Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Abigail Greene Aldrich was born in Providence, Rhode Island, as the fourth child of Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich and Abigail Pearce Truman Chapman. The majority of her childhood was divided between Providence and Warwick Neck (in Rhode Island), and Washington, D.C. Owing to her father's prominence as a congressman, Rockefeller was introduced at an early age to elevated political circles. The figures that her parents entertained included Senator Eugene Hale, Senator William P. Frye, General Ambrose Burnside, and Elizabeth Bacon Custer. Her early education came at the hands of Quaker governesses. From 1891 to 1893, she was enrolled at Miss Abbott's School for Young Ladies in Providence, Rhode Island. There she studied English composition and literature, French, German, art history, ancient history, gymnastics, and dancing. In November 1893 she made her social debut at her coming-out party, which sparked her lifelong love of social events. On June 30, 1894, on a trip fostered by her father, Rockefeller sailed to Liverpool, beginning a lifetime of extensive European and later Asian travel. Her initial four-month sojourn included stops in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and France. This and future trips featured visits to numerous art galleries, informing her future discernment as an art collector. == Marriage to John D. Rockefeller Jr. ==

In late 1894, she met John Davison Rockefeller Jr., the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John Davison Rockefeller Sr. and schoolteacher Laura Celestia "Cettie" Spelman, at a friend's house in Providence. Their long courtship is documented in her engagement books, which were used to formally detail her meetings with potential suitors. In early 1895, they began to share walks together on Sunday afternoons. These meetings progressed further until late August 1901, when they became engaged. They married on October 9, 1901, in the major society wedding of the Gilded Age, in front of around a thousand of the elite personages of the time, at her father's summer home, "Indian Oaks", in Warwick Neck, Kent County, Rhode Island. The couple settled in at 13 West 54th Street in Manhattan from 1901 until 1913, when her husband finished constructing a nine-story mansion at 10 West 54th Street, the largest in New York City at the time. They resided at "Number 10" until 1938 when they moved to a 40-room triplex apartment at 740 Park Avenue. Both of them also owned properties in Pocantico Hills, New York, Seal Harbor, Maine, and Williamsburg, Virginia. They became the parents of six children: Abby Rockefeller Mauzé, John D. Rockefeller III, Nelson Rockefeller, Laurance Rockefeller, Winthrop Rockefeller, and David Rockefeller. ==Death==

Abby Rockefeller suffered a heart attack and died on April 5, 1948, at the Rockefeller family home at 740 Park Avenue in New York City, at the age of 73. She was cremated and her ashes were spread at a private burial place in Pocantico Hills, New York. A memorial service was held for her at the Riverside Church. Her will was filed for probate on April 22, 1948, and her gross estate was appraised at $1,156,269. As per her final wishes, four major works were bequeathed to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA): Lady With a Parasol and Seated Woman, both by Georges Seurat; Street at Saintes-Maries and Corridor at Saint-Remy by Vincent van Gogh. She left her Oriental miniatures to the Fogg Museum. Her residuary estate of $850,848, minus estate taxes of $250,000, was donated to the MoMA. A number of dedications were made in her honor and in remembrance of her commitment as an art collector. One such was the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Print Room at the MoMA, which with her gift of sixteen hundred prints was opened on May 15, 1949. The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center was opened in 1957 in Colonial Williamsburg to house her collection of folk art. A number of prominent figures paid homage to Rockefeller after her death. Artist Henri Matisse contributed a stained glass window for the Union Church in Pocantico Hills. In the spring of 1954, at eighty-four years old, the then-bedridden Matisse was asked to design a stained glass window for the Union Church as a memorial to Rockefeller. He regretfully refused the commission because his deteriorating health would prevent him from visiting and studying the location. After Nelson Rockefeller sent him a series of photographs of the location, Matisse changed his mind and began to work on the project. On November 1, 1954, he wrote that he had happily completed the work, and he died two days later. ==Patronage of modern art and contributions to the Museum of Modern Art==

Patron of modern art Abby Rockefeller began collecting paintings, watercolors, and drawings by a number of contemporary American artists in 1925, as well as a number of European modernists: Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. She became a prominent patron of modern art. Co-founder of Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Lillie P. Bliss, Mary Quinn Sullivan, and Rockefeller joined to conceptualize what is now known as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Quickly, they gathered the support of other prominent figures including: Anson Goodyear, Murray Crane, and Paul J. Sachs. The founding board consisted of seven members, with Goodyear as the president. The first quarters for the museum were rented at 730 Fifth Avenue in New York and Alfred H. Barr Jr. was appointed as the museum's first director. Since her husband only gave her a relatively small allowance, she could not solely rely on him to finance the new museum. His financial support was especially limited due to his personal distaste for modern art. Thus, financing for the museum and acquisition of paintings came from Rockefeller's solicitation of the public, corporations, and prominent New York residents. == Patronage of folk art and contributions to Abby Aldrich Museum of Folk Art ==

Patron of folk art In 1929, Rockefeller became an early customer of the Downtown Gallery, run by art dealer, Edith Halpert. Halpert was selling 19th-century pictures and weathervanes that had been gathered from New England. The timing was perfect for Rockefeller because she and her husband has just began contributing to restoration works at what is now known as Colonial Williamsburg. Her years of collecting spanned from the late 1920s to 1942. Her collection included: paintings, weathervanes, shop signs, pottery, quilts, and other decorative household items. Some of her favorite types of items in her collection were: children's portraits and student art, in the form of calligraphy, memorials, and theorems. Of the 175 objects on display, 174 of the objects belonged to Rockefeller, with the remaining single object belonging to Henry Cahill. Development of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum In 1934, Rockefeller began to lend parts of her collection for permanent display in the Ludwell-Paradis House in Colonial Williamsburg. The exhibits were installed mostly under the guidance of Edith Halpert and opened to the public in 1935, remaining open until January 1956. Other pieces were hung in Colonial Williamsburg in neighboring exhibition buildings or operating taverns, blending in with the existing decor. In 1939, fifty-four pieces of the folk art collection were donated to the Museum of Modern Art. In 1954, six years after Abby Rockefeller's death, the March edition of Antiques magazine published an announcement that a new museum would house the Rockefeller folk art collection. John D. Rockefeller Jr. provided the funds for construction of the project and the purchase of new objects. This endowment was so large that the museum was able to acquire over a hundred new objects in its first year. == Philanthropy ==

Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s wedding gift to Abby was a sum of money, which she promptly donated to the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) of Providence in Rhode Island. Later, she was active in the YWCA of New York. and, when in town, resided at Bassett Hall, one of the 88 original surviving buildings included in Godwin's restoration. The result was Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum which has become one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. One of the museums within the complex, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, is named in her honor. ==See also==