A Tiffany Jewel: The Morse Museum
Housing Hundreds Of Tiffany Works, Including Stained Glass, Pottery, Paintings, Architectural Details, Mosaics, Jewelry And More
Plenty of people are surprised to discover that the world’s foremost museum of masterworks by the famed Louis Comfort Tiffany is located in Winter Park, a small college town just outside of Orlando, Florida. The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art houses hundreds of Tiffany works, not just the stained glass the master is known for, but pottery, paintings, architectural details, mosaics, jewelry and much more.
“This is definitely the preeminent collection of Tiffany,” Jennifer Thalheimer, the museum’s curator and collection manager, tells The Buzz. “Many experts have recognized the Morse as the best place in the world to see a comprehensive exhibit of Tiffany’s works.”
Thalheimer says many people are surprised to discover that Tiffany did so many other things beyond glass. “He worked in many different materials,” she says. “From the 1860s to the 1930s, more than 70 years, Tiffany had a huge impact on every aspect of the art world.”
But how did this magnificent collection end up in central Florida? The museum’s director, Laurence Ruggiero, traces the history back to an exhibition mounted by the Morse Gallery of Art at Rollins College in 1955. “It was the first solo exhibition of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s work in many years,” he explains. “Hugh McKean, the museum’s director, and husband of its founder, Jeannette McKean, had studied with Tiffany years before at Laurelton Hall, the Tiffany estate on Long Island. No one had done a Tiffany show for 30 years, so it got a lot of attention.”
Just two years later, Laurelton Hall burned. Intended by Tiffany to be a museum and art school that would continue after his death in 1933, the property contained many of the masterpieces created by Tiffany during his career. Shortly after the devastating fire, the McKeans received a letter from one of Tiffany’s daughters, encouraging them to rescue the art that remained at Laurelton Hall.
“The McKeans traveled to New York and found the salvage teams already at work on the ruins,” Ruggiero says. “Jeannette turned to Hugh and said, ‘We have to save whatever we can.’ They got the collection at the last moment you could get Tiffany works without spending a fortune, because about that same time Tiffany was rediscovered and the auction houses caught on.”
Prices soared. By 1994, when Barbra Streisand put her collection up for auction, her Tiffany cobweb lamp sold for nearly $750,000. Ruggiero recalls Hugh McKean remarking that he only paid $750 for his. Today, one of the Morse galleries displays more than two dozen examples of iconic Tiffany lamps.
The Morse, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2017, came into existence well before the Laurelton Hall fire. Jeannette Genius founded the gallery in 1942 on the campus of Rollins College, naming it for her late grandfather. After her marriage to Hugh McKean, the couple concentrated their efforts on bringing art into the lives of the people of the Winter Park community, Ruggiero says. “They wanted to make art an important part of daily life.”
The McKeans concentrated on American art from the Civil War to the Great War. “They collected art pottery from most of the great potters of the period, and some fine works by American painters, as well as lots of decorative art objects from the Arts and Crafts movement,” Ruggiero says. “The aim was to provide visitors with a total immersion in American art, to let them step into a world where everything is beautiful.”
The holdings of the Morse Museum are vast and include many items still in storage. “Mr. McKean used to say we have two distinct collections,” Larry Ruggiero recalls. “We have the masters of American art, but we’ve also got neon signs from Florida businesses, and a textile collection that includes clothing dating back to the 1850s. We could have an entire separate building filled with our Florida collection.”
It was in those storage rooms that the Morse found the material for its recent expansions. The museum left the Rollins Campus in 1977 for a larger building in downtown Winter Park. Since then, the museum has added several major exhibit halls displaying the most important surviving examples of Tiffany’s art.
“We realized we had virtually all the parts of the chapel that Tiffany created in 1893 for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago,” Ruggiero says. The restored chapel, complete with mosaic altar, columns and baptismal fount, leaded glass windows and its revolutionary-in-1893 electric chandelier, opened at the Morse in 1999, fulfilling a long-held dream of the McKeans.
In 2011, the Morse debuted a new wing that recreates many of the original rooms at Laurelton Hall, including the famous Daffodil Terrace, the dining room with stained glass wisteria transoms, and the living room with the Four Seasons panels and the original “Feeding the Flamingos” window. Some of Tiffany’s best known works are on display as well as historic photos recounting their rescue.
“These works all came from Tiffany’s home,” Jennifer Thalheimer. “These were his favorites, a collection that he personally curated.”
For the 75th anniversary celebration, Thalheimer says, the Morse Museum unveiled a new exhibit highlighting more than 60 objects from the McKean collection, as well an a new installation of American and European Art Nouveau furniture, jewelry, ceramics, and art glass. “Tiffany exhibited at the original Art Nouveau gallery in Paris,” she says. “He helped define the style.”
Visitors to the Morse also enjoy free access to a new cell phone tour that gives background details on the collection highlights. “Our first priority is enhancing the lives of our visitors,” says Larry Ruggiero. “That’s why we keep the admission low, so we can reach as many people as possible. It’s quite a bargain compared to Disney World, just down the road.”
The Morse Museum, not far from the Kingdom of the Mouse, offers a unique and serene excursion into a lifestyle filled with art. Travellers looking for culture rather than cartoons in Central Florida can immerse themselves in the beautiful world of Louis Comfort Tiffany and the McKeans.
Renee Wright
A graduate of Franconia College in Social Psychology, Renee has worked as Travel Editor for Charlotte Magazine and has written three travel guidebooks for Countryman Press among other writing assignments. She enjoys food and camping.
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