Electra Havemeyer Webb: A Pioneering Woman
 In Honor of Women's History Month
Electra Havemeyer Webb was a larger-than-life woman. Born in 1888 in Babylon, NY, Electra grew up in the lap of luxury and surrounded by the woks of European masters. As a child, Electra’s parents frequently took her on trips around Europe visiting top art museums. Electra’s first “serious” art purchase was a Goya. But her passion soon turned to Americana and folk art.
Electra shared the story of her purchase of a cigar store Indian from in front of a tobacconist shop in Stamford, Connecticut. She was only 18 when she paid $15.00 for the sculpture and brought it home to her mother. “Ladies and gentleman if you could have seen my mother’s face. She said, “What have you done?” And I said, “I’ve bought a work of art.” She said, “This is perfectly dreadful.”
Electra Webb became the first and perhaps foremost collector of Americana and folk art. By 1911, she began collecting in earnest. Working with some of the top antiques dealers of her time, she amassed “collections of collections” spanning antique weather vanes, shop signs, decoys, hooked rugs, quilts, paintings, New England vernacular architecture and more. In 1955, Electra wrote:
“What is American Folk Art? My interpretation is a simple one. Since the word ‘folk’ in America means all of us, folk art is that self expression which has welled up from the hearts and hands of the people. The creators can be kin or strangers and they can be rich or poor, professional or amateur, but in America, and particularly in Vermont and all of New England, they are still known as ‘folks.’ Their work can be exquisitely wrought or it can be crude. We are apt to differ in our ideas as to whether it is truly art, and to what degree it is artistic. But we must sense in all of the work properly identified as folk art the strong desire on the part of the people to create something of beauty. When our forefathers create it, they were expressing themselves and they were trying to transmit that feeling to the work itself. Perhaps the creators did not think of it as art, but I am one who has thought so for approximately fifty years.”
Many collectors still share the same definition of folk art as Electra articulated. Her voracious collecting filled multiple estates. Electra wanted to share her collection with the public and so she organized the Shelburne Museum in 1947 to meet her goal. She spent the time from then to her death in 1960 creating a museum to fulfill her vision. In total, thirty-nine old buildings and structures were preserved and moved to the museum grounds. The buildings were filled with almost all American antiques and include folk art, carriages, sleighs, pewter, furniture, dolls houses, toys, needlework, farm implements, early wrought iron kitchen and other utensils and much, much more.
Her vision and artistic touch brought the collecting and preservation of American folk art and antiques to the attention of other wealthy and influential people. We have Electra Havemeyer Webb to thank for preserving a staggering quantity and quality of our collective American history.
Search for folk art, pewter, quilts, iron, toys, furniture and more on Dig Antiques.
References:
- A Discoverer of Folk Art, Wendy Moonan, The New York Times, January 3, 2003.
- Country Home of Electra Havemeyer Webb, The Brick House, Randall Decoteau, New England Antiques Journal, July 2004.
- Museum Story, Shelburne Museum Website.
- Electra Havemeyer Webb, Wikipedia.
- The Influences Behind the Shelburne Museum, The Ongoing Study of the Shelburne Museum by the Students of Saint Michaels College.
|
