Spirit of America flanked by other spirits, Historic Celebration
and Pageant, New Bern, June 11, 1929.
At critical moments in American history, artisans and craftsmen collectively shaped our material world by looking at the past to interpret the present. Through their makers, furniture, silver, paintings and prints, ceramics, buildings, gardens and landscapes, all responded to the popular imagination about the idealized world at our nation’s founding.
The Colonial Revival, fashionable in the latter nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, thus provides a rich topic for discussion at the 41st Annual Tryon Palace Decorative Arts Symposium, linking to the 50th anniversary of the reconstruction of the Palace. During this two-day conference, historians and scholars look through objects to assess the Colonial world that inspired them and to understand the reverberations of that early American experience into our own time.
Friday, March 20
1:00-5:00 pm
Registration ~ Commission House, 610 Pollock Street
Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens is open for guided tours on the regular schedule.
Your name badge serves as your admission ticket.
4:30 pm
Welcome and introductions
Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens Auditorium
Opening lecture: Creating the American Past: Colonial Revival Architecture, Past, Present, Future
~ Richard Guy Wilson, Commonwealth Professor Architectural History,
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia.
5:45 pm
Trolley service will be provided for the evening events leaving from the George Street side of the Commission House.
Enjoy tours of two private collections of art and antiques presented in a contemporary setting on New Bern’s two rivers:
6:00 pm
Buffet dinner at the home of Dr. James B. Congleton III.
Located on the Neuse River, Dr. Congleton’s home features a wonderful sculpture garden and interior displays of the work of glass artists, painters, metal artists along with antique furnishings. The buffet dinner will be served in the Conservatory.
7:30 pm
Dessert at the home of Dr. and Mrs. J. Kenneth Chance.
Located on the Trent River at the mouth of Wilson Creek, the home of Dr. and Mrs. Chance features a wonderful collection of paintings, drawings and sculpture including works by many important North Carolina artists.
8:45 pm
Trolley service returns to the Commission House, George Street side.
Photos from the 2007 Decorative Arts Symposium
Saturday, March 21
8:00 am
Continental Breakfast ~ Commission House
9:00 am
Updating the Palace for a New Century while
Preserving Its
18th and 20th Century Past ~ Kay Williams, Director,
Tryon Palace Historic Site & Gardens
9:15 am
Lecture: Inventing Antiques: The American Antiques Market and the Construction of a National Heritage
~ Briann G. Greenfield, Associate Professor and Public History Program Coordinator, Central Connecticut State University,
New Britain, Connecticut
10: 15 am
Refreshments ~ Commission House
10:45 am
Lecture: A Lover of Old China: Edward Lamson Henry’s Historical Interiors
~ Amy Kurtz Lansing, Curator, Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut
12:00 noon
Lunch on your own [Option: Lunch in one of New Bern’s historic homes,
$18 per person additional fee. Trolley transportation available.]
1:30 pm
Program in Interior Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro
~ Jo R. Leimenstoll, Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Interior Architecture, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina
1:45 pm
Lecture: Re-stocking the Colonial China Cupboard to Suit Modern Taste
~ Ellen Paul Denker, Museum Consultant and Independent Scholar,
Burnsville,
North Carolina
2:45 pm
Break
3:00 – 4:00 pm
3:00 – 4:30 pm
Student presentation ~ Commission House
Discussion of decorative artifacts and trends with new scholars
Movie: “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House” (1948) Starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas.
4:45 pm
50th Anniversary special exhibit: “Hats Off to the
Dreamers: Rebuilding and Furnishing Tryon Palace” ~ Nancy M. Gray, Exhibits Designer, Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens
5:00 pm
Private tour of the 50th Anniversary Exhibit, Palace 2nd floor galleries
5:45 pm
Party 1950’s style with canapés, dips, drinks and a dose of Sinatra: 50th Anniversary Reception, Hats & Gloves optional, Commission House
7:15 pm
Dinner on your own
[Option: Dinner in one of New Bern’s historic homes, organized by the New Bern Preservation Foundation.
$45.00 per person additional fee. Seating is limited; deadline for reservations is March 13, 2009]
Photos from the 2007 Decorative Arts Symposium
Sunday, March 22
9:00 am
Lecture: Following in the Footsteps of Paul Revere: Colonial Revival Silver
~ Gerald W. R. Ward, The Katherine Lane Weems Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture, Art of the Americas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
10:00 am
Break
10:30 am
Lecture: The Colonial Revival Garden ~ Gordon Chappell, Director, Landscape Design, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia
11:30 am
Remarks: Reverberation and Conjecture: The Borrowings Continue
~ Patrick Lee Lucas, Associate Professor, Department of Interior Architecture,
University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina
12:00 noon
Closing remarks and Adjournment: Kay Williams
1:00-4:00 pm
Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens is open for guided tours on the regular schedule.
Comfort Suites, River Front
(A block of rooms has been reserved for the Symposium)
(252) 636-0022, 1-800-228-5150
