Marjorie Merriweather Post
I found this book fascinating!
Marjorie Merriweather Post a.k.a. Marjorie Merriweather Post Close Hutton Davies May (March 15, 1887 – September 12, 1973) was a leading American socialite and the founder of General Foods, Inc. She was 27 when her father died, and she became the owner of the rapidly growing Postum Cereal Company later becoming the wealthiest woman in America when her fortune reached approximately USD $250 million, more than 1 billion of today's dollars.
http://www.hillwoodmuseum.org/mmp.html
Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887-1973), heir to the Post cereal fortune, was the founder of Hillwood Museum and Gardens - her former twenty-five acre estate in Washington, DC.
Endowed with a progressive sense of business, entrepreneurial optimism, and a confident, gracious sense of self, Mrs. Post created a place for herself in American history. Known as one of America’s first businesswomen, she was an art collector, noted philanthropist, and socialite. Her greatest legacy, however, was her gift of Hillwood. In opening her home to the public, she joined a small number of distinguished Americans who created art collectors’ personal museums out of their homes, galleries, and estates.
Born in Springfield, Illinois, Marjorie was the only child of Ella Merriweather and Charles William (C.W.) Post, a man who epitomized the American dream. With his inventions of the coffee substitute Postum and Grape-Nuts and Post Toasties cereals, C.W. founded the Postum Cereal Company, a food-manufacturing empire that generated one of the largest fortunes of the early twentieth century. C.W. trained his daughter in every aspect of the company’s workings, from overseeing factory production to attending board meetings. C.W. also exposed his daughter to art through trips abroad and his own collecting of Victoriana. His death in 1914 left the twenty-seven-year-old heiress the owner of a rapidly growing cereal company. Her increasing responsibilities placed new demands on her and soon drew her into a fast-paced life in Manhattan.
The genesis of Mrs. Post's career as a collector harks back to the early part of the 20th-century and coincides with her move to New York. This move brought her into the same social sphere as the Fricks, Vanderbilts, and Whitneys - for whom collecting was considered a worthwhile, if not necessary, pursuit of the wealthy. Marjorie bought decorative art objects for her New York home and, through experience and education, gradually developed a discerning eye, especially for French furnishings. While balancing the needs of her company and her family, Marjorie embarked on a course of self-education in the decorative arts. She enrolled in classes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and sought the tutelage of the renowned art dealer Sir Joseph Duveen. Her lifelong passion for refined decorative objects was awakened during these early years.
Post married four times. In 1905, she married investment banker Edward Bennett Close of Greenwich, Connecticut: They divorced in 1919.
Her second marriage was to Wall Street financier Edward F. Hutton in 1920. A perfect match, they were both handsome, wealthy and adventurous. Her exceptional vision for the Postum Cereal Company, coupled with Hutton's business acumen, led to the formation of the General Foods Corporation, a leader in prepared and frozen foods. Post and Hutton divorced in 1935. Their only child, Nedenia Marjorie, became an actress under the name Dina Merrill.
Marjorie's personal tastes also broadened as she turned greater attention to decorating her vast properties. Throughout the 1920s she acquired fine furnishings for her grand apartment in New York, her estate Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, Camp Hutridge (late Topridge) in the Adirondacks, and her yacht Sea Cloud. She also turned her attention to acquiring fine Sevres porcelain and 18th century French gold boxes.
Marjorie Merriweather Post was known for her lavish homes, the largest of which was Mar-A-Lago which is located in Palm Beach, Florida. Designed by Joseph Urban Mar-A-Lago was purchased from the Post Family Trust by Donald Trump. Trump in turn had the 110,000 square foot house completely restored to its original state. Mar-A-Lago originally had 115 rooms, a 9-hole golf course and sits on a strip of land between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Worth. It is nicknamed the jewel of Palm Beach.
With her second husband, E. F. Hutton, she was the owner of Sea Cloud (Hussar II), the largest privately owned sea-going yacht in the world. Post also owned Camp Topridge in the Adirondacks, which she considered a "rustic retreat", with a fully staffed main lodge, and private guest cabins, each staffed with their own butlers. The Huttons also owned Hillwood in Brookville, New York which later become the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. Another home, which she shared with Joseph Davies in Washington, D.C. was called Tregaron
In response to the economic hardship that devastated the nation in the 1930s, Marjorie increased her charitable involvement. She supported numerous philanthropic causes throughout her life, including the Salvation Army, the American Red Cross, and in later years, the National Symphony Orchestra.
Marjorie accompanied her third husband, Joseph E. Davies, to the Soviet Union, where he served as the American ambassador (1937-1938). On the eve of World War II, Marjorie witnessed Stalin’s reign of terror firsthand. It was also in the Soviet Union where Marjorie's eye turned to Russian decorative and liturgical arts. One consequence of this widespread turmoil and extreme social and cultural upheaval was the selling of imperial art treasures, which was endorsed by the Soviet government. Marjorie acquired Russian icons, texties, porcelains and silver and she was soon transformed into an avowed collector of Russian art. The purchases she made while living in the Soviet Union formed the nucleus of the most important assemblage of Russian imperial art outside Russia today.
Davies and Post divorced in 1955. Her final marriage occurred in 1958 to Herbert A. May; May, a wealthy Pittsburgh businessman, and former Master of Fox Hounds of The Rolling Rock Hunt Club in Ligonier, Pa. She divorced May in 1964, and subsequently reclaimed her full maiden name of Marjorie Merriweather Post.
Like many American collectors, Mrs. Post continued collecting throughout her life and wanted to share her collection with the public. In 1955 she bought the Hillwood estate to serve both as her residence and as a future museum.
Hillwood began in 1955 when Mrs. Post purchased the old Erwin estate called Arbramont overlooking Washington's Rock Creek Park; a beautiful twenty-five landscaped acres complete with a Georgian style mansion built in 1926 by the architect, John Delbert. She renamed her new home after her former Long Island estate. For the next three years Mrs. Post undertook an expansion, remodelling, and redecorating project designed not just to create a spacious and elegant new home but also a museum, eventually to become the showcase for her impressive art collection.
During the next eighteen years, until her death in 1973, Mrs. Post continued adding to her collection important European pieces even as she held forth in her role as one of the most important social and behind-the-scenes political powers in the nation's capital.
By 1958 she had hired Marvin Ross, a Harvard trained art historian, to catalogue her collections, advise her on acquisitions, and implement standard museum practices at Hillwood.
Marjorie Post donated some of her jewelry to the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.; it is displayed in the Harry Winston exhibit. Pieces in the collection include a pair of 20 carat (4 g) diamond earrings belonging to Marie Antoinette, a 275 carat (55 g) diamond and turquoise necklace and tiara set Napoleon I gave to his wife, Empress Marie Louise, a 30.82 carat (6.164 g) blue heart diamond ring, and an emerald and diamond necklace and ring belonging to Mexican emperor Maximilian.
On her death in 1973, Mrs. Post's final and most important philanthropic gesture became reality when Hillwood, her last estate in Washington D.C., was bequeathed to the public as a museum. Her magnificent French and Russian collections remain on view at Hillwood Museum and Gardens where her legacy of opulent beauty and gracious elegance continues to thrive.
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