,” September 17, 1956. Acc. 06-225, Box 16, SI Archives. It’s likely that the source for many of the stories that were told of the house was K. Alexander Morrison, who first started working for the Carnegies in 1905 and remained at the mansion into the years that Columbia was there.

 

p. 83

Dunfermline Abbey window… A letter of April 11, 1913, now in the Cooper Hewitt National Design Library, handwritten on Tiffany Studios stationery, from Harold Harrisson to Carnegie, notes, “Your window is progressing rapidly and we expect to have the same completed and set up in our show room about the middle of May. If you are in the city at that time, I trust I may have the pleasure of meeting you here, if you desire to inspect it before it is shipped.” This letter was given to the museum by the Museum of the City of New York in 2011. See also Diane Shaw, “The Saga of Andrew Carnegie’s Tiffany Memorial Window (1913), or Does an Art Nouveau Landscape Belong in a Medieval Scottish Abbey?” Smithsonian Collections Blog, March 7, 2012, http://si-siris.blogspot.com/2012/03/saga-of-andrew-carnegies-tiffany.html.

“unecclesiastical and too modern” Leonard Bacon et al., eds., The Independent (vol. 77), London, January 5, 1914; accessed from Google Books.

 

p. 84

Lockwood de Forest… See Lockwood de Forest Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Roberta A. Mayer, Lockwood de Forest: Furnishing the Gilded Age with a Passion for India (Newark: University of Delaware Press), 2008. And Wilson H. Faude, “Associated Artists and the American Renaissance in the Decorative Arts,” Winterthur Portfolio, vol. 10 (1975), pp. 101-130.

De Forest and the A.H. Davenport Company… Butler Diary, p. 276 [frame 307].

Church’s Egyptian trip… Lockwood de Forest’s undated manuscript, Lockwood de Forest Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, microfilm 2730, frame 20, citation from Roberta Mayer, Lockwood de Forest, Furnishing for the Gilded Age with a Passion for the Exotic (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2008), 207. note 37.

 

p. 88

“Victor Talking Machine” Hills, Margaret Carnegie Miller, p. 3.

 

p. 89

“a perfect example of” … Lockwood de Forest Papers, roll 2732, pp. 91–92.

 

p. 91

Stella was part of the household… Louise W. Carnegie to B. J. Hendrick, May 14, 1931, Hendrick Papers, Box 17.

 

p. 92

Margaret’s schooling … Andrew Carnegie had been told of Clara B. Spence, an excellent teacher of Scottish background, and had helped invest in her efforts to establish a school, which was started on West 55th Street. Ms. Spence sent a teacher, Miss Anne Brinkerhoff, to give Margaret lessons, beginning in early November 1909. When the family went on a six-week trip to California, to see the telescope on Mount Wilson, Brinkerhoff accompanied the family, continuing Margaret’s lessons on the train and in their hotels. Hills, Margaret Carnegie Miller, p. 13. The wall coverings were specified on the architectural drawing. RU 92, S06/I-248, Smithsonian Institution Archives.

 

p. 97

“steam-odors…” and “liberal-hearted entertaining…” Lucy Cleveland, “The New York Residence of Andrew Carnegie,” Domestic Engineering (1910), vol. 50, n. 6, pp. 142-54.

 

p. 98

“It’s easy to keep house…” Hendrick and Henderson, Louise Whitfield Carnegie, p. 106.

“as members of the family…” “Text of Carnegie Will Disposing of $30,000,000,” New York Times, August 29, 1919. All four servants were given pensions equivalent to one-half their salaries. All other servants who had been with the family four years received a gift of $600; those eight years or more, $1,200; and those fifteen years or more, $2,000. Carnegie likewise left legacies for the servants and laborers at Skibo, as well as the crofters living on the estate.

Margaret “Maggie” Anderson retirement… “Carnegie Works Out Difficulty; Servant Problem Is Solved by Laird of Skibo,” Los Angeles Times, May 24, 1912.

Martha “Mattie” Clarke… Biographical information and photo were supplied to the museum by the family in Aberdeen, Scotland.

 

p. 100

“the idol of the servants’ hall”… “Pays Homage to a Servant,” Chicago Defender, June 22, 1912.

A typical mansion in the Gilded Age… “The Problem of Living on Half a Million a Year: Once You Establish a Standard, You Will Find It No Easy Matter to Make Ends Meet,” New York Times, April 22, 1906.

“tall, swarthy”… “Ex-Farmer Haunts Carnegie’s House,” New York Times, November 7, 1912.

“the sputter of a flame in the darkness”… “Plot to Dynamite Andrew Carnegie’s Home; Patrolman Snuffs Out Lighted Fuse of Bomb,” New York Times, June 24, 1915.

“so severely…” “2 Burned in Carnegie Home: Cook Expected to Die—Engineer Injured in Rescue,” Washington Post, May 21, 1917.

 

p. 103

“At first glimpse…” Cleveland, “The New York Residence of Andrew Carnegie,” Domestic Engineering (1910). This is the primary source for this entire section.

Carnegie never visiting the basement… “Eheu Fugaces!” The New Yorker (1949), pp. 26-27.

 

p. 106

roller-skate… New York School of Social Work Facts about 2 East 91st Street, September 17, 1956. SIA, Acc. 06-225, Box 16.

“soft knit bedroom slippers…” “Would See Mr. Carnegie: Many Persons Who Do Not Get Past His Secretaries,” New York Tribune, November 25, 1906.

 

p. 108

“took the occasional nip” “Eheu Fugaces!” The New Yorker (1949), pp. 26-27.

“The whisky came at the right time…” Mark Twain to Andrew Carnegie, April 28, 1908, Carnegie Papers.

Mrs. Carnegie’s signature offering… John Bigelow to Andrew Carnegie, November 26, 1909. Carnegie Autograph Collection, 1867–1945, Box 1.

White cards inscribed “Marsala”… “The Big House on Fifth Avenue,” Time, January 31, 1949.

 

p. 109

Elevators… Lee E. Gray, From Ascending Rooms to Express Elevators: A History of the Passenger Elevator in the 19th Century (Mobile, AL: Elevator World, 2002). See also author’s email correspondence with Lee Gray and Otis Company archivist, July 2013; Carnegie Mansion History Files.

 

p. 111

Carnegie garage… William Phillips Comstock, Garages and Motor Boat Houses (New York: William T. Comstock Company, 1911), pp. 49–54. Christopher Gray, “Up, Up and Away—Where Will It End?” New York Times, December 23, 1990. Richard S. Chang, “Andrew Carnegie’s Electric Cars,” New York Times, June 24, 2009.

Henry Whitfield… Whitfield biography file, Carnegie Mansion History files.

“went by itself without horses”… Hills, Margaret Carnegie Miller, p. 3. This is the only known mention of this chauffeur, “Baxter.” He is not listed in the census records.

 

p. 112

“All my air castles…” Nasaw, Carnegie, p. 783.

“by the sheer force of his infectious geniality…” “Rockefeller Sr. and Carnegie on Their Vast Gifts,” New York Times, February 6, 1915.

Carnegie Death… “Andrew Carnegie Dies of Pneumonia in his 84th Year: Taken Ill at Shadow Brook on Friday, he Sinks Rapidly,” New York Times, August 12, 1919.

 

 

The Mansion After Carnegie

p. 115

She sold Shadow Brook to the Jesuits… “Mrs. Carnegie Dies: Steel Man’s Widow,” New York Times, June 25, 1946. Shadow Brook burned in 1956.

Margaret’s four children… Hendrick and Henderson, Louise Whitfield Carnegie, p. 224.

 

p. 116

McAlpin house… Christopher Gray, “Streetscapes: The McAlpin House: Pre-Carnegie Pioneer on Upper 5th Avenue,” New York Times, February 24, 1991.

 

p. 118

“She took in its sun…” Hendrick and Henderson, Louise Whitfield Carnegie, p. 303.

 

p. 119

“to assure light…” “Mrs. Carnegie Left $2,000,000 Bequests: Daughter Is Chief Beneficiary,” New York Times, June 29, 1946.

a kind of prenuptial agreement… Nasaw, Andrew Carnegie, pp. 297–98. The prenuptial agreement is in Carnegie Corporation of New York Records, Columbia University Archives.

“club and office”… Walter S. Sullivan, “Carnegie Mansion Is Offered to U.N.: Palatial House on 5th Avenue Would Be Club and Office Building,” New York Times, October 18, 1946.

School of Social Work… Ronald A. Feldman and Sheila B. Kamerman, eds., The Columbia School of Social Work: A Centennial Celebration (Columbia University Press, 2001). The School, first known as the New York School of Social Work, became affiliated with Columbia University in 1940 and changed its name to the Columbia School of Social Work in 1963. The cost of the mansion conversion was $360,000—eighty percent of which was paid by the Community Service Society and the rest by the Carnegie Corporation. See the Dean’s Report in the 1949-50 Bulletin of the New York School of Social Work (October 1950), Columbia University School of Social Work Records, Columbia University Archives.

 

p. 120

Edgar I. Williams… Janet W. Foster, “Modern Architecture, Urban Design and the Suburban Streetscape: Celebrating Edgar I. Williams, New Jersey Architect, on the 125th Anniversary of his Birth,” GardenStateLegacy.com, Issue 5, September 2009. Andrew Krivak, ed., The Letters of William Carlos Williams and Edgar I. Williams, 1902–1912 (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2009), p. 37.

Adaptation of the mansion for school… Austin Stevens, “School Takes Over Carnegie Mansion: Columbia Social Work Unit Opens in Famous House on Fifth Avenue,” New York Times, October 6, 1949; Meyer Berger, Meyer Berger’s New York (New York: Random House, 1960), p. 58.

Eisenhower / installation… “Response of Kenneth D. Johnson on the Occasion of His Installation as Dean of the New York School of Social Work, Columbia University,” November 4, 1949.

 

p. 121

“the cognitive dissonance”… and “a fortress of peace”… and “preserve and transplant the 91st Street spirit…” “Remembrances of the Carnegie Mansion Years, 1949–1970,” CUSSW Records, Acc. 1996-001.

Edward Durell Stone… “CU School of Social Work will Move to Morningside,” Columbia Daily Spectator, vol. cvii, n.14, October 17, 1962.

 

 

The Mansion as Museum

p. 123

Cooper Union Museum… Eleanor Garnier Hewitt, The Making of a Modern Museum (New York: Wednesday Afternoon Club, 1919), p. 18. Alice de Beer, “Cooper Union Museum to Cooper Hewitt Museum, draft of a history of the continuation of The Making of the Modern Museum, an unpublished history of the transition of the Cooper Union Museum collections to the Smithsonian, written for the enlightenment of the staff,” June 13, 1976; copy in SI Archives, Acc. 85-195, Box 2; and in RU 545, Box 12. See also Russell Lynes, More than Meets the Eye: The History and Collections of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Design (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981). And “Designed for Use – The Cooper Union Museum,” Museum News, Vol. 39, no. 6 (March 1961).

Committee to Save the Cooper Union Museum… The records of the Committee to Save the Cooper Union Museum are located at the Smithsonian Archives, RU 633.

“formed in outrage.”… Alice M. Kaplan, oral history interview, February 21–March 8, 1978, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution: http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-alice-m-kaplan-13264 .

 

p. 125

“And when a sufficient collection…” Peter Cooper, Letter Dated April 29, 1859 from Peter Cooper to the Trustees of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (New York: Cooper Union, 1956), p. 5.

The creation of the museum… Minutes of the Ladies Advisory Council of the Women’s Art School. Cooper Union Library Archives.

a resource for designers and artisans… Cooper Union Annual Report (New York: Cooper Union, 1895), p. 12.

It encompassed architectural decoration… A Brief Introduction to the Museum’s Facilities (New York: Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration, 1941), pp. 2–5.

“Encyclopedic Scrap Books”… Cooper Union Annual Report (New York: Cooper Union, 1898), pp. 23–28; Russell Lynes, More than Meets the Eye, p. 18.

“formed to facilitate…” Eleanor Garnier Hewitt, The Making of a Modern Museum, p. 18.

 

p. 127

“found his mission among people…” “Carnegie’s Views on Wealth Distribution,” New York Times, March 9, 1904.

Encounters between the two families… Andrew Carnegie to Abram Hewitt, March 9, 1901, Box 13, file 12. Hewitt Papers, the Cooper Archives, Cooper Union Library.

Hewitt became a founding trustee… Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920), p. 260. “Abram Hewitt Offers Two Library Sites,” New York Times, March 17, 1901.

“America’s foremost private citizen” “Mr. Carnegie’s Tribute,” New York Times, July 31, 1902.

Abram Hewitt passed away… “Funeral of Mr. Hewitt,” New York Times, January 21, 1903.

Hewitt Memorial Endowment… Cooper Union Annual Report, 1903; 1904, p. 27.

Not unlike the descendants… Cooper Union Annual Report, 1898, p. 18.

“He was my great exemplar…” “Carnegie Rebukes Diners; Tells Them Abraham Lincoln Did Not Drink or Smoke,” New York Times, February 13, 1909.

 

p. 128

“the museum was disowned…” Ada Louise Huxtable, “Carnegie House Given to Cooper Hewitt Museum,” New York Times, April 1, 1972.

Agreement with Smithsonian… “Agreement made October 9, 1967 between the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and Smithsonian Institution,” copy in Carnegie Mansion History Files. See also General Hearings before the Subcommittee on Libraries and Memorials, 91st Congress, 2nd session (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1970).

 

p. 129

Lisa Taylor… See Dr. Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel’s interview with Lisa Taylor, Cooper Hewitt Museum, n.d. [c. 1976]; Diamonstein-Spielvogel Video Archive, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Expansion boom… See Heather Ewing and Amy Ballard, A Guide to Smithsonian Architecture (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2009). The Smithsonian was gifted several historic houses around this time: the Alice Pike Barney Studio House in Washington, DC (1960); the Belmont Conference Center, a historic eighteenth-century Maryland manor house (1964); and Hillwood, Marjorie Merriweather Post’s mansion in Washington, DC (1973). Eventually all of these properties were sold or given back.

“We brought several…” David Maxfield, “C-H’s Lisa Taylor to Retire,” The Torch (the Smithsonian’s employee newsletter), April 1987; SI Archives RU 371, Box 5.

 

p. 131

“The first floor was so encrusted…” Hugh Hardy, oral history interview, conducted by Heather Ewing, June 6, 2013. Carnegie Mansion Oral History Project, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

 

p. 132

“a pleasing monolithic construction…” The Roebling System of Fire-Proof Construction (New York: Roebling Construction Company, 1905), p. 8. The arches were first formed with a wire cloth stiffened by woven-in steel rods, before the Portland cement was poured. The Carnegie residence is listed as an example on p. 56b.

 

p. 134

“The objective was to produce…” “Confrontations with the Familiar,” Cooper Hewitt press release, 1976.

“shopping bags, lace…” Dorothy Twining Globus, conversation and subsequent email correspondence with the author, June 5, 2013. Carnegie Mansion History Files.

MA Program and Museum Mile open house… Eric Pace, “Lisa Taylor, 58, Former Director of Cooper Hewitt Museum, Dies,” New York Times, April 28, 1991.

“The house had such a big presence…” David McFadden, conversation with the author, July 17, 2013; Carnegie Mansion History Files.

 

p. 136

“It is a very strong building…” Lisa Taylor and DAPA, “Interview: Lisa Taylor at the Cooper Hewitt,” Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, vol. 2 (Summer–Autumn 1986), pp. 78–89.

Polshek and Partners Architects renovation… Email correspondence with Tim Hartung and Susan M. Strauss, Ennead Architects LLP, July-August 2013; Carnegie Mansion History Files.

 

p. 140

“formidably inaccessible”… Peter Slatin, “Beyond Wheelchairs,” Architectural Record, August 1993. The project won an Access/NY award in 1997. See also Dinitia Smith, “Renovation of Museum Opens Door for Director,” New York Times, August 22, 1996.

 

p. 141

“the instituted need[ed] to be revivified”… Celestine Bohlen, “Cooper-Hewitt Shake-Up and Layoffs Reverberate,” New York Times, June 25, 2002. See also Julie V. Iovine, “Cooper-Hewitt Museum Tries Redesigning Itself,” New York Times, December 22, 2003.

To effect this transformation of the mansion… Richard Southwick, conversation with the author, July 23, 2013; Carnegie Mansion History Files.

 

p. 146

“This project gave Cooper Hewitt…” Cooper-Hewitt Announces the Selection of Diller Scofidio + Renfro as Exhibition Designer and Local Projects as Media Partner for 2014 Reopening,” press release, June 28, 2012.

 

p. 147

“a street-level treehouse” … Douglas Feiden, “Cooper-Hewitt Museum to Open Harlem Satellite While Main Branch of Design Museum Undergoes Renovation,” New York Daily News, May 3, 2012.

Historic preservation component… Sharon Park, email correspondence with the author, July 17, 2013; Carnegie Mansion History Files.

 

p. 150

James Buckler … Slides from numerous visits in Smithsonian Gardens Archives. Buckler Papers are at SI Archives, Acc. 05-246.

Arthur Ross… Douglas Martin, “Arthur Ross, Investor and Philanthropist Who Left Mark on the Park, Dies at 96,” New York Times, September 11, 2007.

Mary Riley Smith… Mary Riley Smith, conversation with the author, May 30, 2013. Carnegie Mansion History Files, Cooper Hewitt.

Lynden Miller… Lynden Miller, conversation with the author, July 24, 2013, and subsequent email correspondence, September 2013. Carnegie Mansion History Files, Cooper Hewitt.

Walter Hood… Video of “Bill’s Design Talks: Walter Hood,” June 14, 2012: http://www.cooperhewitt.org/2012/06/14/bills-design-talks-walter-hood-2/ . Information also from Caroline Baumann, June 2014.