August 2007

QHS Manuscripts Inspire N-YHS Exhibition
"They brought out two books [letterbooks] and several boxes, all letters and I think the first thing I read was about how she [Clara Driscoll] had designed a daffodil lamp. And I started squealing. At the top it said something like 'Noon at Tiffany's,' so it was during her lunch hour. What do you do with something like that?"

These words were uttered by Nina Gray when recalling her first visit to QHS in 2005. What Nina did was to co-curate an exhibition with Martin Eidelberg, Professor Emeritus of Art History at Rutgers University and Margaret K. Hofer, New York Historical Society Curator of Decorative Arts entitled, New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls based upon these spectacular letters and illustrated by lamps in the NYHS Tiffany collection designed by Clara Driscoll.

"I think Tiffany would have died if word had gotten out that Driscoll designed some of his most famous lamps" said Eidelberg. Word is now out! At QHS we are receiving numerous scholarly inquiries concerning these letters and the collection that contains them, the Wolcott Family Papers. Inquirers vary widely in the nature of their interests-from labor historians to women's history scholars to museum curators.

New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls closed on July 22, 2007. However it is hitting the road as a traveling exhibition. As soon as dates and locations are available they will be announced on this website. A film about Clara Driscoll and her Tiffany Girls is now in production; again, as soon as it is finished details about screenings, videos, etc will be announced on this website.