Sponsored by
This event is also being made possible with the support of:
This event is also being made possible with the support of:
497 Broadway
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
One of many events of the Saratoga 150 Festival  |
Sunday, July 7, 2013
5:30-9:00
at the
Canfield Casino
5:30-9:00
at the
Canfield Casino
Saratoga Springs, NY
An Evening with a Descendent of
U.S. Grant:
Ulysses Grant Dietz
(Great-Great Grandson)
A Fundraiser for the
Grant Cottage State Historic Site
U.S. Grant:
Ulysses Grant Dietz
(Great-Great Grandson)
A Fundraiser for the
Grant Cottage State Historic Site
Guest Speaker:
Ulysses Grant Dietz
(U.S. Grant's Great-Great Grandson)
Senior Curator,
Decorative Arts Department
The Newark Museum
Ulysses Grant Dietz
(U.S. Grant's Great-Great Grandson)
Senior Curator,
Decorative Arts Department
The Newark Museum
Cash Bar
Silent Auction
Buffet Dinner
(Provided by Lily and the Rose)
Music by:
Sonny and Pearly
Silent Auction
Buffet Dinner
(Provided by Lily and the Rose)
Music by:
Sonny and Pearly
-- Tickets will be on sale Spring 2013 --
Our Honorary Co-chairs:
Sam & Phyllis Aldrich
Sam is the Former Commissioner of NYS Parks
Alane Ball-Chinian
Saratoga-Capital Region Director for the
New York State Office of Parks,
Recreation and Historic Preservation
Sam & Phyllis Aldrich
Sam is the Former Commissioner of NYS Parks
Alane Ball-Chinian
Saratoga-Capital Region Director for the
New York State Office of Parks,
Recreation and Historic Preservation
About Dietz's Talk:
Dietz's talk entitled, "Dream House: The White House as an American Home" parallels the book he published in 2009 with Sam Watters, focusing on how the president's house was decorated and furnished over time, and how the changes made, initially by presidents and then by first ladies, shifted over time as the concept of how the president should live changed.
The White House was the largest residence in America until about 1870, and it was always a challenge for presidential familites to live in it comfortably.
The early presidents did the decorating themselves, in the tradition of the great English country house. With Andrew Jackson, the house became attached to the domestic ideal of the villa - in spite of its vast size - its interiors filled with store-bought finery. Trying to dress the huge rooms in the White House in the garb of a prosperous middle-class villa would be a challenge for the first ladies, starting with Sarah Polk, right through the Civil War.
Julia Grant was the first lady who took the White House from the department store "villa" ideal to the custom-made "Mansion" ideal, doing so in the wake of the rise of the millionaire industrialist after the Civil War. She was the first president's wife who realized that the White House was a power house--that it should be decorated to equal the mansions of the newly-rich in America's cities.
The story extends beyond the Gilded Age, and even if it goes past the direct interest at Grant Cottage, I think putting Julia's years in the White House in context will be interesting to everyone there.
About Ulysses Grant Dietz
Ulysses Grant Dietz has been the curator of Decorative Arts at The Newark Museum since 1980, and was appointed Senior Curator in 2007. He received his BA in French from Yale University in 1977, and his MA in Early American Culture from the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in 1980.
With a specialty in American material culture and decorative arts, Mr. Dietz has been the curator of over 100 exhibitions covering all aspects of the decorative arts from colonial to contemporary. He is particularly proud of his work on the Museum’s 1885 Ballantine House, named a National Historic Landmark in 1985. The Ballantine House was transformed and reinterpreted between 1992 and 1994, with a groundbreaking installation called House & Home. In 1997 Mr. Dietz was the chief curator for The Glitter & The Gold: Fashioning America’s Jewelry, the first-ever exhibition and book on the history of Newark’s jewelry industry, which dominated American jewelry making for nearly a century. In 2003, accompanying an exhibition of the same name, he wrote Great Pots: Contemporary Ceramics from Function to Fantasy. In that same year he was also co-curator and co-author of the exhibition and book on Doris Duke’s jewelry collection: Gems from the East and the West, that traveled to Newport, Rhode Island and Honolulu, Hawaii before the Duke collection was sold at auction. In 2006 he mounted an exhibition entitled Objects of Desire, 500 Years of Jewelry from the Newark Museum’s permanent collection. In 2009, for the Museum’s 100th anniversary, he produced Masterpieces of Art Pottery, 1880-1930 and its companion catalogue, also drawn from the Museum’s historic ceramics collection.
Mr. Dietz has also published numerous articles on decorative arts, drawn from the Newark Museum’s nationally-known collections of art pottery, studio ceramics, silver, jewelry and nineteenth-century furniture. His most recent publications are Masterpieces of Art Pottery, 1880-1930, from the Newark Museum in 2009, and Dream House: The White House as an American Home, released in September 2009 by Acanthus Press in New York.
Dietz's talk entitled, "Dream House: The White House as an American Home" parallels the book he published in 2009 with Sam Watters, focusing on how the president's house was decorated and furnished over time, and how the changes made, initially by presidents and then by first ladies, shifted over time as the concept of how the president should live changed.
The White House was the largest residence in America until about 1870, and it was always a challenge for presidential familites to live in it comfortably.
The early presidents did the decorating themselves, in the tradition of the great English country house. With Andrew Jackson, the house became attached to the domestic ideal of the villa - in spite of its vast size - its interiors filled with store-bought finery. Trying to dress the huge rooms in the White House in the garb of a prosperous middle-class villa would be a challenge for the first ladies, starting with Sarah Polk, right through the Civil War.
Julia Grant was the first lady who took the White House from the department store "villa" ideal to the custom-made "Mansion" ideal, doing so in the wake of the rise of the millionaire industrialist after the Civil War. She was the first president's wife who realized that the White House was a power house--that it should be decorated to equal the mansions of the newly-rich in America's cities.
The story extends beyond the Gilded Age, and even if it goes past the direct interest at Grant Cottage, I think putting Julia's years in the White House in context will be interesting to everyone there.
About Ulysses Grant Dietz
Ulysses Grant Dietz has been the curator of Decorative Arts at The Newark Museum since 1980, and was appointed Senior Curator in 2007. He received his BA in French from Yale University in 1977, and his MA in Early American Culture from the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in 1980.
With a specialty in American material culture and decorative arts, Mr. Dietz has been the curator of over 100 exhibitions covering all aspects of the decorative arts from colonial to contemporary. He is particularly proud of his work on the Museum’s 1885 Ballantine House, named a National Historic Landmark in 1985. The Ballantine House was transformed and reinterpreted between 1992 and 1994, with a groundbreaking installation called House & Home. In 1997 Mr. Dietz was the chief curator for The Glitter & The Gold: Fashioning America’s Jewelry, the first-ever exhibition and book on the history of Newark’s jewelry industry, which dominated American jewelry making for nearly a century. In 2003, accompanying an exhibition of the same name, he wrote Great Pots: Contemporary Ceramics from Function to Fantasy. In that same year he was also co-curator and co-author of the exhibition and book on Doris Duke’s jewelry collection: Gems from the East and the West, that traveled to Newport, Rhode Island and Honolulu, Hawaii before the Duke collection was sold at auction. In 2006 he mounted an exhibition entitled Objects of Desire, 500 Years of Jewelry from the Newark Museum’s permanent collection. In 2009, for the Museum’s 100th anniversary, he produced Masterpieces of Art Pottery, 1880-1930 and its companion catalogue, also drawn from the Museum’s historic ceramics collection.
Mr. Dietz has also published numerous articles on decorative arts, drawn from the Newark Museum’s nationally-known collections of art pottery, studio ceramics, silver, jewelry and nineteenth-century furniture. His most recent publications are Masterpieces of Art Pottery, 1880-1930, from the Newark Museum in 2009, and Dream House: The White House as an American Home, released in September 2009 by Acanthus Press in New York.