Nicholas Ferrar was born to a wealthy family in London in 1592. After graduating from the University of Cambridge, he pursued various business prospects in London. Upon losing a substantial amount of money to the Virginia Company, Ferrar moved to Little Gidding, a small town roughly 80 miles north...
The great collectors often desire to leave the world a physical legacy—whether it’s Albert Barnes establishing the Barnes Foundation, Henry Huntington bequeathing his collection to the Huntington Library, or J.P. Morgan amassing the collection that would form the core of the Morgan Library & Museum...
While William Marshall Bullitt (1873-1957) is best remembered as a successful lawyer and outspoken critic of Alger Hiss, he had two private passions: mathematics and book collecting. In 1936, inspired by a discussion with mathematician G.H. Hardy, Bullitt set out to acquire first edition texts by 25...
Born in Warsaw in 1907, Feliks Topolski moved to England in 1935. Topolski is remembered as a talented draughtsman, muralist, and chronicler. He painted the 1959 Coronation murals of Buckingham Palace and ran a serialized publication, Topolski’s Chronicle , for several decades toward the end of his...
Russian artist Ilya Kabakov lived through three tumultuous decades in Moscow during the height of the USSR. From the 1950s to the 1980s, his work spanned a variety of media and subjects as he fell in and out of favor with the Soviet regime. In his capacity as a member of the prestigious Union of...
The name Salvador Dalí often conjures up images completely removed from reality—melting clocks, spindle-legged elephants, or disembodied limbs. But a recent treatment at the Center reminded us that the works of Dalí were far more nuanced than we often think, toying with reality in different and...
Many of the treatments at the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) ensure that objects can be shared with others. Conservators and technicians clean the surfaces of prints, mend tears, and mount prints and photographs in stabile frames. They also often advise on the best display...
William Heinrich Prestele was born in Germany in 1838 and raised in Iowa. He was the son of a prolific botanical illustrator, Franz Joseph Martin Prestele, whose influence on his son was clear from an early age. After completing several natural painting projects in his twenties, William Heinrich...
