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Exhibition Reviews
"In Service and Beyond: Domestic Work and Life in a Gilded Age Mansion." Maymont House Museum, 1700 Hampton St., Richmond, VA 23220.
Permanent exhibition, opened summer 2005. Tu-Su 12–5, closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. Free, $4 donation suggested. 3,000 sq. ft. Elizabeth O'Leary, guest curator (for both permanent and traveling versions); Barbara G. Carson, Norrice Jones, Tara Hunter, Tracey M. Weis, consultants; Dale Wheary, director of historical collections and programs; Dotty Robinson, collections manager and project restoration manager; Fred Murray, associate executive director; Joseph Dye Lahendro, restoration architect; 1717 Design Group, exhibition designers.
From Morning to Night: Domestic Service in Maymont House and the Gilded Age South. By Elizabeth O'Leary. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2003. 192 pp. $27.95, ISBN 0-8139-2160-0.)
Internet: text, select bibliography, virtual visitor center <www.maymont.org/estate/service.asp> (March 6, 2006).
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"From Morning to Night: Domestic Service in the Gilded Age South." Matagorda County Museum, Bay City, TX 77414. Traveling exhibition. Jan. 30–April 9, 2006.
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| Since opening to the public as a museum and park in 1925, Maymont has long been a favorite destination for Richmonders seeking a peaceful respite from the bustling city. The 100-acre park, which boasts an arboretum, formal gardens, petting farm, and 40-acre wildlife park, was originally the suburban estate of the Gilded Age entrepreneur James Dooley and his wife, Sally May. The centerpiece of the estate is the Maymont House Museum, the Dooleys' 1893 Romanesque-style mansion, which is filled with many of the original opulent furnishings collected by the couple during the three decades when they lived in the house. But, as at many southern house museums, the story told at Maymont for most of its history was not the story of all of its occupants. Missing from the tour narrative was any discussion of the dozens of men and women who kept Maymont House running smoothly and made possible the Dooleys' lavish life-style. The new permanent installation, "In Service and Beyond: Domestic Work and Life in a Gilded Age Mansion," addresses this imbalance by vividly bringing to life the world of the African American men and women employed by the Dooleys between 1893 and 1925. |
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The result of five years of intensive study and restoration, "In Service and Beyond" is centered around eight restored and furnished service spaces, including the butler's pantry on the ground floor and the butler's bedroom, cold pantry, kitchen, kitchen pantry, laundry, maids' bedroom, and wine cellar in the basement. The room settings are meticulously detailed and very realistic—in the case of the maids' room, for example, it appears as if one of the young maids has just finished her ironing and left the room, her street clothes hanging on a peg on the wall, ready for wear at the end of a long workday. Illustrative images, quotations, letters, recipes, songs, and prescriptive literature from the period are displayed in each room. They are supplemented in many rooms by listening stations with audio excerpts from oral history interviews with the descendants of Dooley employees, period songs, diaries, and other relevant materials. |
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The eight period rooms are placed in a historical context by didactic panels that explore the history of domestic service in the United States in almost exhaustive detail. These might, perhaps, have been better pared down to spare visitors the discomfort of trying to read while standing on hard concrete floors, but they provide an excellent and informed introduction to the topic and are the basis for the traveling, panel version of the exhibit. The panels are supplemented by simple but effective lift-up interactives. A representative panel invites visitors to guess how much staff time was required for various Dooley family activities such as inviting four friends over for tea. The answer? An astounding 14 hours and 45 minutes divided among the first and second butlers, cook, maids, and laundress. Five short on-demand videos introduce the Dooleys, their house, and both the positive and negative aspects of life in Gilded Age society. |
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