Blog

Mondaufgang/Rising Moon

PAN in an International Perspective

March 15, 2022With the Museum's purchase of a major collection of 80 prints originally published in the influential magazine Pan, scholar Max Koss reflects on the magnificence of the collection and its significance as a work of cross-cultural artistic exchange at the turn of the last century.Read Article

Joë Descomps, Brooch, c. 1900. Diamond, 18K yellow gold. Collection of Richard H. Driehaus. Photography: John Faier

A Look Back at Maker & Muse: Women and Early 20th Century Art Jewelry

August 11, 2021Featuring more than 250 stunning works of art jewelry drawn from the collection of Richard H. Driehaus and exemplary national collections, Maker & Muse: Women and Early Twentieth Century Art Jewelry, told the stories of the women who played an integral role in their inspiration and creation.Read Article

Poster Maniacs

Poster Maniacs: Collectors of the Belle Époque

October 04, 2017The Belle Époque posters adorning the galleries of the Driehaus Museum right now shouldn’t, by all rights, exist. They are more than a century old, printed on flimsy paper, with inexpensive inks. Some were once even displayed outside, where the wind, rain, and sun of Paris in its various seasons beat down on them.Read Article

‘Divine Sarah’

‘Divine Sarah’: The Great Star of the French Poster

February 01, 2017Young and stunning, with sculpted eyebrows and a head of rich brunette curls, French actress Sarah Bernhardt first captured the ardor of Paris’s theatre-going elite in the 1870s. The rest of the world’s attention inevitably followed. Admiring critics, resorting to poetic metaphor, likened her voice to pure gold, a nightingale, silver dawn, the stars and moon, and murmuring water.Read Article

Champagne and Celebrations

Gilded Age New Year’s Traditions: Champagne and Celebrations

December 29, 2016During the Gilded Age, the American traditions of New Year’s Eve started to transition from the folk celebrations of immigrants to the elaborate soirees we are more familiar with today, especially for those of a certain class.Read Article

“The Most Perfect and Beautiful of All Wall Decorations”

“The Most Perfect and Beautiful of All Wall Decorations”

October 16, 2016Standing on the shoulders of the Industrial Revolution, the Gilded Age spawned an astounding number of inventions that profoundly changed life inside the American household. Those last few decades of the 19th century will always be known as a great era of invention.Read Article

Meet the Driehaus museum team

Richard, Membership & Volunteer Coordinator

April 28, 2016Our staff is always asked about their backgrounds and how they came to work at the Driehaus Museum. So we wanted to share some of our amazing team with everyone. And, as always, let us know if you have any other questions.Read Article

fisher

The Story of the Fishers

March 30, 2016In the early decades of the 20th century, the fictional Crawley family of Downton Abbey® hosted grand dinners and fretted about the Great War. At the same time, the real Fisher family was doing the same—right here in this Gilded Age mansion the Driehaus Museum calls ‘home.’Read Article

Corie, Museum Store Manager

Corie, Museum Store Manager

January 04, 2016First name? Corie-ann What is your title and what role does your position play at the Driehaus Museum? Museum Store Manager – My job is to ensure the day to day running of the Museum Store. I also choose and buy all of the merchandise and set up all of our displays.Read Article

team

Emily, Museum Guide

December 02, 2015Our staff is always asked about our backgrounds and how they came to work at the Driehaus Museum. So we wanted to share some of our amazing team with everyone. And, as always, let us know if you have any other questions.Read Article

team1

Laura-Caroline, Collections & Exhibitions Manager

September 14, 2015Our staff is always asked about our backgrounds and how they came to work at the Driehaus Museum. So we wanted to share some of our amazing team with everyone. And, as always, let us know if you have any other questions.Read Article

team1

Claire, Museum Guide

August 10, 2015Our staff is always asked about our backgrounds and how they came to work at the Driehaus Museum. So we wanted to share some of our amazing team with everyone. And, as always, let us know if you have any other questions.Read Article

book

[New Acquisition] Mr. Vanderbilt’s House and Collection

July 30, 2015Mr. Vanderbilt’s House and Collection (1884), a beautifully bound two-volume set that brings to life William H. Vanderbilt’s monumental “Brownstone Twins” and their contents on New York’s Fifth Avenue, is now on view in the Sculpture Gallery at the Driehaus Museum.Read Article

flowers

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Nature in Early 20th-Century Art Jewelry

June 22, 2015Art, according to John Ruskin, the influential writer of the British Arts and Crafts movement, is most beautiful when its forms are derived from nature.Read Article

card

A Gilded Age Guide to Gift-Giving

November 21, 2014Last December, Time magazine published an article on the psychology of gift-giving, addressing the questions that plague us each year as we search for the perfect gift for the perfect—or not-so-perfect—person in our lives.Read Article

women in black

Driehaus Museum Book Club Explores the History of Madame X

August 21, 2014He originally titled it, Portrait of Madame ***, in an attempt to conceal his voluptuous sitter’s identity. As far as Paris society was concerned, the woman’s identity was far from the only asset the painting failed to cover.Read Article

fielder

Interior Designers of the Nickerson Mansion: William August Fiedler

May 21, 2014“We strongly advocate the use of different styles in different rooms, to avoid the monotonous effect invariably produced by the fanatic apostles of the so-called Eastlake or Modern Gothic. For the same reasons it will be necessary for articles of luxury, as Easels. Hanging Shelves, Cabinets, etc., to use motifs from the Mooresque, Byzantine, Japanese, etc., though diametrically opposed to the prevailing style of the room.” – August FiedlerRead Article

art titles

In Process: Creating Reproduction Low Art Tiles for the Museum Store

October 14, 2013For the Museum Store, L’Esperance Tile was commissioned to craft two custom tiles inspired by the J. & J. G. Low Art Tile Works tiles found in the Driehaus Museum—which, with their embossed natural details, jewel-toned colors, and sheen, are among the most stunning surviving elements of the this 1883 mansion.Read Article

Agnes

[From the Collection] Landscape by Agnes Northrop

August 06, 2013As we draw nearer to the opening of the Louis Comfort Tiffany exhibition, this work—created by one of the artists he employed—is a fitting one to stop and enjoy for a moment. On view in the Drawing Room on the mansion’s first floor, it is an elegant and simple painting with quite a history behind it, one which has only recently come to light.Read Article

Humidor

[From the Collection] Tiffany Studios Humidor, c. 1902-10

June 17, 2013This fanciful blown-glass work by Tiffany Studios always stirs the curiosity of visitors to the Reception Room. Despite appearing to be just an objet d’art to admire, it is designed to serve a function—as a humidor, used to preserve tobacco in an airtight space.Read Article

gem

[From the Collection] Jewel- and Gem-Set Inkstand, 1864

January 21, 2013This inkstand from the Driehaus Collection packs some of the most eye-catchingly elaborate designs and materials into a small and functional space. Read Article

table

[From the Collection] Herter Brothers Dining Table, 1883

November 19, 2012This Herter Brothers dining table is a significant piece in our collection, for its beauty as well as its history.Read Article

painting

A Tour of the World’s Fair: Decorative Objects from the 1893 Columbian Exposition

June 25, 2012On permanent display in the Driehaus Museum are a number of decorative objects—an artistic silver punch bowl by Tiffany & Company; a painting of the Administration Building; and even a trio of Japanese bronzes, souvenirs purchased by the Nickerson family that originally occupied this mansion—that come exclusively from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Read Article

[From the Collection] Cupid and Psyche

March 29, 2012The largest marble sculpture in the Driehaus Museum, Cupid and Psyche commands the center of the mansion’s original domestic art gallery.Read Article

Adele

[Featured Member] Adele Friedman: Artist, Teacher, Explorer

March 14, 2012When I have friends who visit me from Europe I say, ‘This museum is one of the places you have to put on your list.’ There are European influences in the house but it is really specific to the Midwest—it’s the Gilded Age of the Midwest.Read Article

the white knight

[From the Collection] The White Knight

December 08, 2011Since summer there has been a blank spot above the Drawing Room piano just begging for a painting, and three weeks ago Sir Galahad arrived and saved the day.Read Article

side chair

[From the Collection] Tiffany Studios Chair, ca. 1881-83

November 10, 2011In the middle of a tour recently, on the sixth or seventh mention of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s work, a woman turned and exclaimed—as if to have it out and finished with—“Is everything here a Tiffany?”Read Article