The Hegeler Carus Mansion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ten drawings from the Hegeler Carus Mansion House Museum collection will be displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City as part of an exhibit on gilded age furniture from December 15, 2015 through May 1, 2016.

Original George A. Schastey drawing newly

preserved by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

On display in the American Wing through May 2016.

The drawings are part of the original architectural and design plans for the Hegeler Carus Mansion and date from between 1874 when construction began on the Mansion to 1876, when the Hegeler family moved into the home. 

The house museum’s collection includes architectural plans by William W. Boyington, interior and furniture design drawings by William August Fiedler, and textile and furniture design drawings by George Schastey, as well as furniture and artifacts that belonged to three generations of the Hegeler and Carus families that lived in the Mansion from 1876 until 2004. 

“It is truly rare and wonderful that these plans and drawings have survived for over 140 years.” said Kelly Klobucher, Executive Director of the Hegeler Carus Foundation, which operates the Mansion as a house museum. “We are fortunate that the family stored the drawings in the attic. Todd Voelker was director of special projects at Carus Corporation when our organization was in its infancy.  It was he who found the Boyington, Fiedler and Schastey drawings in 1994.  This was very early in the preservation process.  The drawings have been scanned and now we are able to refer to them when working on preservation projects.”

Three newly preserved drawings by George A. Schastey hand at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

“That was a great discovery for those of us working to preserve the Mansion.  The drawings are an invaluable research material which enabled us to rebuild and restore to what Mr. Hegeler requested when the Mansion was designed.  We have referenced the drawings many times over the years,” said John Thorpe, a restoration architect who has been involved in the Mansion’s preservation since the Foundation formed over twenty years ago.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art contacted the Hegeler Carus Foundation about the George Schastey drawings last winter after learning of their existence from Hegeler Carus board member Rolf Achilles.  Achilles is a professor, preservationist, and is a world renowned expert on the decorative arts.  “The exceptional characteristic of the Hegeler Carus Museum is that it is unchanged. The Schastey drawings are extremely rare, as is the Mansion.  Both the drawings and the Mansion are invaluable examples of artistic achievement and should be treasured,” said Achilles.

Hegeler Carus Foundation Board Chair Blouke Carus is the great-grandson

of Edward Hegeler, who commissioned the construction of the Hegeler

Carus Mansion in 1874. He is pictured with Patricia Schastey Reboussin,

the great grand-daughter of George Schastey, the featured designer.

George Schastey operated a successful decorating firm in the late 19^th century and catered to the Vanderbilts, Rockafellers and other well known families on the east coast. 

The ten Schastey drawings in the Hegeler Carus Mansion’s museum collection consist of textile designs for window treatments, fireplace surrounds, and small furniture pieces designed for the Hegeler Carus Mansion. 

“We were concerned about moving the original drawings.  Not only are they are exceedingly fragile, they are among the most precious pieces of our history at the Mansion,” said Klobucher.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art sent couriers in June to retrieve the drawings.  They were packed in special boxes and carried to New York in a climate controlled truck along with important pieces of art and artifacts from all over the country.

Preserved drawing of a fireplace surround

and mantle designed for the Hegeler Home

in 1874.

After the Metropolitan Museum of Art received and inspected the drawings, it was decided to have their conservationists clean, stabilize and preserve the artifacts prior to displaying them. 

“The drawings are in better condition now after being in the care of some of the top conservationists in the world at the Met.  We are very grateful to them.  This is not something we would have been able to do on our own,” said Klobucher.

More information on the principle architect and designer of the Hegeler Carus Mansion:

In addition to the Hegeler Carus Mansion, architect W. W. Boyington designed Terrace Hill, the Iowa Governor’s Mansion; Joliet State Penitentiary; Chicago’s Water Tower, the only building to survive the fire of 1871; and also finished the Illinois State Capitol building when architect Alfred Piquenard passed away during the construction.  A prolific architect, according to Boyington’s obituary in the October 17, 1898 Chicago Tribune, “If all of the buildings he had constructed were placed side by side they would reach a distance of thirty miles.”

August Feidler was the principle interior designer of the Hegeler Carus Mansion. He created the unique parquet flooring designs for each room of the Mansion as well as the ornately carved woodwork that can be seen on the decorative mantles, built in furniture and trim on the window and doors throughout the first floor of the Mansion.

Both Boyington and Fiedler were operating businesses in Chicago in the 1870’s due to the increase in work available to architects who were rebuilding Chicago after the Great Fire of 1871.

Click here to view the exhibit information from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 

Meet the Family

By Tricia Kelly

If we’re going to send out a blog post talking about members of the Hegeler and Carus families, it makes the most sense to start at the beginning with Mr. Edward Hegeler and continue on to the present day.

Edward C. Hegeler was born in 1835 in Bremen, Germany.  His father had visited America and believed that Edward, the youngest, should be chosen to leave his homeland and make his mark in the much newer U.S.  He attended the Polytechnic Institute in Hanover and finished his vocational education at the Technische Universitat Bergakademie in Freiberg, Saxony.  One of Hegeler’s instructors was a physics professor by the name of Julius Weisbach.  The importance of this will soon become apparent.  It was at this school where he met Frederick Matthiessen, who would later become his business partner.  Upon graduation, they both traveled to America, arriving in Boston in the spring of 1857.

After travelling some time in Pennsylvania, St. Louis, Galena, etc. Matthiessen and Hegeler found what they wanted:  good quality zinc.  And cheap, too!  See, the miners in Mineral Point, Wisconsin weren’t looking for zinc.  They were looking for lead.  And lead is under the zinc.  Zinc was simply being tossed up into huge, ‘worthless’ slag piles.  Hegeler and Matthiessen were different.  They knew that zinc ore (sphalerite), when smelted in high heat, removes impurities that, upon “rolling”, will transform into a sheet of metal that is strong, flexible, and doesn’t rust.  Those sheets of zinc could then be sent across the nation by boat or by train and made into ice box liners, pie box liners, gutters, etc.  Zinc could even be used to galvanize nails, making them rust proof.  But from where would the fuel be obtained to burn a heat high enough for smelting?  Well, that’s where La Salle comes in.  Huge, rich coal deposits.  Bring up two tons of coal, smelt one ton of zinc, and blammo! 

Zinc wasn’t the only thing on Hegeler’s mind.  In 1860 he married Camilla.  Camilla Weisbach.  Sound familiar?  As the daughter of Hegeler’s professor, Camilla was intelligent, well-educated, outspoken, and honest—traits which Hegeler greatly admired.

By the time construction of the Mansion began in 1874, the M & H Zinc Co. was the nation’s leader in zinc production.  In addition, Camilla Hegeler had given birth to nine of their ten children.

Fast forward to 1887, when men of science began taking a look at religion.  A renaissance of religious fervor began during the bloodiest days of the American Civil War, and people like Darwin were shaking up the ideas of creation.  Hegeler, like many of his contemporaries, began looking at religion from a scientific point of view and opening discussion to the precepts of other religions, particularly those of Eastern influence.  It should be noted that Edward Hegeler was not at all interested in the fast-growing new ‘religion’ of Spiritualism.  In 1887, he founded the Open Court Publishing Company with the idea that anyone could discuss any type of religion and not be judged by anyone—in other words, an open court for dialogue.  He hired Dr. Paul Carus (who will be discussed in another blog) to be the editor, edging out the frustrated, increasingly spiritualist Underwoods.

Edward Hegeler passed away in 1910, age 74.  He is today remembered and respected as one of the true pioneers of American industry.

Mary Hegeler Carus

Mary Hegeler Carus was born on January 10, 1861 in a two-story frame dwelling which was located on the grounds of the M and H. Zinc company, founded by her father and F. W. Matthiessen three years earlier.   After the family moved from the home in which she was born to the Mansion, it was used for as the general office of the firm.

Mary Hegeler married Paul Carus
in 1888 at the
Hegeler Carus Mansion.

 Her parents were Edward C. Hegeler and Camilla Weisbach Hegeler, who commissioned the construction of the Mansion in 1874.  Both of her parents were natives of Germany. Her mother was the daughter of Julius Weisbach who was the head of the School of Mines at Freiberg, Saxony, Germany, which Mary later attended.

After studying in local schools, including the La Salle City high school, which was located on Third and Tonti street, Mary entered the University of Michigan and graduated from that institution in 1882.  She was the first woman ever to receive a B. S. degree in engineering at U of M. From there, she went to Germany and did post-graduate work at the Freiberg school, which at that time was one of the world’s three outstanding mining schools.

When she returned to the United States, she became closely associated in the operation of M&H Zinc and throughout her lifetime she maintained an intimate contact with all the phases of operation at that plant, having served as president of the company from 1903 to 1917, succeeding her father upon his retirement from that office, as secretary from 1917 to 1933 and again as president from 1933 until her death in 1936.

Throughout her lifetime Mary avoided frills, always content with only the fundamentals of living. Hers was a life dedicated to doing things for her fellow man and scores of her works of benefaction never came to public light. She found keen satisfaction in making life easier for others by giving quietly, a trait that many of her children and grandchildren have followed today.

 

She is remembered lovingly by the hundreds of young men from the area who served their country in World War I, for through her each received a warm, woolen blanket before entraining for camp. The first of these blankets was made by her and her friends in the Mansion.  When the draft increased, it became impossible to continue supplying home-made blankets, so Mary met the situation by buying blankets and directing the distribution of them.

Mary also initiated the first classes in sewing for girls and in manual training for boys, financing this project for many years before the local board of education absorbed domestic science and manual training in the school curriculum.

The information above is taken from her Obituary, which was published in 1936.  For more information on Mary Hegeler Carus, visit the Hegeler Carus Mansion in La Salle, IL.