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To Collect in Earnest: The Life and Work of Electra Havemeyer Webb
Story of the development of Vermont's Shelburne Museum.
- GenresNonfiction
62 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 30, 2012
This is a wonderful book if you've been to the Shelburne Museum and couldn't figure out what hoarder made this happen. Then, I highly recommend, read it out loud to your companion making up voices for all of the quotes. They just don't make blue bloods like this anymore. Or do they???
September 25, 2012
I just spent two days (total of twelve hours) at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, VT. The outdoor museum is made up of houses and other buildings that have been moved to the site....over the last 65 years. It houses an incredible collection of Americana. I was hungry for more information about Electra Havemeyer Webb, the woman who created this museum. This 62 oage book "To Collect in Earnest" filled in the spaces. Electra Webb was an amazing woman, whom I greatly admire. I recommend this book to visitors of the museum. I am very glad that I purchased it.
May 6, 2012
I'm starting a guide position at the awesome Shelburne Museum, and this is the first of many required reading materials. Basic bio material with photos and lots of quotations. Good overview of her collecting life.
October 26, 2021
I just finished “To Collect in Earnest: The Life and Work of Electra Havemeyer Webb” by Lauren B. Hewes and Celia Y. Oliver.
After my wife and I recently visited the Shelburne Museum in Vermont, I decided to learn more about the benefactress, Electra Webb.
Not many people can create museums out of whole cloth themselves, complete with 28 buildings plus a steamboat on 45 acres. You tend to know the names of people who do things like that. But I had never heard of Electra Webb. Chances are, neither have you. So, I decided to find a book about her to learn more.
My local library had nothing about her, but I was able to identify and request a book about her through Interlibrary Loan. The book came to me on loan from the library of Colby College in Waterville, Maine. When the librarian handed me the book, I realized the book was not much more than a pamphlet. It took only about 30 minutes to read.
Now, you probably won’t read this book. It would be challenging to find and you have limited interest in rich old ladies. But if you visit Vermont, you might go to the Shelburne Museum. And I think the museum is worth a few hours of your time.
Electra was born to Louisine and Henry Havemeyer in 1888. Henry was the founder of the American Sugar Refining Company, which was worth about $25 million. That’s about $745 million in today’s dollars. The Havemeyers were quite wealthy, going on three-month vacations to Europe. When Henry died, Electra was only 18. But when the estate settled, she got a sizable share of that $25 million. How much exactly wasn’t stated. But if it was $5m, that would be about $149 million in today’s dollars. I could get buy comfortable on that.
A few years after her father’s death, Electra went on to marry James Watson Webb II. The Webb family were wealthy in their own right, descended from the Vanderbilt family. For example, the Webb estate had its own private golf course. The Webb family also had a 50,000-acre family hunting “camp” in the Adirondacks. James Webb became an elite polo player – it’s unclear to me if that was a paid position, or if he was wealthy enough that pay didn’t matter. James and Electra had five children.
As a matron of society, Electra had not much to do except run the household (presumably with plenty of servants) and find hobbies. In addition to hunting, she took up collecting, just for the sake of collecting things. (I think today we would call it “hoarding” but with *lots* of money available to support the habit.) Electra began serious collecting in the 1920s, focusing on American folk art. Her mother was dismissive of this avenue of collecting, commenting that Electra should be collecting Rembrandts and Monets.
Electra and James began the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, VT around 1947, using the horse carriage collection of James’ recently deceased father as a starting point and adding in some of her own collection – pulling stuff from the attic, quite literally. Other collectors contributed items as well, sometimes in their wills. The museum opened to the public in 1952.
Building the museum often included buying or receiving donations of buildings and other structures (e.g., a covered bridge) from elsewhere and moving them to Shelburne, where they now reside on 45 acres. Electra also purchased a steamboat that had operated on Lake Champlain and had it moved two miles overland to the museum property. I wish I knew how much that whole operation costs.
When Electra died in 1960, her children decided to honor her by reconstructing her Park Avenue apartment in a building on the museum property. If the dimensions of the replica apartment are accurate, then the apartment was bigger than my house.
I do recommend the museum if you’re ever in the area.
After my wife and I recently visited the Shelburne Museum in Vermont, I decided to learn more about the benefactress, Electra Webb.
Not many people can create museums out of whole cloth themselves, complete with 28 buildings plus a steamboat on 45 acres. You tend to know the names of people who do things like that. But I had never heard of Electra Webb. Chances are, neither have you. So, I decided to find a book about her to learn more.
My local library had nothing about her, but I was able to identify and request a book about her through Interlibrary Loan. The book came to me on loan from the library of Colby College in Waterville, Maine. When the librarian handed me the book, I realized the book was not much more than a pamphlet. It took only about 30 minutes to read.
Now, you probably won’t read this book. It would be challenging to find and you have limited interest in rich old ladies. But if you visit Vermont, you might go to the Shelburne Museum. And I think the museum is worth a few hours of your time.
Electra was born to Louisine and Henry Havemeyer in 1888. Henry was the founder of the American Sugar Refining Company, which was worth about $25 million. That’s about $745 million in today’s dollars. The Havemeyers were quite wealthy, going on three-month vacations to Europe. When Henry died, Electra was only 18. But when the estate settled, she got a sizable share of that $25 million. How much exactly wasn’t stated. But if it was $5m, that would be about $149 million in today’s dollars. I could get buy comfortable on that.
A few years after her father’s death, Electra went on to marry James Watson Webb II. The Webb family were wealthy in their own right, descended from the Vanderbilt family. For example, the Webb estate had its own private golf course. The Webb family also had a 50,000-acre family hunting “camp” in the Adirondacks. James Webb became an elite polo player – it’s unclear to me if that was a paid position, or if he was wealthy enough that pay didn’t matter. James and Electra had five children.
As a matron of society, Electra had not much to do except run the household (presumably with plenty of servants) and find hobbies. In addition to hunting, she took up collecting, just for the sake of collecting things. (I think today we would call it “hoarding” but with *lots* of money available to support the habit.) Electra began serious collecting in the 1920s, focusing on American folk art. Her mother was dismissive of this avenue of collecting, commenting that Electra should be collecting Rembrandts and Monets.
Electra and James began the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, VT around 1947, using the horse carriage collection of James’ recently deceased father as a starting point and adding in some of her own collection – pulling stuff from the attic, quite literally. Other collectors contributed items as well, sometimes in their wills. The museum opened to the public in 1952.
Building the museum often included buying or receiving donations of buildings and other structures (e.g., a covered bridge) from elsewhere and moving them to Shelburne, where they now reside on 45 acres. Electra also purchased a steamboat that had operated on Lake Champlain and had it moved two miles overland to the museum property. I wish I knew how much that whole operation costs.
When Electra died in 1960, her children decided to honor her by reconstructing her Park Avenue apartment in a building on the museum property. If the dimensions of the replica apartment are accurate, then the apartment was bigger than my house.
I do recommend the museum if you’re ever in the area.
August 21, 2023
I recently had the opportunity to go to the Shelburne Museum (and stay in the Inn) for a couple of days. It is an extraordinary opportunity to ignite your historical imagination, unfettered by the modern digital world, which is so confining, often, when it was supposed to be liberating. Remember the World Wide Web and its initial promise? Anyway, the founder of this feast for the senses, Electra Webb, turns out to have been some sort of great aunt of mine, or great-great aunt, and that makes this little book particularly affecting. We all owe Electra Webb a great debt of gratitude. She might have chosen to go to balls and charity events and on expensive vacations around the world. Instead, she chose to dedicate her life to keep pre-industrial American history alive in artifacts and treasures from another era. For me, it was a beautiful trip into our past, and a reminder that we were once a much more resourceful and practical people.
May 26, 2024
It wasn't the most interesting book as a stand alone, but if you're at all familiar with the history of the Shelburne Museum it might be worth a read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews