Mon 4/15 @ 6:30PM
Back in the days of the wealthy industrialists — an earlier generation of today’s billionaires — there was a sense of civic responsibility, despite the huge wealth disparity that eventually led to reforms such as child labor laws, the first progressive income tax and social security, as well as to the Great Depression of the 30s. That philanthropy in the early 20th century led to many of the great cultural institutions were enjoy today including the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Similar institutions flourished in other cities.
One of those was Boston, where Isabella Stewart Gardner, who was born into wealth in New York and married into it when she wed a rich Bostonite. She and her husband became avid European travelers and art collectors. Their collection outgrew their home, so Gardner, following the death of her husband, purchased land, hired an architect and became intimately involved in the design and the installation of the art in what became the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. It opens in 1903 and is still one of Boston’s premiere cultural treasures.
The story is told in detail in Natalie Dykstra’s new book Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Dykstra will be at the Hudson Library to talk about the book and its subject. It’s free and open to all but you must register here. or call 330-653-6658 x1010. The book will be available at the event for purchase and signing courtesy of Hudson’s Learned Owl Book Shop.
96 Library Street, Hudson, OH 44236